Designs for new Princeton University Art Museum unveiled

School officials unveiled design plans Wednesday for the new Princeton University Art Museum building. Architect Sir David Adjaye and his firm Adjaye Associates designed the museum in collaboration with executive architect Cooper Robertson.

“Sir David’s architecture and the globe-spanning galleries within will invite visitors to see themselves as citizens of a broader set of communities, which in turn will, we hope, nurture a deeper sense of our shared humanity,” said Princeton University Museum Director James Steward in an announcement about the plans. “The design will give us a building that fosters new modes of investigation, allows us to deploy our collections in new and more inclusive ways, and affords new moments of aspiration and inspiration,” Steward said.”

The new building will be located on the site of the current museum. The construction of the new museum building is slated to begin in early 2021. The project, announced in 2018, will roughly double the museum’s space for exhibitions, study, and the conservation of the museum’s collections. The new museum is anticipated to open in late 2024.

In addition to expanded galleries for displaying selections from the university’s collections and for mounting temporary exhibitions, visible storage will provide additional opportunities for scholars and students to access collections.

The new museum will be three stories, and will feature seven interlocked pavilions containing many of the building’s new galleries, interspersed with smaller gallery spaces.The exterior of the building will feature alternating rough and polished stone surfaces. Bronze and glass “lenses” will be positioned between the pavilions to break up the scale of the complex and to shape glimpses into the museum and the campus. The design includes outdoor terraces, and includes spaces for performances and events that can accommodate 200 to 2,000 people. Spaces include a hall for lectures, performances, and events; numerous classroom spaces, two labs, and a rooftop café.

For more information and photos, visit the Princeton University Museum website.