Walker Art Center Addition and Expansion

An abridged version of the below paragraph appeared in the May/June 2021 issue of ARCHITECT as part of expanded coverage of the 2021 AIA Architecture Awards.

Eighty years after its establishment, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis has become not only a premier art venue but also a living inventory of modern and contemporary architecture. Following a 2005 addition by Herzog & de Meuron, the 1971 building by Edward Larrabee Barnes has now expanded yet again courtesy of an ingenious intervention by Minnesota’s own HGA. The office began by recladding the original Barnes structure, giving it a fresh face that makes its hard-edged geometry seem more precise and assured. Then, in a vacant site next door, the firm inserted a pavilion to serve as the museum’s new primary entrance, restoring a natural procession that had been lost in previous alterations. Accented by an eye-catching yellow vestibule, the one-story structure is topped by a green roof that integrates with the surrounding public gardens, allowing the entry pavilion to blend seamlessly into the surrounding gardens.

Tasked with expanding upon the work of Edward Larrabee Barnes, Herzog & de Meuron, and even their own firm, architects Joan Soranno and John Cook sought to balance the iconic and invisibility. This project appeared on the cover of ARCHITECT's April 2018 issue, which contained the below Q+A by former ARCHITECT editor Katie Gerfen.

When did your association with the Walker start?
John Cook, FAIA: My own association with the Walker goes back to 1987, when I worked on the Frank Gehry retrospective—his first big show in a museum. At HGA, we had a few projects pre-1999 when the Walker hired Herzog & de Meuron to do an expansion [with HGA as architect of record] to the 1971 Edward Larrabee Barnes building. At the end of that project in 2005, Ralph Rapson’s Guthrie Theater was still attached to the Walker; it came down in 2007, leaving an unfinished landscape and an architectural gap.

But before you started the addition, there was another project—reskinning the Barnes building.
Cook: Almost from the beginning, the Barnes building suffered from leaks in the roof, which HGA fixed in the ’80s. Over time, it experienced wall leaks as well. For six years I chased leaks, making Band-Aid repairs, and at one point I just said: “The only thing to do here is to start over.” So every brick came off and we put on a vapor barrier and more insulation. In that process, the building got about 2½ inches bigger, which created some really unique conditions. I kept asking myself: “What would Barnes do?” Using brick from the same plant as the original, and replicating his details—making sure that the wall brick turned and became the brick of the coping—was important. You mess that up and you’re just someone who ruined a great building.

How did the design for the addition develop?
Joan Soranno, FAIA: Andrew Blauvelt was the curator of design and is now director of the Cranbrook Art Museum. He was the protector of the campus. One thing that he was very clear on was, “We don’t want a third charm on the charm bracelet,” which, to me, teed up the whole project. We had to mediate between the very diverse language of the Barnes building and the Herzog addition and create something that responded intelligently to both but also tried to create a statement that is reflective of where the Walker is today. We decided early on that the addition wanted to integrate itself into the hill. So if you’re up in Petra Blaisse’s new upper garden looking down at our addition, you actually see no architecture, only landscape. I think it is quite a challenge to design a non-building from certain perspectives that is also the new front door to the entire museum. It’s invisible, but wants to have a strong identity and to be welcoming.

How did you distinguish the entry?
Soranno: One move that we made to make it a stronger statement was the Walker signage—that oversized text within that 5-foot soffit—and another was the yellow vestibule. When you’re thinking about creating visual interest, you think about color but you also think about finish, and the high-gloss, highly reflective surface makes for a kinetic experience even though the ceiling is very low. To align floors, we couldn’t make the building any taller than 15 feet; Barnes had established a very strong datum line of 10 feet inside his building, which came into our addition. But for a main entry into a museum, a 10-foot ceiling is not very tall.

Not at all. How did you make it feel bigger?
Soranno: A trick that we did with the vestibule was to make it even lower—8 feet—so that when you come into the entry foyer, the 10-foot ceiling looks tall in comparison. And then we also have skylights. Those are really important to give this space more volume, and with the size and angled ceilings, we were trying to get as much volume and daylight as we could. One of the driving forces of our work is light, the manipulation of light. Light is such a restorative life force, so trying to harvest as much as we could in this space to counter some of the more inward-focused spaces in the Walker was really important.

There is so much precedent on this site. What did you incorporate and reference in your addition?
Soranno: We chose materials to try to tie the Herzog and the Barnes buildings together. I think the obvious one is the white aesthetic: If anybody talks about iconic finishes in the Barnes building, they talk about white terrazzo floors, so continuing the white terrazzo was really important. Jacques Herzog took the Barnes brick and turned them into floors in his town square, and we brought that brick down into the remodeled Barnes lobby so there’s a little bit of Herzog there. The one thing we did that at first I was really nervous about was the natural wood in the restaurant—in 240,000 square feet. I don’t think there’s a stick of wood at the Walker besides furniture, but we detailed it in a contemporary way, and I think it works well.

