54 JEFT GRAND RAPID MUSEUM 
Michigan, USA

Year                     2013
Location              Michigan, USA
Context                international competition
Area                       - - sqm
Program              contemporary museum of art
Team                    Le Quang, Hoang Phuong Lien
Status                    exhibition in Artprize, Michigan

The building

Opened to the public in 1940 with a corner stone date of 1938, 54 Jefferson was designed by Grand Rapids architect Roger Allen.  It was one of the last projects to be funded by the W.P.A. in response to the Great Depression, and served as home to the Grand Rapids Public Museum until 1994.
The exterior is faced on the south and west sides with broad and smooth surfaced limestone above a base of polished black granite.  The main entrance has paired projecting bays on either side of the symmetrically balanced façade.  There are two glass display units framed by the polished black granite flanking the entry, with glass block windows above, and three more display units on the south side of the building.  The simple angular detailing emphasizes the Moderne (late Art Deco) style.

The interior is dominated by a great hall with terrazzo floor enclosed by a second floor balcony.  The glass block windows shed a soft glow of light from the balcony level.  A double staircase leads up to the windows and balcony.  On both floors the great hall leads into exhibition galleries on the north and south sides.  While the original dioramas (in most cases without the exhibited specimens) and display cases remain in most of the galleries, the galleries on the south side of the second floor were removed in the 1970s to accommodate the installation of new exhibits.

In 2000, following the museum’s relocation to a new facility, the Community Archives and Research Center, a state-of-the-art storage facility for the museum’s collection, was opened on a site to the east of 54 Jefferson. An atrium was also added to the rear of 54 Jefferson that connects the two facilities.

INTRO

So, for a renovation project, how to create a vivid world inside its heart? When more than one architect involved in the construction.
We have started museum vision projects for 54 Jefferson with that questions.
For me, the revision job for a historic building is a interesting job. When we started with 54 Jefferson, I was thinking of a contemporary orientation to the museum. What will Architects able to do for a Museum which itself has bearing on historical values. What we can do for a museum which itself is an inherently exhibits the largest, is the most worthy of contemplation. I really feel that when listening to a person’s sharing about his memories of this building. And I went to the most important point in this project.

WHAT IS THE PUBLIC MUSEUM ?

Since the 1960 - 1970 the world began to change radically due to the strong development of electronic technology, digital communications and the internet. This makes changing the way people think about themselves as well as the main concepts about space, place - the crucial factor for the architecture. Has appeared a new sense of geography geopolitical bold colors - more economical than physical characteristics, and less bound to the border, but on the map or boundary regions. Also, the way we approach a space has changed. People have many sources and imagination than ever before, and must be sensitive to the special.
So what is a public museum? For me, it is not a physical form, it must be the result of a conflict between the space and the user’s habits. This is explained by the architects of their focal points in space. In this project, we focus on the release of the barrier between the viewer and 54Jefferson. Create a link way for building to link it to the surrounding area.

A MUSEUM
FIRST OF ALL, IT SHOULD DISPLAY ITSELF

1. Negative & positive: People & artifacts
How to create a relationship between the viewer and the object, typically in the museum, people put objects inside the glass cage. Interaction between the viewer and the object through the glass. However if objects larger than a lot of people, we can not put the object back into the glass box. We decided to reverse this relationship: create one giant frame of glass and put the viewer inside, put the object outside. And by that way, we can keep the old interactive relationship.

master plan

A simple operation to make a
big change for the old building

We live in an age with so much nonlinearity occurs simultaneously at many different locations. We are also in a turbulent era, partly due to the transition between the two millennia. If someone put a question: “What is the Contemporary now ?” Certainly we can not give a simple answer. Ernst Gombrich, in his book Art Story 3 said that: “There is no art, only artists.” Therefore, nothing is too much when we follow him, saying: “No contemporary, just what is happening at present.”
Imagine this building great as one entity. What would you do to change it? A reform from the inside to outside, or a simple operation? I think the key point of the contemporary, that it must stick with history. Back to the 54 Jefferson, observing its main atrium, I have to imagine a simple operation: we cut out the elements of it, and re-release of the atrium ceiling to create a main void , it will be great and full of light. This void will become the stories seemed all conflicts, between the present and the past, between classic and contemporary

PROPOSAL
NEGATIVE & POSITIVE

The renovation includes a new exhibition of contemporary floor is fastened to the former by three atriums. At those atriums, the visitor can enjoy the conflict between elements of contemporary and classical elements. Continuous runs through intersection arrays opposition.

view from main atrium

To minimize the destruction of the old part of the building. We decided to install a new floor in the 3rd floor of the existing building. Its structure is repeated as in the same as downstairs to classic grid column. But we put a system of the light walls and the repeated door and window elements. The intersection space inside the exhibition space for the viewer feel the true face of contemporary elements. We have shown that, It is a completely different way to look despite it seems to repeat the classic elements.
The renovation includes a new exhibition of contemporary floor is fastened to the former by three atriums. At those atriums, the visitor can enjoy the conflict between elements of contemporary and classical elements. Continuous runs through intersection arrays opposition.
This is what we expect.

In summary, when working with this project, we always pay attention to a very flexible relationship between the new and old parts of the building. We give them interlocking, and use those elements in opposition to honoring each other. The history of the building is a showcase of contemporary and respectfully represents the most powerful changes from inside the building. It creates a new order, a new relationship between buildings and public spaces, freeing all links to new building have a new life, it takes place inside the its heart.
By these interactions, we believe that the renovation museum will has new life in its heart . This new life will happen inside and as well as in the surrounding space, even though the building itself is constructed in two different time history.
It always reflect contemporary and classic in the same time

                                                                       negative & positive