Walker Art Center
Minneapolis, MinnesotaThe Walker Art Center's $90 million expansion and renovation project enhances the artistic, educational, and social experience for all visitors, including families, students, teens, artists, and the general public.
The Swiss architectural firm Herzog %26 de Meuron, in partnership with HGA, collaborated with the Walker on the conceptual design for a campus that features an interplay of indoor and outdoor areas.
The enhanced Walker Art Center, with an additional 110,000 sf of interior space and four acres of green space, features galleries and gardens for the museum's growing collection; a technologically sophisticated performance studio for dance, music and theater programs; places for innovative education programs; a new-media laboratory; rooftop terraces with spectacular views of downtown; and many visitor amenities, including a new restaurant, cafe, gift shop, and underground parking.
A key aspect of the design is a "town square" that, like the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, draws people for informal conversation, interactive learning, and community programs.
The planning also encompassed the development of a sophisticated infrastructure to support the presentation of art and provide for personalized learning, placing the Walker among the first technologically "smart" cultural complexes in the world. Construction began in 2003. The expanded complex opened to the public in Spring 2005.
Photography %A9 Paul Warchol