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New Grand Rapids Art Museum


GRDadof3

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Dear God! The space for actual art is going to really be that small???

Add that with the massive blank walls, slow construction time, compromised design, and I've totally lost my faith in this thing.

You only get a once in a 50 year shot at something like this. Is the best we could have done?

18,000 square feet is not small, and its thrice the size of their current space.

the walls are not blank.

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18,000 sq feet of 125,000 sq feet devoted to display space is pretty small. even being three times the previous space, You have to remember that the current space is tiny at best.

And that south-east cornor in that picture above looks pretty blank. Unless they have a susprise for us.

I think to take the above statistics, on their own, and make a judgment is silly. You guys have no idea how much a standard art museum devotes to display space vs. storage vs. administration.

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Just did a quick Google

Don't know if the ratio on the rest of the buildings is out of whack or not:

http://www.tacomaartmuseum.org/page.asp?view=1335

Tocoma has 12,000 sq ft display built in 2003

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_..._89/ai_69058383

General article on Art Museum improvements last year

Sarasota Art museum is 10,000 sq ft

http://www.ringling.org/about_museum_news2.asp?id=595

It sounds like 18,000 square feet is a pretty good size display area.

I will admit I may not, but people are going to want to visit a greatly expanded art museum, not storage facility/ offices. If the exhibition space is only 18,000 sq ft, then people are going to wonder if the admission price is worth it.
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18,000 sq. feet doesn't seem to be little to me. I wonder how much will be split between temporary and permanent exhibits?

Also, does anyone know if they have any installation space planned for outdoors?

I have also heard that the GRAM has some pretty cool stuff that they have in storage that will now see the light of day. Give it time. I'd rather have 18,000 sq. feet of quality art than 50,000 sq. feet of Velvet Elvises. :P

Joe

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18,000 sq. feet doesn't seem to be little to me. I wonder how much will be split between temporary and permanent exhibits?

Also, does anyone know if they have any installation space planned for outdoors?

I have also heard that the GRAM has some pretty cool stuff that they have in storage that will now see the light of day. Give it time. I'd rather have 18,000 sq. feet of quality art than 50,000 sq. feet of Velvet Elvises. :P

Joe

This one Kind of looks like our current one.

Only it has 41,000 sq feet of exhibit space.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver_Art_Gallery

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Vancouver's Metro is around 2.2mil, 3rd largest in Canada.... can't really compare the two museums

It looks like Dayton Ohio added 35,000 sq feet of exhibit space in 1997.

Population (year 2000): 166,179.

http://www.daytonartinstitute.org/info/history.html

"The Dayton Art Institute reopened in June 1997 with more than 35,000 square feet of additional exhibition space"

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Yippy Dayton (they have a metro of 940,000 compared to our 770,000).

I still don't understand all the griping about the square footage, when the square footage has been publicized for well over two years. I don't remember them asking for public dollars to build this, did they? Who cares then? If they have more permanent and traveling exhibits than they did before, and if the added space allows them to offer more educational opportunities and studio space, what's the beef? Seems like a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism.

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Yippy Dayton (they have a metro of 940,000 compared to our 770,000).

I still don't understand all the griping about the square footage, when the square footage has been publicized for well over two years. I don't remember them asking for public dollars to build this, did they? Who cares then? If they have more permanent and traveling exhibits than they did before, and if the added space allows them to offer more educational opportunities and studio space, what's the beef? Seems like a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism.

Your statement is fair. "Seems like a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism."

However these eletes and grandiose projects tend to be heavy on the form and

Light on the function. if you get my drift?

ps I thought this place was for posting and not just a continuous cranking of the GR sunshine pump.

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Your statement is fair. "Seems like a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism."

However these eletes and grandiose projects tend to be heavy on the form and

Light on the function. if you get my drift?

ps I thought this place was for posting and not just a continuous cranking of the GR sunshine pump.

Form over function is not always a bad thing. In fact, there are some projects around downtown that could use a lot more form (Marriott Conference center, sorry golscorer) and a little less function.

Criticize away. We all do it around here. Just expect some criticism of your criticisms if you do. And if someone can show me that my criticisms are unfounded, I'm more than willing to listen.

But we tend lean more toward "GR sunshine pump" than "GR punching bag" around here.

The ONLY complaint I have about the new museum is the concrete-to-glass ratio. But, I know that WHY made some changes to Munkenbeck's design simply because of complaints from the public (like us).

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Your statement is fair. "Seems like a lot of criticism just for the sake of criticism."

However these eletes and grandiose projects tend to be heavy on the form and

Light on the function. if you get my drift?

ps I thought this place was for posting and not just a continuous cranking of the GR sunshine pump.

Seriously, man. Just go back a few months on this thread and you'll see very little of the "GR sunshine pump." This building gets dumped on REGULARLY. As does the JW conference center. As does any plan that doesn't include enough street level transparency or interaction with pedestrians (Icon & early children's Hospital plans).

GR Sunshine pump?

:rofl:

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I've always been a big fan of the Milwaukee Art Museum. The following link doesn't mention sq footage, but even before the spectacular addition, this museum had far more than 16,000sf of exhibit space.

http://www.mam.org/thebuilding/fun_facts.htm

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Before we begin criticising exhibit space, do we know if any of the space reserved for other things can be turned into exhibit space if the need ever arises, and if so, how much?

Is it likely they could, 10-20 years down the road, remove some of the classrooms and turn them into gallery space? Same with the offices. I'd imagine that they shouldn't have too much difficulty relocating some of the offices into an upper floor of some adjacent buildings to make room for more gallery space.

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Are we sure that hallways that lead to classrooms and such wont feature some of the artwork thats in the GRAM's possession as well?

There might only be 18,000 sq ft of exhibit space, but I'm sure theres a lot of blank walls that might get adorned with some artwork.

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The wHY website finally includes a portfolio. It has a GRAM link, and shows illustrations and floor plans that the museum had not previously released. It's difficult to see the details as they don't offer an enlarge option.

Also see that they have started the steel structure for the middle light. That should be in place in no time.

wHY is apparently also working with the Art Institute of Chicago. I don't know if it has something to do with their new Modern Wing or not as I hadn

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The lightboxes are going to be so cool. Does anybody know if this will beam light up into the air (like the twin towers memorial each Sept. 11 (except of course with much less wattage)) or will it just glow. It should add a pretty interesting vibe to Monroe Center at night.

Joe

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