Gallery: The Barnes Foundation Moves I...
The interiors are clean and uncluttered and allow visitors to appreciate the art with few visual interruptions.
Located in the city of Merion, Pennsylvania, the building was built to mirror the layout of its prior home. Consisting of large horizontal volumes, one on top of the other, the new design does do the old one better by turning itself into a meaner greener version. The new Barnes Foundation greets art-lovers with luscious greenery on its entrance door, which well complement white translucent glass and light granite exteriors. To meet its goal for LEED certification the plan of the building implements a green roof, the use of FSC certified wood and recycled materials, solar energy, and rainwater retention for in-house reuse.
The interiors are clean and uncluttered and allow visitors to appreciate the art with few visual interruptions. Flooded by natural light, Tod Williams & Billie Tsien created enclosed gardens within the gallery and plenty of seating space for breaks and appreciating the architecture.
Photo © Tod Williams & Billie Tsien
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The original Barnes Foundation WAS located in Merion, a Philadelphia suburb, but the new Barnes Foundation site is located on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City, Philadelphia. It’s the final link in an awesome chain of museums and spaces that now are now as well connected as museum mile in Manhattan and the Mall in DC. Go Philly! Come Visit.
This building is NOT located in “The city of Merion”! The original Barnes Foundation (and it’s 25 billion dollars worth of art work) WAS located in Merion but the new Barnes Foundation is located on the the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Center City, Philadelphia. There was controversy about moving the art because it’s owner’s will stated that it should remain in Merion indefinitely.
http://news.yahoo.com/barnes-foundation-opens-controversy-lingers-161011555.html
The new building is amazing though and completes a chain of world-class museums and spaces including The Academy of Natural Sciences, the Franklin Institute, The Free Library of Phildelphia, The Rodin Museum, and The Philadelphia Museum of Art that, before the Barnes Foundation was constructed, were unconnected. This finally gives Philadelphia the opportunity to fit in with museum mile in Manhattan and the mall in DC making this highly populated stretch of the Mid-Atlantic region even more culturally and socially intact.
I can not read any other comments, so I apologize if I am restating something someone else already pointed out, but…
The Barnes collection is no longer in Merion, PA. The new building shown is in Philadelphia, PA. Relocating the collection was a topic of great controversy and is the subject of Don Argott’s documentary “The Art of the Steal”