Richard Gluckman’s concept design for an addition (left) to the Albright-Knox Gallery
The website of Gluckman Mayner Architects, Richard Gluckman‘s firm, indicates that the Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo, may already be further along than has been publicly disclosed in engaging what the museum’s director recently said would be a “world-renowned architect” to design an expansion.
The above rendering, on the architects’ website (click “Projects” and “Museums”), shows a 42,000-square-foot addition (on left side of the above photo) to the existing museum. As described by the architects, it “reorients the institution towards Delaware Park, expands public spaces, reorganizes circulation in the 1905 Beaux Arts building and provides additional top-lit exhibition space at the upper level. This design covers the entry courtyard and features a rectangular volume partially wrapped in a glass enclosure, connecting the south side of the Beaux Arts building with a café and event space overlooking Hoyt Lake to the east.”
An alternative Albright-Knox scenario would put the addition off site, involving “the adaptive re-use of the 62,000-square-foot elevated train sides of the Lackawanna Terminal on the Buffalo River. The design features a glass “bar” inserted into the western bay of the shed, creating a clear path of circulation along the river with access to some 42,000 square feet of exhibition space in the adjoining bays.”
Gluckman discusses these plans in a video on the Architecture for Art website.