349 Parrish Art Museum – Herzog & de Meuron

Project: 2009-2010
Realization: 2010-2012

The starting point for the new Parrish Art Museum is the artist’s studio in the East End of Long Island. We set the basic parameters for a single gallery space by distilling the studio’s proportions and adopting its simple house section with north-facing skylights. Two of these model galleries form wings around a central circulation spine that is then bracketed by two porches to form the basis of a straightforward building extrusion.

The floor plan of this extrusion is a direct translation of the ideal functional layout. A cluster of ten galleries defines the heart of the museum. The size and proportion of these galleries can be easily adapted by re-arranging partition walls within the given structural grid. To the east of the gallery core are located the back of house functions of administration, storage, workshops and loading dock. To the west of the galleries are housed the public program areas of the lobby, shop, and café with a flexible multi-purpose and educational space at the far western end.

An ordered sequence of post, beam and truss defines the unifying backbone of the building. Its materialisation is a direct expression of readily accessible building materials and local construction methods. The exterior walls of in situ concrete act as long bookends to the overall building form while the grand scale of these elemental walls is tempered with a continuous bench formed at its base for sitting and viewing the surrounding landscape. Large overhangs running the full length of the building provide shelter for outdoor porches and terraces.

The placement of the building is a direct result of the skylights facing towards the north. This east-west orientation, and its incidental diagonal relationship within the site, generates dramatically changing perspective views of the building and further emphasises the building’s extreme yet simple proportions. It lays in an extensive meadow of indigenous grasses that refers to the natural landscape of Long Island.

Herzog & de Meuron 2010

Process

Drawings

Team

Partners: Jacques Herzog; Pierre de Meuron; Ascan Mergenthaler (Partner in Charge)
Project Team: Philip Schmerbeck (Associate, Project Director); Jayne Barlow (Associate); Raymond Gaëtan; Marta Brandão; Jack Brough; Sara Jacinto; Tom Powell; Nils Sanderson; Leo Schneidewind; Camia Young

Facts

Client: Parrish Art Museum
Planning: This project was developed in collaboration with an architect licensed in the state of New York acting as the "Architect of Record". Herzog & de Meuron is not licensed to practice architecture in New York State.; Design Consultant: Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd., Basel, Switzerland; Executive Architect: Douglas Moyer Architect PC, Sag Harbor, NY, USA; Mechanical Engineering: Buro Happold, New York, NY, USA; Structural Engineering: S.L. Maresca & Associates, Hampton Bays, NY, USA; Landscape Architect: Reed Hilderbrand Landscape Architecture, Watertown, MA, USA; Furniture Design: Konstantin Grcic Industrial Design, Munich, Germany
Specialist / Consulting: Geotechnic Consulting: Langan, New York, NY, USA; Civil Engineering: Nelson, Pope & Voorhis Engineers & Surveryors, Melville, NY, USA; Acoustics Consulting: Shen/Milsom/Wilke, New York, NY, USA; AV & IT Consulting: Shen/Milsom/Wilke, New York, NY, USA; Concrete Consulting: Reginald D. Hough, Rhinebeck, NY, USA; Lighting Designer: ARUP Lighting, London, UK; Lighting Engineer: ARUP Lighting, New York, NY, USA; Security Consulting: Ducivella Venter & Santore, New Haven, CT, USA; Signage Design: LaPlaca Cohen, New York, NY, USA; Surveyor: Saskas Surveying Company, P.C., East Hampton, NY, USA; Soil Engineer: D.B. Bennett, P.E., East Hampton, NY, USA; Commissioning Agent: Dometech, Edison, NJ, USA
Building Data: Site Area: 601'594 sqft, 55'890 sqm; Gross floor area (GFA): 50'299 sqft, 4'673 sqm; Outside Facilities: 495 sqft, 46 sqm; Number of levels: 1; Footprint: 34'390 sqft, 3'195 sqm; Length: 613 ft, 187 m; Width: 95 ft, 29 m; Height: 29 ft, 9 m
Links: www.parrishart.org

Bibliography

Emmanuel Petit: “Horizon Line. Synthesising Allusions to the Vernacular with contemporary Abstraction, the new Parrish Art Museum encapsulates the changing Dynamic between Art, Landscape and Architecture.” In: Catherine Slessor (Ed.). “The Architectural Review.” Vol. No. 1391, London, Emap Inform, 01.2013. pp. 35-43.

Florian Idenburg: “Ducks and Sheds. Herzog & de Meuron: Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, New York.” In: Verband freierwerbender Schweizer Architekten, FSAI (Ed.). Archithese. Internationale Zeischrift und Schriftenreihe für Architektur. “Swiss Performance 13.” Vol. No. 1, Sulgen, Niggli Ltd., 01.2013. pp. 10-15.

Luis Fernández-Galiano (Ed.): “Arquitectura Viva Monografías. Herzog & de Meuron 2005-2013.” Vol. No. 157/158, Madrid, Arquitectura Viva SL, 09.2012.

Matthew Allen: “Parrish Art Museum.” In: Joseph Grima (Ed.). “Domus. Contemporary Architecture, Interiors, Design, Art.” Vol. No. 965, Milan, Domus S.p.A., 01.2013

Paul Goldberger: “The Hamptons get a new Museum and not only is it garish, it’s wonderful.” In: “Vanity Fair.” New York, Condé Nast, 06.12.2012.

Jordan Mejias: “M wie Minimalismus. Die schönste Scheune von Long Island: Das Parrish Art Museum ist ein zweihundert Meter langer Geniestreich von Herzog & de Meuron.” In: Werner D’Inka, Berthold Kohler, Günther Nonnenmacher (Eds.) et al. “Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.” Frankfurt, Fazit-Stiftung Gemeinnützige Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, 30.11.2012. p. 33.

Fred A. Bernstein: First Look: “Herzog & de Meuron’s Parrish Art Museum.” In: William Hanley (Ed.). “Architectural Record.” New York, The McGraw-Hill Companies, 02.10.2012.

“Herzog & de Meuron.” In: Luis Fernández-Galiano (Ed.). “Arquitectura Viva Proyectos.” Vol. No. 040, Madrid, Arquitectura Viva SL, 2010. pp. 4-29.