Art Institute of Chicago Addition - Renzo Piano Embraces Chicago

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Related: NEW BOOK, Planning Successful Museum Building Projects, published by formed SCUP President, L. Carole Wharton.

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Former SCUP president Cal Audrain, now retired from the Art Institute of Chicago, was deeply involved in this project. Here is a New York Times article on the architect, Renzo Piano, and what the institute called "the Modern Wing."

The new $294 million Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago, which opens on Saturday, is the closest Mr. Piano has come in at least a decade to achieving this near-classical ideal. Its delicate structural frame is a sparkling counterpart to the museum’s 1893 Beaux Arts building. The light-filled galleries show the Art Institute’s marvelous collections of postwar and contemporary art in their full glory, including many works that have been buried in storage for decades. Most of all, the addition manages to weave the various strands of Chicago’s rich architectural history into a cohesive vision, one that is made more beautiful by its remarkable fragility.

The 264,000-square-foot wing is the largest expansion in the museum’s 130-year history. The addition stands behind the original building, across a set of commuter railroad tracks. The two structures are joined by a small gallery building from 1916 that bridges the tracks. Millennium Park, its far end punctuated by the swirling steel forms of Frank Gehry’s band shell, extends to the north.