Nelson-Atkins to Expand

News of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art's expansion comes courtesy of Malcolm Reading Consultants, the London-based consultancy that has run more than 200 design competitions and has been appointed to manage the upcoming competition for the Midwestern institution. 

The museum's announcement of the competition comes exactly 25 years after it held a design competition for its previous expansion. Back in 1999 the museum asked entrants to site the addition to the north of the original neoclassical building from 1933, to keep the sculpture park on the south open and maintain the symmetrical balance of the 26-acre (10.5-hectare) site. Yet, as happens so often competitions, a design breaking the rules won: Steven Holl Architects put their scheme to the east, burying most of the building underground and poking five translucent glass boxes above the landscape to break down the mass of the large addition and bring natural light to the subterranean galleries.

While the Bloch Building — as the Holl-designed building was named when it opened in June 2007 — has been widely praised and has helped draw large audiences to the free museum, the symbol of the Nelson-Atkins remains Claus Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggen's iconic Shuttlecocks that were installed in the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Park in 1994: two on the expansive lawn south of the museum, one adjacent to the south steps, and one on the north next to the museum's drop-off.

This all begs the question: With the Bloch Building on the east and the museum hemmed in by Oak Street on the west, will the museum finally get an addition on the north side of its original building? Placing a building to the south is unthinkable, given the museum's impressive, beloved sculpture park; this leaves just the north, where the giant shuttlecock is accompanied by Walter De Maria's One Sun / 34 Moons from 2002 — two artworks that would have to be moved or reimagined in the process.

With the competition launching in the fall, it is too early to know what site restrictions and other parameters will be in place for architects looking to add to the Nelson-Atkins' two signature buildings. Cooper Robertson carried out studies for the museum recently, but the firm's website yields little insight on their findings. Nevertheless, architects interested in participating can send their contact details to nelson-atkins@malcolmreading.com to be notified of the competition’s launch later this year.