Studio Gang

The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA), the largest cultural institution of its kind in the state, will re-open on April 22, 2023 in a newly transformed building designed by Studio Gang. The institution's new home represents the first completed art museum for the international architecture and urban design practice led by Studio Gang. AMFA has been closed to the public since 2019 while it underwent its major expansion and renovation.

Studio Gang’s design creates a 133,000-square-foot building that embraces the surrounding city and park while also establishing a bold new architectural identity for AMFA. The design revitalizes the Museum’s eight existing structures, which were built in different eras and architectural styles, by reconfiguring them in a way that allows them to work together as a cohesive building. It also introduces an addition that runs through the center of the entire building like a stem, unifying and reorganizing the Museum’s existing functions and enabling a seamless flow through the building and across the site.

Both inside and outside, the organic, curving form of the central stem responds directly to the constraints of the existing structure and foundations, which were substantially preserved as part of the design’s sustainable approach. Its distinctive roof is an innovative, folded-plate structure made of cast-in-place concrete. Stepping down in height with the site’s topography, its clerestory windows fill the interior of the museum with natural light, while its sheltering overhangs protect from the heat of the sun.

Inside, the design establishes and clarifies connections between the museum’s diverse program. Its dynamic wood ceiling, composed of individually suspended wood slats arranged in a linear pattern, helps intuitively guides visitors through the spaces that branch off from the central addition’s Atrium. These include the Harriet and Warren Stephens Galleries, which will display elements from the permanent collection as well as host temporary exhibitions; the Windgate Art School, which includes eight new art studios for students of all ages and skillsets; the 350-seat Performing Arts Theater, Museum Store, and lecture hall.

At each end, the central stem appears to blossom outward, opening the museum to its surroundings and welcoming the public in. To the north is the Cultural Living Room, a hovering, transparent volume that serves as a community gathering space and as a beacon that welcomes visitors to AMFA. To the south, the deep overhangs of the roof create a sheltered dining terrace for the new indoor-outdoor restaurant that steps down to meet MacArthur Park.

The design also treats architecture and landscape as intrinsically linked. An 11-acre renewed landscape, designed by SCAPE, extends the Museum experience into the outdoors, bringing a biodiverse array of new plantings that provide shade and beauty for indoor/outdoor social spaces, as well as new paths that allow the public to enjoy nature and view outdoor sculptures.

In addition to providing shade and improving the building’s energy performance, the distinctive pleats on the Museum’s roof are also designed to direct rainwater into the rain gardens next to the building. These gardens capture and filter the water before distributing it throughout the MacArthur Park landscape and, eventually, into Foster Pond at the south end of the site.