Phillips Museum of Art
The task at the Phillips Museum at Franklin & Marshall College involved connecting a series of museum functions scattered in a disconnected and undistinguished way within a strongly articulated building designed by Minoru Yamasaki and completed in 1974. The success of the project is in its understanding of the museum’s program, the teaching needs of the faculty, the learning needs of the students, and the college’s institutional goals. We were particularly sensitive to the “bones” of the Yamasaki building as we sought solutions to combining spaces on three levels of the building into a functional and coherent architectural whole. The Phillips Museum seems larger than it is by clearly defining its progression of volumes, and relating strongly to the Yamasaki building internally as well as to the growing cultural activities context within the surrounding Franklin & Marshall campus.
