smbw

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Bilyana Dimitrova Photography

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

Rick Mather Architects, SMBW

ARCHITECTS
Rick Mather Architects, SMBW

AREA
9300.0 sqm

PROJECT YEAR
2010

LOCATION
200 North Boulevard, Richmond, VA 23221, United States

MANUFACTURERS
Pyrok

PHOTOGRAPHS
Bilyana Dimitrova Photography, Tippy Tippens, Rick Mather Architects , Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

After an international field of competitors, Rick Mather Architects were selected to masterplan and design a large addition and renovation to the 65 year old Virginia Museum of Fine Arts. This marks the office's first major commission in the United States.

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Bilyana Dimitrova Photography
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Bilyana Dimitrova Photography

SMBW Architects, a Richmond-based firm, were collaborators on the project.The expansion adds more than 9300m² to the existing 22300m² building.

The additional program includes a large sculpture garden, extensive new galleries, educational facilities, restaurant, cafe, library, administrative offices, and a landscaped, terraced parking deck.

The goal of the addition was to open up the main building to the city and provide extensive new space to the museum's art collections.

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Virginia Museum of Fine Arts
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Rick Mather Architects

The museum features two floors of permanent collection galleries in the new five level glass and limestone entrance wing.

These include American art from the James W and Frances G McGlothlin collection and the J Harwood and Louise B Cochrane Fund, the museum's twenty-first century collection, and one of the countries leading collections of art from India, Nepal, and Tibet. 

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Tippy Tippens
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Bilyana Dimitrova Photography
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Rick Mather Architects

The space also accommodates international travelling shows in the dedicated temporary exhibition gallery level. Glass Bridges across the central atrium space link the new wing to the existing building, acting as a main street that connects new and old.

The renovation to the existing building includes a new education center, and the reconfiguration of existing galleries housing the Sydney and Frances Lewis Collections of Art Nouveau, Art Deco, and Modern and Contemporary American art, and the Museum's Ancient Art Collection.

Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
© Bilyana Dimitrova Photography


Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Section 01
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Section 02
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Section 03


Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Ground Floor Plan
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
First Floor Plan
Virginia Museum Of Fine Arts
Site Plan

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T +1 804 2335343 F +1 804 2335345
smbw
111 Virginia St Suite 111, Richmond, VA 23219, United States