NEWS RELEASE
PARRISH ART MUSEUM SELECTS HERZOG & DE MEURON TO DESIGN NEW MUSEUM, OPENING IN 2009
8/5/2005
Contact Erin Ferguson
631-283-2118 ext. 22
fergusone@parrishart.org
Southampton, New York-The Board of Trustees of The Parrish Art Museum, Long Island's oldest art museum, today announced its selection of the internationally celebrated firm of Herzog & de Meuron to design a new and greatly expanded building for the Museum. The new Parrish, scheduled to open in 2009, will be constructed on a recently purchased fourteen-acre site in the hamlet of Water Mill, two miles from the Museum's current site, in the Village of Southampton.
Based in Basel, Switzerland, and with projects across Europe, in North America, and in Asia, Herzog & de Meuron is known for designs that are at once highly inventive and sensitive to the site, the geography, and culture of the region for which the building is planned. Among their most widely recognized museum projects are the transformation of a power plant into Tate Modern, in London (2000); the new de Young Museum, in San Francisco (opening October 2005); and the expansion of the Walker Art Center, in Minneapolis (opened April 2005). In 2001, Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron were awarded the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize for their body of work. The commission to design the new building for The Parrish Art Museum is the firm's first major public project on the East Coast of the United States.
Board Chairman Alvin Chereskin states, "The trustees of The Parrish Art Museum could not be more thrilled to be working with Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron, and their colleagues. Their intelligence and creative energy, combined with their keen understanding of the needs of art museums, promise to yield a design that will enrich the architectural profile of Long Island's East End while enabling the Parrish to better serve its many audiences."
Parrish Director Trudy Kramer adds, "During our search for an architect to design the new Parrish, we saw the work of more than sixty talented regional, national, and international architects and designers. Ultimately, it was the combination of innovation and tradition, of bold and subtle, that we saw in the work of Herzog & de Meuron, and the fact that each project was unique and attuned to the client's needs, that was so powerful. Additionally, the firm's sensitivity to site, including not only landscape but also light-one of the great qualities of eastern Long Island that has inspired generations of artists-promises to make the design for the new Parrish truly outstanding."
Jacques Herzog, of Herzog & de Meuron, says "We are delighted to have been selected to work on the new building for The Parrish Art Museum. It will be an exciting challenge to develop the project for its new site. We look forward to working closely with the Parrish team to create new spaces for their collection and new facilities for innovative programs of the future."
Museum Expansion
The building to be designed by Herzog & de Meuron will solidify the Parrish's role as a key destination for art-lovers from all locations. It will comprise approximately 80,000 square feet of space, including some 14,000 square feet of galleries, enabling the Parrish to display a significant portion of its growing collection, present more diverse special exhibitions, and offer a greater range of public programming-including its innovative educational programs-than is possible at its current site.
The Parrish's partnerships with local schools and its creative and engaging public programs for adults and children-including lectures, films, gallery talks, performances, concerts, poetry readings, art classes, and family festivals-will flourish, and will take place in modern and fully equipped studios, classrooms, and a theater, as well as special teacher-training facilities. Additionally, the new Museum will feature greatly improved visitor amenities, such as an expanded shop and a café, ample parking, and a garden and park that fully complement the new building.
Until the new Museum opens, the Parrish will remain in full operation in the original Job's Lane facility, which is owned by the Village of Southampton. The Museum is planning a major capital campaign to raise money for the project. No local tax dollars will be sought.
Herzog & de Meuron
The Swiss firm of Herzog & de Meuron is among the most highly praised architecture offices in the world. The firm, which maintains branch offices in London, Munich, San Francisco, Barcelona, and Beijing, has designed a stunning range of projects, from a railway engine depot, to private houses, the 1998 Dominus winery, in Napa Valley, hospitals, factories, office buildings, and stadiums. In addition to the museums mentioned on page one, they have designed a series of acclaimed buildings for such cultural organizations as the Küppersmüle Museum, for the Grothe Collection, in Duisburg, Germany (1999); the Schaulager Laurenz Foundation, Basel (2003); the Laban Dance Centre, in London (2003), recipient of the RIBA Stirling Prize; the CaixaForum-Madrid, Spain (completion in 2006); the Centro Cultural Museum and Cultural Center in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain (completion in 2007); the National Stadium for the 2008 Olympic Games, in Beijing (completion in 2007); and the Hamburg Philharmonic Hall, Germany (completion in 2009), among others.
In addition to founders Pierre de Meuron and Jacques Herzog, the firm includes four partners and ten associates. Currently, a team of 180 people representing twenty-six nationalities is working on more than thirty projects from San Francisco to Beijing. Herzog & de Meuron works have appeared in numerous exhibitions and publications worldwide.
The Parrish Art Museum
Established in 1898 by Samuel Parrish, The Parrish Art Museum is dedicated to collecting, preserving, and interpreting American art, with a focus on the art and artists of Long Island's East End-one of America's most enduring art colonies. Over the years, the Museum has evolved into a vital cultural resource where diverse audiences can explore and experience American art.
Since its founding, the Museum's holdings have grown to encompass a distinguished collection of American art from the nineteenth century to the present. Particular strengths are the work of famed American Impressionist William Merritt Chase, who founded and taught at the Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art in the 1890s; and works by the important figurative painter and critic Fairfield Porter, who lived in Southampton from 1949 until his death in 1968. Other artists include Jackson Pollock, Lee Krasner, Willem de Kooning, Larry Rivers, Dan Flavin, Chuck Close, Eric Fischl, April Gornik, and Elizabeth Peyton, among many others.
Since the mid-1980s it has been clear that the Parrish has outgrown its original building, which has remained essentially unchanged since it was completed over a century ago. Not only does the building lack the basic infrastructure required by a professional museum, but the exceedingly small space-comprising a total of 17,000 square feet-imposes severe limitations on the Parrish's ability to share its collection with the public and to hold temporary exhibitions. Public programming is similarly limited by constrained space, as well as by a lack of technological infrastructure.
For additional press information about the Museum's current exhibitions and programs, contact Erin Ferguson, The Parrish Art Museum, 631-283-2118, x 22; fergusone@parrishart.org.
Original Source
Additional Resources
View the website for The Parrish Art Museum.
Information page about The Parrish Art Museum from The Hamptons.
Location and address for The Parrish Art Museum at the Resource Library.
Report on artistAlan Shields at the Parrish Art Museum from News Day.
City Guide search and reviews for Parrish Art Museum in New York.
The New York Times features The Parrish Art Museum in Art Review.
Review by the New York Times on A Meditation on the Death of Painting at the Parrish Art Museum.
News from the Architectural Record on the Parrish Art Museum's plan to scale back on construction.
The Hampton Online's Guide to the Parrish Art Museum.
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