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Toronto studio Diamond Schmitt Architects has been selected to design the Museum of New Brunswick in Saint John, Canada, one of the oldest museums in the country.
Designed by Diamond Schmitt Architects in partnership with international firm EXP, the 134,000-square-foot building will consolidate the museum’s disparate collections currently spread across separate facilities in St. John’s into a new facility on the site of the current neoclassical building.
The museum’s current main location is in a neoclassical building on a plot of land in the north of the city, which opened in 1934 and has its roots in collections that have operated in different parts of the city since the early 19th century, giving it its reputation as Canada’s “The oldest museum”. Continue to the museum”.
Diamond Schmitt Architect and EXP’s design will create a structure that expands the site while retaining the building’s historic facade on the east, street-facing side and north, which will serve as an interior wall. According to the team, some of the historic building’s interior may be preserved.
To its north and west, a structure with a white monolithic facade will be erected, broken up by vertical glazing that will complement the historic building and completely cover it on the west side facing the water.
According to the studio, this configuration is intended to harmonize the urban environment with the waterfront.
“Our design was inspired by the museum’s original site—one of St. John’s prime viewing spots—and blends New Brunswick’s rich heritage and natural landscape,” said Donald Schmitt, principal of Diamond Schmitt Architects. . ”
A double-height entrance – dubbed the “great room” by the studio – will be clad in glass and fronted by metal louvres
It will create a buffer zone and serve as a “crossroads” between the northern part and the historic building, and its façade will be a wall within the new atrium space.
This initiative has also been used in other modern additions to historic buildings, such as Studio Gang’s recent infill at the Arkansas Museum of Art, and Rafael Viñoly’s use of a glass atrium to create an interior plaza between a fabric art structure and Marcel Breuer’s other in Cleveland .
This entrance pavilion will connect to the new wing and create a passage from the parking lot to the west terrace.
It will have a mezzanine walkway connecting the second level of the north and west additions through a semicircular cutout.
Renderings of the space show massive wooden columns and rafters, and the studio said the museum is “considering the use of large amounts of wood in the construction.”
Skylights and vertical glass sections of the new facade will bring abundant natural light into the new facility, which will be mostly gallery space but also include an amphitheater, gathering spaces and research facilities.
The historic wing and its basement will house a library and serve as storage for the museum’s collections and administrative spaces. There will be a rooftop viewing area at the top of the “great room.”
“When complete, the museum’s research efforts and exhibitions will be centralized within a sustainable, decarbonized facility that fully supports the museum’s mission to protect, study, interpret and showcase New Brunswick’s natural and cultural heritage,” said Diamond. Schmidt Architects.
The studio is currently seeking “zero carbon certification” and aims to “decarbonise” the building through insulation, electric boilers and air source heat pumps.
Other museums utilizing historic elements include Lever Architecture’s upcoming massive wooden expansion of an art museum in Maine.
These images are provided by PLAY-TIME, courtesy of Diamond Schmitt.
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