ARCHITECTURE DESIGN 401 - FALL 1998 - MICHAEL BEDNAR STUDIO

CITY AS MUSEUM - STUDIO PRECIS

"The designation city as scaffold for exhibition demonstration almost certainly introduces a more palatable terminology; but, whichever designation is more useful, both of them in the end are faced with the issue of museum-scaffold versus exhibits-demonstrations; and, depending upon the working up of the show, this can first lead to two major questions. Does the scaffold dominate the exhibits? Or do the exhibits overwhelm the scaffold?"

A prevalent interpretation of the historic city is that of a museum, a place where urban culture can be experienced and studied. In this city, time is manifested through the built artifacts on display, a place of built time. This city should be a living museum, not a Williamsburg, where time and life continues resulting in growth and change.

The historic city is both scaffold and exhibit. The infrastructure of open spaces is the scaffold and the matrix of buildings is the exhibit. This readily corresponds to classic figure-ground graphic analysis. But the analogy is not always that simple or pure. There are countless instances of dialectic relationships between scaffold and exhibit where they begin to interact and inform each other. It is in these instances that the richness of the city as designed artifact is best manifested.

This studio will concern itself with the issues of building anew in the historic city. How does historic infrastructure inform new building design? How does architectural context influence new building tectonics? The design strategy is that of relating new elements to historic fabric and fragments to create a an urban collage.

The venue for the studio will be the historic Shockoe Slip in Richmond, Virginia where the city is presently reconstructing the Kanawha Canal. This is an exciting historic area of nineteenth century buildings with cobblestone streets and an overhead expressway and railroad. There will be a minor and a major project on adjacent sites:

Memorial Square: design of a memorial open space to commemorate the location

of the first Virginia General Assembly

Virginia Presidents Museum: a museum dedicated to the lives of the eight

United States presidents born in Virginia

Architects and planners from Richmond will be involved in the design reviews. The use of computer aided design will be encouraged. A computer will be available in the studio for internet research and image generation.

MEMORIAL SQUARE & PRESIDENT'S MUSEUM STUDENT PROJECTS

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN 401 - FALL 1998 - MICHAEL BEDNAR STUDIO

CITY AS MUSEUM - URBAN ANALYSIS

The Shockoe Slip and Shockoe Bottom areas of Richmond, Virginia are the oldest zones of this historic city. They are adjacent areas located on the mighty James River, the raison d’etre of Richmond’s location. The river was the great resource of the nineteenth century for transit of agricultural and manufactured products east to the eastern seaboard and Europe. The Great Ship Lock at Shockoe Bottom enabled ocean going vessels to reach the city. The Kanawha Canal with its locks enabled boats to bypass the river falls and bring goods from the hinterlands (including Albemarle) to the river docks. In the 1830’s, the railroads also located along the river as did the hydro-electric power plants. In this century, all except the railroads have been abandoned to the expressways which float overhead.

During the last two decades, much redevelopment has occurred along the Richmond river front. The old Tredegar Iron Works on the Haxall Canal have been turned into Valentine Riverside, an industrial museum. The Federal Reserve Bank and Riverfront Plaza, high rise office buildings, have been built within a reconstructed canal park. Shockoe Slip has been redeveloped as a multi-use historic district of commerce, entertainment, hotels and restaurants. The reconstruction of the Kanawha Canal and pedestrian zone extending from the Valentine Riverside Museum to Shockoe Bottom is almost completed. This is intended to induce further development of the many large scale warehouses into housing, commerce and offices.

This phase of the studio is to gain an understanding of the urban core of Richmond in preparation for undertaking two design projects at 14^th and Cary in Shockoe Slip. Each student should undertake graphic analyses of the area defined by Broad Street and the James River, West Second Street and 28^th Street. Detailed studies should focus on the immediate site and adjacent blocks; 13^th to 15^th, Main Street to the James River. The focus of this graphic interpretation should be the interface between the infrastructure and the buildings, between the scaffold and the exhibits. This could include building walls, entrances, pedestrian routes, views, natural light, positive/negative space, etc.

The studio section will also build a 1/16" = 1’-0" scale model of this area.

There are many resources available for gaining an understanding of both the historic evolution and future plans for this area of Richmond. The 1997 Downtown Richmond Plan and the 1993 Riverfront Master Development Plan are primary sources. Chapter XI of Tidewater Towns by John Reps is a good basic reference as is Richmond by Virginius Dabney.

 CANAL RESTORATION PLAN

1984 DOWNTOWN PLAN - STUDIO PROJECT SITES

 MEMORIAL SQUARE - West View

 MEMORIAL SQUARE - North View

 MEMORIAL SQUARE - South View

 VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS MUSEUM SITE - Canal and Virginia Street - South View

 CANAL TURNING BASIN - South View

 CANAL TURNING BASIN - West View

 VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS MUSEUM SITE - North View from Mayo Island

 ARCHITECTURE DESIGN 401 - FALL 1998 - MICHAEL BEDNAR STUDIO

MUSEUM OF VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS

"From the time of the first purpose-built public museums, people have fought

over whether the architecture should be an active or a passive container, a background or a foreground for the museum's content. Introduction of new museum typologies in the 20th century has escalated discussion from a whisper in the 1930's and early 1940's, with the gridded open space of buildings such as MOMA and Mies's, to full voice in 1959, with the directed flow of Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim. It is currently a pitched battle , equal in intensity to Renaissance conflicts between the proponents of Classic versus Gothic facades."

