Modern Wing at the Art Institute, Chicago

by Jonathan McGaha | June 8, 2011 12:00 am

The $294 million, 264,000-square-foot addition to the Art Institute of Chicago makes the museum the second largest in the United States. Designed by Pritzker Prize-winning architect Renzo Piano, the Modern Wing is an architectural wonder where everything appears to levitate. The stairs and walls are slightly separated from the ground; a “flying carpet” runs across the top of the building; a bridge connecting the museum to a nearby park seems to be suspended in air; and steel support columns reach the ground as only small points.

The “flying carpet” is a 46,836-square-foot steel canopy that goes over the top of the entire east side of the three-story building and features angled aluminum blades from Sapa Building Systems that act as a shading system for the skylit roof surface. Josef Gartner USA provided the skylights.

Additionally, decorative elements inside the building-stairs, handrails, guardrails-are all steel. Custom extruded aluminum profiles were used to create a wall base and corner trim system, along with a trim system around the doors. Another major element of the Modern Wing is a double façade exterior curtainwall system featuring metal from Josef Gartner USA and glass from Interpane. Balanced doors from Ellison Bronze Inc. are used throughout the building to match the exterior curtainwall. Elevators are outfitted with metal mesh from GANTOIS, and an interior curtainwall from Technical Glass Products helps maintain unobstructed views from inside the building to the exterior gardens.

The 620-foot-long Nichols Bridgeway which connects the third floor of the Modern Wing with Chicago’s Millennium Park, was partly inspired by the hull of a boat. The rounded “hull” of the bridgeway is made of structural steel from Industrial Steel Construction painted white, and the walking surface is textured aluminum planking from Bayards Aluminium Constructies B.V. The railings are made of steel and wood, and filled in with stainless-steel mesh panels.

Originally published: November 2009
Owner: Art Institute of Chicago
Design architect: Renzo Piano Building Workshop, Paris
Architect of record: InterActive Design Inc., Chicago
Program manager: RISE Group LLC, Chicago
Construction manager: Turner Construction, Chicago
Balanced doors subcontractor: MTH Industries Inc., Hillside, Ill.
Interior curtainwall and glazing subcontractor: Harmon Inc., Eden Prairie, Minn.
Miscellaneous metals subcontractor: Meccor Industries Ltd., Skokie, Ill.
Structural steel subcontractor: Construction Systems Inc., Maple Plain, Minn.
Aluminum blades: Sapa Building Systems, Lichtervelde, Belgium, www.sapagroup.com
Balanced doors: Ellison Bronze Inc., Falconer, N.Y., www.ellisonbronze.com
Elevator metal mesh: GANTOIS, Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, France, www.gantois.com
Exterior curtainwall metal, skylights and flying carpet: Josef Gartner USA, Chicago, www.josef-gartner.de
Exterior curtainwall glass: Interpane, Lauenförde, Germany, www.interpane.com
Interior curtainwall glass and metal: Technical Glass Products, Snoqualmie, Wash., www.fireglass.com
Metal decking: Bayards Aluminium Constructies B.V., Nieuw-Lekkerland, Netherlands, www.bayards.nl
Nichols Bridgeway steel: Industrial Steel Construction, Gary, Ind., www.iscbridge.com
Steel columns and horizontal supports: TEMSAN Inc., Istanbul, Turkey, www.temsan.info

Source URL: https://www.metalarchitecture.com/projects/modern-wing-at-the-art-institute-chicago/

---