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Institute of Contemporary Art

MA

Museum
Architect

Diller Scofidio + Renfro

Description Show more

The ICA is the first museum to be built in Boston in 100 years. The 65,000 square foot building includes temporary and permanent galleries, a 330 seat multi-purpose theater, a restaurant, bookstore, education/workshop facilities, and administrative offices. It straddles the competing objectives of a dynamic civic building for public programs and an intimate, contemplative environment for viewing art. The site is bound on two sides by the Harbor Walk, a 47-mile public walkway. The Harbor Walk is used as a civic surface that extends up to form the public grandstand, flattens into the theater stage, and wraps the surfaces of the theater extending into a horizontal tray that holds the gallery and shelters the grandstand. The waterfront is both a great asset for the museum and a distraction from its inwardly focused program. A choreographed passage through the building dispenses the visual context in small doses. Upon entry, the view is compressed under the belly of the theater, then scanned by the glass elevator, used as a variable backdrop in the theater, denied entirely in the galleries, and revealed as a panorama at the crossover gallery. The mediatheque suspended under the cantilever edits the context from view, leaving only the texture of water. Perry Dean Rogers acted as Associate Architect.

The ICA is the first museum to be built in Boston in 100 years. The 65,000 square foot building includes temporary and permanent galleries, a 330 seat multi-purpose theater, a restaurant, bookstore, education/workshop facilities, and administrative offices. It straddles the competing objectives of a dynamic civic building for public programs and an intimate, contemplative environment for viewing art. The site is bound on two sides by the Harbor Walk, a 47-mile public walkway. The Harbor Walk is used as a civic surface that extends up to form the public grandstand, flattens into the theater stage, and wraps the surfaces of the theater extending into a horizontal tray that holds the gallery and shelters the grandstand. The waterfront is both a great asset for the museum and a distraction from its inwardly focused program. A choreographed passage through the building dispenses the visual context in small doses. Upon entry, the view is compressed under the belly of the theater, then scanned by the glass elevator, used as a variable backdrop in the theater, denied entirely in the galleries, and revealed as a panorama at the crossover gallery. The mediatheque suspended under the cantilever edits the context from view, leaving only the texture of water. Perry Dean Rogers acted as Associate Architect.

100 Northern Avenue, Boston, MA, US 02210

Nearby
John Joseph Moakley United States Courthouse 0.3 miles
The Boston Panels 0.4 miles
South Boston Maritime Park 0.5 miles
Boston Children's Museum 0.6 miles
The Artist Building at 300 Summer Street 0.6 miles
Rowes Wharf 0.8 miles
BSA Space 0.8 miles
Harbor Towers 0.8 miles
Central Artery at High Street 0.8 miles
#Architecture #Museum #Galleries & Art Spaces