Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art Addition
Plan for the Museum
The Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design (The RISD Museum) named Machado and Silvetti Associates, as the architects of the Museum’s planned expansion of its Farago wing on the corner of Waterman and Benefit Streets. The expansion will increase the programming space for the contemporary wing of the Museum and will be the first phase of construction completed as part of several projects at RISD. The RISD Center, designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Rafael Moneo will be completed the following year and will expand the Museum’s exhibition areas. The addition will bring higher public visibility to the Museum through a new entrance on Benefit Street in Providence, Rhode Island, and add critically needed educational program space.
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Client: The Rhode Island School of Design
Location: Providence, RI
Year: 2003
Status: Unbuilt
Program
The program calls for a new, prominent public entrance on Benefit Street; a lecture hall seating at least 75; a multi-purpose room of approximately 1,000 sf (divisible into as many as three work areas) that accommodates both wet and dry art activities for the Museum’s K-12 and other education programs; and a dedicated entrance for school tours entering from Waterman Street. While the identity of the Farago Wing needs to be maintained, the program necessarily will include renovations to the Wing in order to make effective exterior and interior connections between it and the new addition as well as effective connections with the sequence of galleries beyond.