Shedding New Light on Art Museum Additions

Altaf Engineer is an Assistant Professor of Architecture, Health and Built Environment at the School of Architecture at the University of Arizona, USA. He is a licensed, NCARB-certified architect and LEED Accredited Professional in the United States. A recipient of the Illinois Distinguished Fellowship and the Architectural Research Colleges Consortium (ARCC) King’s Merit Medal for Excellence in Architectural & Environmental Behavior Research, he also is a founding member of a global non-profit design organization whose mission is to enhance the built environment of disadvantaged communities through innovative design. Kathryn H. Anthony is an ACSA Distinguished Professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, USA, where she also serves on the faculty of the Dept. of Gender and Women’s Studies and the Dept. of Landscape Architecture. The author of Defined by Design; Designing for Diversity; Design Juries on Trial, and over 100 publications, she is the recipient of numerous awards from the Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, the Environmental Design Research Association, and the American Institute of Architects.

1. Introduction 2. Four Art Museums and their Additions: Museums Grow More Wings 3. Museum Critics and Museum Visitors: Reactions to the Building Boom 4. Front stage and back stage spaces: artwork before employees 5. Accessibility, Wayfinding, and Museum Fatigue: "The Frankenstein Effect" of Museum Additions 6. Building Aesthetics and Architectural Features: What Works, What Doesn’t, and Why 7. Conclusion: Future Art Museum Additions and Improving the Front Stage and Backstage Experience Appendix: Museum Employee Survey Results