Benton Museum of Art
Feature
Story by Jeffry Burchard
Published
January, 2023
The Benton Museum of Art is a vibrant contemporary art and education center for Pomona College and the community of Claremont, California. With openness and accessibility as foundational themes, the design extends the tradition of the Pomona College campus with its courtyards, porticos, organizing arcades and expressive, cast-in-place, concrete construction. The museum offers traditional galleries, educational portals, accessible vaults, oversized courtyards, and flexible community spaces.
Left: Flexible pavilion opened to the central courtyard of the Benton Museum of Art. Photo credit, Benton Museum of Art . Right: Original courtyard from the Pomona College of Art - 1950s
A Bridge between
Communities
The experience of the Benton is twofold: first, that of a world-class 21st-century museum complete with all of its technical requirements for sharing, storing, displaying, and engaging with art; and second, a set of interconnected programs that emerge from the pedagogical imperative and frameworks of Pomona College. The museum engages visitors and users across a spectrum of expectations and needs, and provides a place where everyone, no matter their background, has the opportunity to thrive.
Looking down the Art Hall towards the public lobby, with the central courtyard on the right of the Benton Museum of Art
The Benton Museum of Art community engagement programs
The Benton Museum is a gateway to the Pomona College, situated at the interface between the campus and Claremont. In this location the museum engages the visitor who may be arriving from the village to the west or from the campus to the east. The site provides a range of formal and informal entry points and opportunities to experience the art.
Historical Layout
Map of Pomona College and the Village of Claremont
The layout of the Benton Museum is directly inspired by the original planning of the campus, created by American architect Myron Hunt. Hunt’s design established and emphasized a series of axial circulation paths and courtyards, that create a rhythm of stitched indoor, outdoor, and in-between spaces. The museum builds on this precedent by producing a new set of axial vantage points, indoor courts, and outdoor courtyards.
A sequence of enfilades and axial vantage points at Pomona College
Original courtyard from the Pomona College of Art - 1950s
The original Pomona College Museum of Art was centered around a courtyard, playing on the meaningful spatial themes of elongated vantage points and open green spaces of Hunt’s Master Plan. In celebrating this history, the new Benton Museum is organized as a series of architectural volumes, pavilions, and pathways that similarly frame a central courtyard.
Illustrated plan of the Benton Museum of Art
Materiality
The building is a cast-in-place concrete structure, inspired by the consistent use of concrete architecture across Pomona College. Throughout the campus, concrete is used in both historic and contemporary structures and rendered to recreate the stylistic formulations of everything from the neo-gothic to Romanesque, and from renaissance, to high-modern. At the Benton Museum, board-formed and smooth concrete textures differentiate areas of the building, creating an overall contemporary aesthetic that distinguishes the building from other campus facilities.
Inset bench on the north side of the Benton Museum
A grand portico surrounds the central courtyard on three sides and is both a means of access to the building and a frame for the courtyard. The portico consists of variations on the interplay between the concrete and heavy-timber Western Red Cedar posts and beams. In some instances, the portico bay is an independent element with a pre-cast concrete or wood trellis canopy set against the concrete walls, in other instances two of the four posts of a portico bay are embedded into the concrete wall. The portico is thus an in-situ demonstration of the transformation from something of structural necessity to a purely ornamental element.
View of the central courtyard with the generously glazed Art Hall beyond. Photo credit, EPT Design
(left) View of the main entrance; (right) Underneath the portico
Sustainability is central to the Benton Museum, along with the production of all the buildings on Pomona’s campus. Machado Silvetti incorporated recycled and locally sourced materials, innovative wall and roof assemblies, sustainable materials and other high performance mechanical systems, landscape features and natural ventilation strategies that reduce energy consumption while improving human comfort. The Benton Museum is a LEED-NC Version 3 Gold certification holder and will contribute to Pomona College’s goals of reducing building energy by 15%.
(left) View of courtyard
Animated spatial relationship diagram of the Benton Museum of Art
Project Credits
The Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College was a collaborative effort involving Design Architect Machado Silvetti of Boston, and Executive Architect Gensler of Los Angeles. Machado Silvetti was responsible for the conceptual basis and the architectural design and details and worked closely with the Gensler L.A. team to develop the design, coordinate all systems and deliver the finished project.
Owner: Pomona College
Design Architect: Machado Silvetti
Architect of Record: Gensler, LA
General Contractor: Hathaway Dinwiddie Construction Co.
Structural Engineer: Nabih Yousseff Associates Structural Engineers
Civil Engineers: KPFF Engineers
MEP/FP: Buro Happold Consulting Engineers, Inc.
Lighting Design: LAM Partners
Audio- Visual; Security: Charles M. Salter Associates, Inc.
Specifications: AWC West
Waterproofing: SGH
Vertical Transportation: HKA Elevator Consulting
Code Consultants: Younghusband Consulting
Cost Consultant: C.P. O’Halloran Associates
Landscape Architects: EPT Design
Photographs: Richard Barnes (unless otherwise, noted)
*All drawings are attributable to Machado Silvetti and Gensler, LA. Special thanks to Jamie Dondero and Michael J. Farris for their assistance in creating this project story.
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