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Speed Art Museum

NORTH AND SOUTH RENOVATION AND ADDITION

LOCATION

Louisville, KY

PROJECT COST
$50,000,000.00

SIZE

78,500 sq ft

TYPE

Renovation and Addition

STATUS

Completed 2016

ARCHITECT 

K. Norman Berry Architects

WHY Architecture

CONTRACTOR

F.A. Wilheim

A $50.0 M, 3-story north and south renovation and addition to Kentucky’s largest art museum that was constructed in 1927. Features also include a double-height lobby and auditorium. The south addition features extra gallery space, a 142-seat cinema, and an outdoor sculpture garden. 
 

The design concept for the building massing is three stacked boxes with the upper boxes offset from the boxes below. To accomplish this, it was necessary to utilize two full-story-height trusses at level 2 to cantilever 45 feet to support the northeast corner of the second 
floor, third floor, and roof (which cantilevers another 10 feet beyond the third floor). Careful attention was given to structure depth to give the appearance of stacked boxes with the soffit beneath the third-floor overhang matching the elevation of the roof over the second floor. 

 

In addition to the multiple cantilevers, the structure features a custom designed structural steel curtain wall system, a large retractable overhead door to create an open-air lecture hall/auditorium during suitable weather, a glass bottom bridge connecting the addition 
to the existing museum, a stair built integrally with the curtain wall and a shallow water feature surrounding the building at the ground floor level. The roof over the lecture hall is designed to accommodate outdoor seating/gathering. The structure consists of a steel frame utilizing steel joists at the roof and composite steel beams at each floor level. The core of the building has reinforced concrete walls for the stairs, elevators and mechanical chases. These walls, in addition to the expressed concrete walls for the auditorium, serve as shear walls to provide the lateral bracing system for the building. The building is founded on end-bearing auger-cast concrete piles.

PROJECT HIGHLIGHTS

+  LEED Gold Certification

+  Elegant modern aesthetic

+  Long cantilevers

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