The new addition is also an entry from the parking garage. How important was that?
Cook: Seventy percent of people coming to the Walker enter through the garage. Before, it was a leftover connection between the Guthrie and the Herzog addition—a rabbit hole that led to ticketing via a narrow corridor without any daylight. Now, if you look through the corridor, the new foyer, and across into Barnes’ sculpture garden, you see Claes Oldenburg and Coosje van Bruggens’s Spoonbridge and Cherry. That visual connection, not only to daylight, but to the sculpture garden’s iconic piece—you can’t put a dollar value on that.

Project Credits
Project: Walker Art Center Expansion, Minneapolis
Client: Walker Art Center
Architects: HGA. Dan Avchen, FAIA (principal-in-charge), Joan M. Soranno, FAIA (design principal), John Cook, FAIA (senior project architect), Alex Terzich, AIA (project architect), Michael Hara, AIA; Doug Gerlach, AIA; Andrew Holmgren, AIA, Nat Madson, AIA (design team), Adam Luckhardt, AIA; Steve Philippi, AIA; Michael Koch, AIA
Interior design: Rich Bonnin (project team)
Structural engineer: HGA, Jon Wacker
Mechanical engineer: HGA, Kevin Lynn
Electrical engineer: HGA
Civil engineer: HGA, Kenny Horns, Erik Hansen
Lighting designer: B. Alex Miller of TM Light
Executive lighting designer: HGA
Executive lighting project team: Tao Ham; Connor Frazier
Specifications: Robert Johnson Miller
General contractor: M. A. Mortenson
Landscape architect: Inside Outside
Landscape project team: Petra Blaisse; Jana Crepon
Executive landscape architect: HGA
Executive landscape project team: Theodore Lee; Trygve Hansen
Irrigation designer: Water-in-Motion
Owner’s representative: Tegra
Kitchen consultant: Rippe Associates
Photographer: Paul Crosby
Size: 5,500 GSF New; 15,160 GSF Remodel
Cost: Withheld
Completion: June 2017

Materials and Sources:
Acoustical System: (see Ceilings)
Sealants: Dow Corning
Appliances: (see Kitchen Fixtures)
Bathroom Fixtures: Bobrick; Koala Kare
Building Management Systems and Services: Lutron
Carpet: Tandus Centiva
Cabinets and Millwork: Wilkie Sanderson
Acoustical Ceiling Tile: Armstrong Optima
Acoustic Ceiling Panels: Novawall with Knoll Textiles fabric
Stretched Membrane System: Barrisol Normalu
Acoustic Plaster: StarSilent, Pyrok
Concrete: M.A. Mortenson Co.
Countertops: Corian
Exterior Wall Systems: Endicott (brick), M.G. McGrath (bronze/ornamental metals), Curtainwall: Empirehouse (curtainwall) www.empirehouse.com, Dorma (glass doors), Balance Doors: C. R. Laurence (balance doors), Thermocromex by Southwest Progressive Enterprises (plaster)
Fabrics and Finishes: Solid Surface: Corian
Wood Flooring: WD Flooring
Resilient Flooring: Johnsonite; Mannington Commercial
Quarry Tile: Daltile
Furniture Manufacturers: Herman Miller (Eames Wood Chair); B&B Italia (Cloud Sofa); Smarin (Livingstones Poufs); Decca (Avant Table); Vitra (Belleville Chair); Goebel Fixtures (Custom Tables)
Dealers: Parameters; Intereum; ROAM
Glass: Viracon; Carey Glass; 3M (glass surface film)
Gypsum: USG
Gypsum Accessories: Fry Reglt
Hardware: Knape & Vogt; Blum; Hafele; Mockett
Insulation: Dow Corning
Kitchen Fixtures: Manitowoc; Traulsen; Everidge (formerly Thermalrite); RDT; InSinkErator; CaptiveAire; Frymaster; Southbend; Randell; Hatco; Hobart; La Marzocco
Lighting Control Systems: Roller Shades: Lutron
Lighting: Custom fixtures: Winona Lighting; Lucifer Lighting; Erco; Bega
Brick: Endicott
Metal: M.G. McGrath
Paints: Benjamin Moore
Roofing: EPDM Roofing/Waterproofing: Tremco
Pavers: Coldspring Granite
Geofoam: Styrotech
Rock Mulch: Dresser Trap Rock
Bike Lockers: Dero
Tree Grates: Urban Accessories
Tile: Progetto 14 Series by Lea Tile Co.
Brick: Endicott
Kitchen FRP: Nudo
Pedestrian Barrier: Tensabarrier
Curtainwalls: Empirehouse
Fire Doors: Won-Door
Integrated Metal Door: RITE Door by Adams Rite Manufacturing
Access Panels: Milcor; Bauco
Overhead Coiling Door: McKeon Door Co.
Side Folding Grille: Dynamic Closures
Kitchen Traffic Door: Aleco
Hollow Metal Frames: Assa Abloy