The Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, NY was inaugurated in 1968 to a design by legendary 20th-century master IM Pei (whose retrospective exhibition recently opened at M+ in Hong Kong) - the first-ever museum to be designed by the Chinese-American architect. This week, the institution - which holds one of the most significant collections of American ceramics in the country - is celebrating the contemporary refresh of its East Wing with a new, modern design by the Los Angeles-based architecture practice of Zeina Koreitem and John May, MILLIØNS.
Step inside Everson Museum of Art's East Wing redesign by MILLIØNS
The winner of a two-stage competition, MILLIØNS was invited to work on the project in 2019. The architects were called upon to rethink the museum’s café - but with an exciting, if a little challenging, twist. Dallas-based ceramics collector Louise Rosenfield had offered to fund the project, alongside donating her impressive collection of over 4,000 ceramics pieces, with a distinct, unusual condition - that said pieces would be available to use daily by the new café's visitors, instead of simply being displayed as precious objects behind glass.
Ensuring the Rosenfield's collection becomes a functional part of the demanding daily life of a museum cafe in full operation was unheard of - but MILLIØNS, the museum director and CEO Elizabeth Dunbar, and Ceramics curator Garth Johnson, who is in charge of the Rosenfield collection, rose to the challenge. This elevated the original, fairly modest project scope to new heights, centring it on 'the theme of expanding public access to the art,' the architects write. The rethought brief soon encompassed the entire East Wing.
Koreitem and May worked with the monumental, brutalist architecture bones of Pei's original design for their concept. Inspired by the existing building's relationship to light and working with lighting designer Derek Porter, they reworked the space to increase visibility and accessibility everywhere.
A glass tower with open shelving on one end of the cafe showcases the Rosenfield collection, while allowing visitors to reach and take items of their liking for their use. At the same time, the architects create a 'third space, a hybrid between Front and Back that allows typically separate activities of display, storage, archiving, and maintenance to coexist and be experienced by the public.'
Meanwhile, a series of new display elements for the Rosenfield collection was commissioned, alongside a furniture collaboration between MILLIØNS and Jonathan Olivares. The colourful result, in a range of pastel hues, is dotted across both public and workspace areas.
Historical research by MILLIØNS helped the team understand the original Pei building's colour tones and they revealed the concrete's pink tint, which they subtly echoed in fabric partitions and furniture. A newly opened outdoor patio for the cafe, featuring bespoke planters, completes this contemporary piece of clever adaptive reuse.
-
Morgan announces nine limited editions of its Super 3 three-wheelerThe Super 3 Origins Collection assembles nine elaborate design specifications for the diminutive Morgan Super 3, drawing on the influences and inspirations that shaped this high-performance three-wheeler
-
Vipp’s new guesthouse in Latvia’s Salaca National Park is its cosiest to dateDanish design brand Vipp transforms a 19th-century Latvian riverside log cabin into its ninth guesthouse
-
Step inside Le Harlequin, an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartmentLe Harlequin by Design Hex is an imaginative redesign of a Mumbai apartment in the bustling Indian city's Lower Parel neighbourhood
-
Bask in the sun at this reborn Rancho Mirage house in the Palm Springs desertThis Rancho Mirage house is a revived modernist home, a stone’s throw from California’s Palm Springs, with interiors by Harrison Soll
-
Join the Hamptons 20th Century Modern 2024 Home TourThe Hamptons 20th Century Modern 2024 Home Tour is about to launch
-
Step inside this Sag Harbor house, where strategic views ‘blow everyone’s mind’Meadowlark, a Sag Harbor house by Garnett.DePasquale, becomes a dreamy family countryside retreat through a series of strategic, minimalist moves
-
Landscape designer John Sharp explains how, when it comes to gardens, ‘manicured is never it’John Sharp's namesake studio in Los Angeles tackles garden and landscape design with flair; we connected with him to discuss nature, style, modernist architecture, and more
-
Take a spin at Xanadu Roller Arts, New York's newest rollerskating rinkXanadu Roller Arts and its intergalactic decor are set to reignite your love for the activity from its colourful Bushwick base
-
Black Modernism’s lesser-known, at-risk architecture gems gain a lifelineConserving Black Modernism announces vital funding to save and preserve overlooked and endangered buildings by African American architects and designers
-
Step into the Blanton Museum of Art's reimagined public realm by Snøhetta in AustinBlanton Museum of Art in Austin, Texas is completed and reveals its reimagined public realm and plaza designed by Snøhetta
-
This New York Townhouse renovation is a lesson in contemporary minimalismTenBerke’s carefully considered New York townhouse is the reimagining of a century-old Manhattan structure that reframes vertical living
