Marvel Architects Unveil Design for The Bronx Museum of Art Renovation
New York-based company Marvel unveiled schematic designs for The Bronx Museum’s new entrance and lobby, as part of the museum’s 50th anniversary renovation. Budgeted at $26 million and scheduled for completion in 2025, the renovation will relocate access to Grand Concourse Street, one of The Bronx’s most iconic boulevards, and focus on the cohesion of the multiple sections for a fully accessible route. through all galleries. Coinciding with this announcement, the museum reinvented its brand identity and website for the first time in more than two decades to reflect its ethos as a vital space at the intersection of art and social justice in New York City.
The Bronx Museum was founded in 1971 by the people of The Bronx during difficult times for the community. Since then, it has formed an identity as a museum dedicated to social justice. In its first decade, the museum was housed at Grand Concourse and 161st Street, a public rotunda of The Bronx County Courthouse, and in 1982 it moved to a former synagogue purchased and donated by the City of New York. Twenty years later, the museum began construction on 1,500 square feet under the direction of Miami-based firm Arquitectonica, and in 2003 won the city’s Art Commission “Excellence in Design” award.
Today, the Bronx Museum is an internationally recognized cultural destination with a permanent collection of more than 2,000 works featuring works by artists of African, Asian, and Latin American descent, as well as artists for whom the Bronx has been pivotal in their development.
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The design principles are rooted in the history of the Grand Concourse and the building’s evolution over the past four decades. The relocation of the main entrance to the highly visible intersection of Grand Concourse and 165th Street will extend the reach of the museum and extend the experience to the sidewalk, providing multiple visibility options for art and public programming from the street. The project aims to bring the street into the gallery and bring the gallery back to the street, fusing the boundary between the two, in line with the active street life of the neighbourhood.
Once one enters the museum at the intersection of the roof planes, the visitor is immersed in the museum experience and steps into a welcoming space that aspires to become the new living room of the Bronx. The building is glazed on all sides, interwoven with fiberglass reinforced concrete (GFRC) textured walls that serve as interior surfaces of the exhibition and frame the view into the deeper gallery spaces. The expansive triple project space on the corner offers a clear opportunity to make art visible to pedestrians and invite newcomers inside.
Born from the articulation of the 2006 North Wing addition, Marvel uses folded copper bronze panel roofs that reflect the warm tones of the surrounding brick and align with the Art Deco influence of the Concourse district. In addition, the design respects the existing 1962 synagogue building by removing the dark metal panels that hide the brick walls of the original design.
Marvel’s design for the renovation and expansion of The Bronx Museum reflects the can-do, hip-hop creativity and ingenuity of the Bronx. More than a museum, the Bronx Museum breaks down barriers, is a source of culture and a meeting place for the community and visitors from around the world – Jonathan Marvel, Founding Principal at Marvel
Marvel is advocating for collective action mixed with contemporary design and is also working on the largest LGBT-friendly housing development for the elderly in the US. Named Stonewall House in a nod to the famed Stonewall Inn, the building will have 23,000 square feet of mixed-use space in downtown Brooklyn.
