Plains Art Museum
Fargo, North DakotaThe Plains Art Museum transforms a 1904 International Harvester warehouse into a light-filled art museum on a frugal budget. The design responds to the tight column grid of the warehouse by building a new four level 45' x 70' climate controlled core through four levels of the building from basement to roof. This core answers the greatest challenge in renovating the structure: to provide the precise climate needed for art storage and exhibition in an historic building with little heat and humidity control. Timbers from core demolition are recycled in a new, finely crafted entry. Visitors enter a lobby area enriched by the original diagonally laid pine floor and exposed brick walls. Directly ahead, a three-story atrium soars to a central skylight. Curving walls separating the galleries from the atrium complement the orthogonal force of the original wood column grid.
Photography %A9 Peter Aaron/Esto