Tod Willams Billie Tsien Further Expand the Phoenix Art Museum

It is indeed unusual when an architect gets the opportunity to revisit an earlier commission. But that is exactly when happened to New York architects Tod Williams Billie Tsien when the Phoenix Art Museum hired them for a second time around to expand its museum. The growth of Phoenix and the museum’s popularity led to the need to expand the Museum to include new gallery space, a glass enclosed lobby, a canopied entry plaza, and a one-acre sculpture garden The new $50 million addition provides a 10,000 square foot indoor/outdoor entrance oriented towards a new entry court and more than 30,000 square feet of galleries disposed in a new four-level wing. The addition is connected to the earlier buildings through the use of locally produced precast concrete but this time the green glacier quartz, here in a smaller aggregate size, was used in a dark grey concrete mix to declare its new identity. In addition to the new space, the museum’s courtyard has been fully enclosed and transformed into a sculpture garden. A palo verde tree-shaded entry court and two fountains provide a welcoming entrance to the building.