Philadelphia Museum’s New Perelman Building: An Irreverent Photo Essay (Part I)

Well, it’s not so new any more, but my Wall Street Journal article on the Philadelphia Museum’s new Perelman Building finally hits the stands today (on the “Leisure & Arts” page of the “Personal Journal” section), so I can now show you and comment about what I saw.
No other U.S. museum boasts an entrance quite as embellished as this (from the original 1927 Art Deco building):

…or an elevator as glitzy as this:

…or a real estate office with such an off-putting name, located right across the street:

To get to the Perelman from the Philadelphia Museum’s main building, you’ll have to dodge some daunting traffic:

…or else arrive from the main building on an old-fashioned tram:

What you see of the flagship museum from the Perelman annex is not too spiffy:

That’s two city benches, urgently in need of repair, in front of the rubble from the excavation for a new museum garage (to be topped, eventually, by a sculpture garden), now under construction:

All right, I know: What you really want to see is Richard Gluckman‘s new architecture and the art installations therein. COMING SOON.