Victoria Newhouse in Towards a New Museum

and Douglas Davis (The Museum Transformed) discuss museum design theory and provides numerous illustrated examples.

The museum originated in the Renaissance based on the private "cabinet of curiosities" of natural and art objects intended to surprise and delight viewers. By the 19^th century, the museum had become a temple of culture with a didactic purpose to instruct the public. Exterior distractions were excluded so as to enable focused attention. In the latter half of the 20^th century, there are a variety of approaches including setting the context for art, displaying the creative process and art as entertainment. Museums now often include music, movies, shops, and cafes. The architecture itself is both part of the display and intended to delight.

The Museum of Virginia Presidents is dedicated to the lives of the eight United States Presidents born in Virginia. (More U. S. presidents have been born in Virginia than any other state; Ohio has seven). A bust of each of these presidents is currently exhibited in the rotunda of the state capitol. This museum will also serve as an introduction to Virginia history, since it is necessary to establish the context for their lives. The possibility of a future president from Virginia should also be considered.

SITE CONTEXT

The Museum of Virginia Presidents in Shockoe Slip in Richmond is to be located on a complex site (formerly the Norfolk Southern railroad depot) bounded by Canal, Virginia and Fourteenth Streets. The south end faces the newly reconstructed Kanawha Canal turning basin and the James River beyond. Overhead is the double tiered I-195 expressway. This is a mixed use area of the city composed of restored 19^th century brick warehouse buildings. Site design should make connections to the Memorial Square project at the corner of 14^th and Cary Streets to the north of the museum site. Parking is available at a large lot along the flood wall.

SPATIAL PROGRAM

The following are general area requirements for the museum program.

Virginia History Exhibit 4,000 sq. ft.

Current Exhibit 4,000

Virginia President Galleries 8 @ 2000 sq. ft. 16,000

Future President Gallery 2,000

Gift Shop 750

Café 750

Auditorium (100 seats) 1,500

Offices 500

Workshop 2,000

Exhibit Storage 2,000

__________

NET AREA 33,500 sq. ft.

GROSS AREA (30%) (entrance, lobby, toilets, stairs, 10,000 sq. ft.

circulation, mechanical, janitor, storage)

__________

TOTAL FLOOR AREA 43,500 SQ. FT.

GENERAL REQUIREMENTS: The entire building must be handicapped accessible according to the American Disability Act (ADA) requirements. Since it is an assembly building, it falls under Use Group A-3 in the building code requiring two means of egress from most of the public spaces. All of the spaces must be air conditioned since they will contain climate sensitive exhibit materials. Flexible artificial lighting will be needed in all of the exhibit galleries. A minimum of controlled natural light is desirable in the galleries. All other spaces should take full advantage of daylighting and views.

VIRGINIA PRESIDENTS

(1) GEORGE WASHINGTON (1789-1797) Westmoreland Co., 1732 (Martha Custis)

(3) THOMAS JEFFERSON (1801-1809) Shadwell, 1743 (Martha Skelton)

(4) JAMES MADISON (1809-1817) Port Conway, 1751 (Dolley Todd)

(5) JAMES MONROE (1817-1825) Westmoreland Co., 1758 (Elizabeth Kortright)

(9) WILLIAM HENRY HARRISON (1841) Berkeley, 1773 (Anna Symmes)

(10) JOHN TYLER (1841-1845) Greenway, 1790 (Letitia Christian, Julia Gardiner)

(12) ZACHARY TAYLOR (1849-1850) Orange Co., 1784 (Margaret Smith)

(28) WOODROW WILSON (1913-1921) Staunton, 1856 (Ellen Axson, Edith Galt)

MUSEUM PRECEDENT STUDY

Each student will complete diagrams (circulation to use, natural light, structure, form) of an assigned museum design precedent. These diagrams should follow examples in the book Precedents by Roger Clark and Michael Pause.

Holocaust Museum - Washington, DC (James Freed)

Menil Collection- Houston, Texas (Renzo Piano)

Portland Museum of Art - Portland, Maine (I. M. Pei)

Sackler Gallery - Cambridge, Massachusetts (James Stirling)

High Museum of Art - Atlanta, Georgia (Richard Meier)

Wexner Center for the Arts - Columbus, Ohio (Peter Eisenman)

Frederick Weisman Art Museum - Minneapolis, Minnesota (Frank Gehry)

Kiasma Museum - Helsinki, Finland (Steven Holl)

Staatsgalerie - Stuttgart, Germany (James Stirling)

Kunsthal - Rotterdam, Holland (Rem Koolhaas)

Nimes Mediatheque - Nimes, France (Norman Foster)

Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art - Los Angeles, CA (Arata Isozaki)

Municipal Museum - Monchengladbach, Germany (Hans Hollein)

Municipal Museum of Modern Art - Nagoya, Japan (Kisho Kurokawa)

Galician Center of Art - Santiago de Campostela, Spain (Alvaro Siza)

Museum for Kunsthandwerk - Frankfurt, Germany (Richard Meier)