The Walker also announced it has hired French landscape architect Michel Desvigne to design the landscaping for its expansion project, including a new park that will provide four acres of green space along the western portion of the site.

The architects propose a more subdued approach that includes a distinctive screen of coated glass fiber fabric. The transparent screen would cover the addition's largest element -- a warped cube housing a new performing arts studio. The architects unveiled the plans to a meeting of the Walker's board of directors Monday.

Plans are to double the size of the art center, adding more than 100,000 sf of interior space and 14,000 sf of rooftop space.

Construction on a 700-car underground parking facility, to be owned and operated by the city of Minneapolis, will begin in June. Design refinements for the Walker facility will continue for one year with groundbreaking scheduled for late spring 2003. When completed in 2005, it will be a model 21st-century arts center with audience engagement and experiential learning at its core.

In addition, London-based lighting designer Arnold Chan is also joining the original project team of Jacques Herzog, Christine Binswanger and John Cook. Desvigne,recipient of the Medal of the French Academy of Architecture in 2000, has taught at Harvard University's Graduate School of Design. Desvigne's international landscape projects include the Millennium Park in London's Greenwich Peninsula; the Port Marianne area in Montpellier; and the Jardin James Joyce in Paris' Seine-Rive Gauche area. This will be his first project in the US.

Chan, who is known for his innovative and versatile approach to lighting design, has done projects for the Grand Opera de Lyon (Jean Nouvel, architect); Calvin Klein, Tokyo (John Pawson, architect); and Kenzo, London (David Chipperfield, architect). Chan willdesign the lighting for the galleries, restaurants and public spaces.

Consulting on the planning and design for the performing arts studio is Fisher Dachs Associates, a leading theater planning and design consultant based in New York City.

Instant Insights /

'More Subdued' Plan for $90M Art Center

Related Stories

Recommended For You