Client: Gulf Coast Museum of Art

Scope: Home for regional art collection and community arts-education program: auditorium, library, café, sculpture garden, museum store plus studio workshops, classrooms and offices

The museum’s proponents saw Gulf Coast as an anchor in a cultural complex that included the Florida Botanical Garden, Pinellas Historical Museum and Heritage Village. In our design, the museum defines the boundary between the botanical gardens and Pinellas waterway, across which is Heritage Village and its open-air exhibits of “cracker” architecture. To move through the complex, visitors can follow a sinuous colonnade that runs parallel to the waterway; a footbridge across the wetlands connects the museum to Heritage Village. At the center of these two circulation paths is the heart of the complex, with galleries, sculpture garden, café, auditorium. Gallery spaces are flexible exhibition spaces and glow with natural light sourced from north-facing skylights, which give the building its distinctive roof line and diffuse the sun’s rays.

Materials: Stucco; concrete block; integral color concrete; artisan plaster; galvanized steel; painted steel; sycamore

Awards:
American Institute of Architects New England, Award for Design Excellence
Boston Society of Architects, Design Honor Award
Boston Society of Architects, Unbuilt Architecture Award

Collaborators:
General Contractor: Peter Brown Construction Co.
Structural Engineer: Ocmulgee Associates
MEP Engineer: Bobes Associates

Photographer: Chuck Choi Architectural Photography