Overview of the Design
Prominently located at the western entrance to the Williams College campus and the town, the new Williams College Museum of Art is conceived to serve the College, the local community, and visitors to the Berkshires through a cluster of four program areas. While slightly set apart like pavilions, the better to accommodate their multiple uses, the program areas are unified through their materials, their openness to the natural setting, their organization around a central gathering place, and a distinctive overarching roof that shelters them all.
From the central lobby, two gallery clusters for temporary exhibitions and the permanent collection radiate toward the north. These galleries provide more than 15,000 square feet of display space, accounting for 35 percent of the net square footage of the building. Spaces for dynamic programming and community engagement greet visitors from the main south-facing entrance, with an auditorium, art studio space, and a café extending toward the southwest. An innovative hybrid gallery-classroom space dedicated to the museum’s signature Object Lab sits to the southeast. Reaching toward campus to the east, a study center of approximately 6,400 square feet includes dedicated areas for works on paper study, storage, two classrooms for object study, a digital humanities classroom, and a seminar room. A roof of aluminum shingles covers all five volumes of the museum with curves and peaks that engage with the ridgelines of the surrounding mountains. The roof’s broad overhang creates awnings and porches that surround the building, embracing visitors as they approach while providing temperature regulation to reduce energy use and enhance sustainability.
A courtyard garden stands at the heart of the building, north of the central lobby between the two gallery arms, locating nature at the center of the building. Views of the landscape open from the central lobby toward the main entrances, located on the south and west sides of the building. Seating areas between galleries offer views of the landscape, as does the lounge unifying the research spaces and classrooms in the study center.
All renderings: Jeudi.Wang, courtesy SO-IL and the Williams College Museum of Art.
Museum Site
The museum will be built on the former site of the Williams Inn, at the intersection of Routes 2 and 7 in Williamstown.
