Yesterday afternoon, Louis Grachos, director of the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, sent me these reactions to Is Richard Gluckman the Albright-Knox Expansion’s “World-Renowned Architect”?:
We took a first step in a long thorough process
by commissioning Richard Gluckman about 1½ years ago to give us
some conceptual drawings as to what a 50,000-square-foot facility to
house our growing collection might look like on our current campus. We
asked him to look at the feasibility of a specific off-site location, as
well. The Gluckman commission was meant to get our board and
staff thinking about the possibilities of an expansion, not as a final
plan.
Now
a committee has been formed to begin the architect search, but we
are at least one year away from selecting an architect. Parallel to
the architect search will be a feasibility study for a capital campaign to fund
the project.The
expansion project had nothing to do with the funds raised from deaccessioning
which are in a restricted endowment for the purchase of art. Under
the best circumstances, this project is at least six to eight years
away from completion.
As
you may know, our last successful expansion took place in 1962 and as our
collection continues to grow the Gallery could benefit from a substantial
increase in space.
Grachos also attached his museum’s Feb. 22 press release (still not posted on its Newsroom website, at this writing), which indicates that in addition to more gallery space, the expansion will likely include “a more functional entrance, improved parking, and a gift shop and restaurant that can be accessed even when the Gallery is closed. The staff, currently spread over three buildings, would be centralized for increased efficiencies.”