12.1.10 | Sacramento, CA | Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects (GSAA) have put the finishing touches on their 125,000 square-foot design for Sacramento's Crocker Art Museum. The Teel Family Pavilion more than triples the museum’s size and enhances its role as a cultural resource for California and the state’s many visitors. One of GSSA co-founder Charles Gwathmey's last major public projects, the Crocker Art Museum expansion complements the 125 year-old museum’s historic structures, which include one of the first purpose-built art museum buildings in the United States. More than $92 million has been raised towards the Crocker Art Museum’s $100 million capital campaign goal. GSAA Associate Partner Gerald Gendreau, who has worked on the design since its inception, oversaw completion of the building.

“Works of art can link people together across boundaries of time, and culture, and world views — the ability to have a personal or shared encounter with art is a critical aspect of vibrant civic life,” said Lial Jones, Director of the Crocker Art Museum. “California’s Central Valley has one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most diverse communities, and with our expansion we are increasing our ability to serve those communities, strengthen the civic fabric, and draw cultural travelers to Sacramento.”

“Having been a part of this project since master planning first began, it’s been tremendously exciting to watch the building take shape, and now to see construction complete,” said project architect Gerald Gendreau. “The design for the new Crocker Art Museum is about adding to the urban collage -- complementing the historic Art Gallery building, tying to the green space that fronts the Museum, even engaging travelers on the adjacent highway -- all while giving the Museum flexible spaces for growth now and into the future.”

In addition to extensive new galleries for temporary exhibitions and the display of the Crocker’s permanent collection, The Teel Pavilion includes expanded educational and art studio space, a teacher resource center, a space for participatory arts programming for children and adults, an expanded library, and a new student exhibition space and teaching galleries. The Anne and Malcolm Henry Works on Paper Study Center greatly improves access for visiting scholars studying the Crocker’s outstanding master drawings collection, and for the public. The expansion also provides space for on-site collections care and storage, as well as a new conservation lab. New public amenities, including a 260-seat auditorium, a caf” with indoor and outdoor seating, and a redesigned Museum Store, are also included. The first floor is open to the public free of charge and free Wi-Fi will be available.

GSAA’s compositional strategy for the project was aimed at establishing a uniquely iconic presence for the new addition, while framing the existing complex in a coherent physical dynamic. The result is a collaged image for both the new and historic structures: the new addition is rotated on a due north/south axis, disengaging it from the existing orthogonal street grid and Crocker complex, which reinforces its contrapuntal siting and massing; inside, the new galleries are directly connected to the existing Art Gallery building, allowing for a continuous circulation from the new to the old structures — both vertically and horizontally — and totally integrating the entire complex. GSAA’s signature approach — collaborative, site-specific, sensitive to the needs of the client — helped bring together all these diverse elements as scheduled to bring the renovated Crocker on par with new museum architecture around the world.

The Crocker Art Museum will present a series of special exhibitions to celebrate its opening, among them Wayne Thiebaud: Homecoming, a new retrospective of the work of Sacramento native Wayne Thiebaud, who held his first solo exhibition at the museum nearly 60 years ago. The exhibition, which coincides with the artist’s 90th birthday, includes 75 painting and drawings from throughout Thiebaud’s career. Other inaugural exhibitions include: Tomorrow’s Legacies: Gifts Celebrating the Next 125 Years; A Pioneering Collection: Master Drawings from the Crocker Art Museum; and The Vase and Beyond: The Sidney Swidler Collection of Ceramics. The works of Paul Jenkins, Gottfried Helnwein, and John Buck will be featured in exhibitions opening in the winter of 2011. In summer 2011, the Crocker will present A Summer of Impressionism, with works by renowned French and American artists showcased in exhibitions alongside that of California impressionists, one of the central strengths of the Crocker’s permanent collection.

Photo Credit : Bruce Damonte

About the Crocker Art Museum

Judge Edwin B. and Margaret Crocker commissioned the construction of a Victorian-Italianate building to serve as a gallery for their art collection in 1869, a year before the founding of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Boston Museum of Fine Art, and a decade before the founding the Art Institute of Chicago. The Art Gallery was one of the first purpose-built art museums in the United States. In 1885, Margaret Crocker presented both the building and collection to the city as a public art museum.

While the Crocker Art Museum had undertaken a series of renovations and additions since it first opened as a public museum 125 years ago, the facility could not keep pace with the museum’s burgeoning collection and the growing population of Sacramento and California's Central Valley Region. In 2000, the Crocker began a master planning process with Gwathmey Siegel & Associates and in 2002 commissioned the firm to design a major expansion of the museum.

About the City of Sacramento

Founded in the early years of the Gold Rush, Sacramento became the capital of California in 1854. In 2009, Sacramento was cited as one of America’s 10 favorite cities by the Pew Research Center. Greater Sacramento, with a population of 2.1 million, is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States. Located at the intersection of the American and the Sacramento rivers in California’s Central Valley, the City of Sacramento offers a cosmopolitan convergence of old and new, from notable historical sites to a vibrant cultural and civic life. Sacramento features a range of museums, art galleries, and performing arts organizations, including the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra, the Sacramento Opera, the Sacramento Ballet, California Musical Theatre, B Street Theatre, and the Sacramento Theatre Company, as well as the California State Railroad Museum and the California Museum of History, Women, and the Arts. The city’s award-winning restaurants highlight local produce and wines from the surrounding region, including nearby Amador County, an area poised to rival the Napa Valley. In Old Sacramento, a 28-acre town of historic buildings just two blocks from the Crocker, visitors can immerse themselves in the city’s early history. The tree-lined American River Parkway, running along a 23-mile stretch of that river, provides equestrians, joggers and cyclists a place to enjoy one of the region’s many natural attractions.

About Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects

Founded in 1968, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects is a New York-based firm offering master planning, architectural, interior and product design services. Gwathmey Siegel has completed over four hundred projects for cultural, educational, healthcare, corporate, government, and private clients throughout the United States and abroad. The firm has an international reputation for its work and is the winner of more than 100 design awards. The firm’s designs have been featured in numerous exhibitions and histories of contemporary architecture. Gwathmey Siegel & Associates received the American Institute of Architects' highest honor — the Firm Award — for "approaching every project with a fresh eye, a meticulous attention to detail, a keen appreciation for environmental and economic concerns and a strong belief in collaborative effort."