Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo Museum of Art

Toledo, OH
The Glass Pavilion, a new 70,000 sf building at the Toledo Museum of Art designed by the internationally renowned firm SANAA and in conjunction with Kendall/Heaton Associates, was completed in August of 2006. The pavilion houses the museum’s vast collection of glass artworks and serves as a tribute to the art of glass making itself. Amorphous and undulating interior walls of glass within a glass box mimic the fluidity and translucence of the material. With hardly a line of detraction, a flat roof sits atop the glass walls of a single floor at grade level. The simplicity and purity of the design posed a great challenge to properly accommodate the mechanical systems and equipment without jeopardizing the inherent translucency of the overall design. The lightness of the roof and structure necessitated all mechanical systems to be buried in a basement below, located in a nearby building, or hidden in carefully designed structural elements. The building sits on a pleasantly wooded area of the museum campus and includes two more opaque galleries for more light sensitive works. These solid white forms also serve to anchor the structure visually.

Size: 70,000 sf
Completion: 2005
Architect: Kendall/Heaton Associates, SANAA
Engineer: Cosentini Associates