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Autry picks Texas design firm
By Suzanne Muchnic
Times Staff Writer
From: Los Angeles Times
Calendar Section, March 7, 2005The Autry National Center — formed two years ago by a merger of the Museum of the American West (formerly the Autry Museum of Western Heritage) and the Southwest Museum of the American Indian — has selected Overland Partners Architects to develop a master plan and design a greatly expanded facility for its 10-acre campus in Griffith Park. A major portion of the project will be devoted to displaying and storing the Southwest Museum's vast collection of art and artifacts, amassed at its historic home on Mount Washington.
"We chose Overland Partners because of they way they think," Autry President and CEO John L. Gray said of the San Antonio, Texas-based firm. "They understand the Autry National Center's large idea — that a convergence of diverse cultures shaped the American West. We think they will develop a design that will allow the value of that idea to come through."
Overland was singled out in a search that narrowed a slate of 17 firms to four finalists. The others are Michael Maltzan Architecture and Lake/Flato of Los Angeles and Antoine Predock of Albuquerque. Currently working on a Chickasaw Indian Nation cultural center in Sulphur, Okla., Overland has designed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, a master plan for the San Antonio Museum of Art, and The Wildlife Experience, a museum near Denver. "We have been involved in a lot of cultural projects that tell pieces of the story of the West," said Bob Shemwell, a principal at Overland Partners. "The Autry is a unique place where all those pieces come together and you see the whole picture."
Overland's plan, to be presented to the Autry board of trustees by the end of the year, will enlarge the existing 148,000-square-foot building by at least 100,000 square feet.
The new structure will include about 20,000 square feet of galleries, 30,000 square feet of storage and a 50,000-square-foot study center that will house the two museums' libraries. Construction is expected to begin in 2006 and continue for two or three years.
The Autry is engaged in a $100-million fundraising drive to increase its endowment, renovate the Southwest's building and expand the Griffith Park facility. The budget for the Griffith Park project is being developed, the architects and museum representatives said.
[press release]
Autry National Center Commissions Overland Partners Architects
to Design New Buildings and Galleries at Los Angeles Campus
Design will highlight collection of Southwest Museum of the American Indian
and expand Center’s Research Institute and LibraryLOS ANGELES (March 7, 2005) — The Autry National Center has selected Overland Partners Architects, an award-winning firm based in San Antonio, Texas, to develop a master plan and design new buildings and expanded galleries for the multicultural history center’s campus in Los Angeles’s Griffith Park. The project will physically merge the multiple institutions that have come together in recent years to form the Autry National Center. A large portion of the Autry’s expansion will be dedicated to the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, quintupling the gallery space currently devoted to its world-class collection.
Overland Partners was awarded the commission after a focused search for an architectural firm with proven experience in designing museums, working with natural materials, and designing sustainable buildings. Overland’s portfolio includes the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin, Texas; a seven-phase master plan for the San Antonio Museum of Art featuring new wings to house the museum’s collections of Latin American and Asian art; The Wildlife Experience, an art and conservation museum near Denver; a transit center for Grand Canyon National Park; and a cultural center in Sulphur, Oklahoma, to highlight the heritage of the Chickasaw Indian Nation.
“The architects of Overland Partners understand and celebrate the convergence of diverse cultures that shapes the American West, and can translate that convergence into a design for the Autry National Center that is respectful of the past, enduring for the future, and connected to the earth,” said John L. Gray, President and CEO of the Autry National Center.
Overland Partners has been charged with creating a master plan for the Center’s 10-acre campus in Griffith Park that incorporates new buildings with the Center’s existing facilities, chiefly the Museum of the American West. Opened in 1988, the museum’s existing 148,000-sq.-ft. structure along Interstate 5 expresses the California Mission style in a contemporary context.
Overland will work over the coming months to design an expansion comprising approximately 20,000 sq. ft. of galleries to exhibit and interpret the collection of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, an arm of the Autry National Center that is currently located about seven miles southeast of the Griffith Park campus in the Mt. Washington area of Los Angeles. An additional 30,000 sq. ft. of underground storage at the Griffith Park campus will securely house the remainder of the Southwest’s collection, most of which will be visible to museum visitors.
The Southwest’s cramped buildings in Mt. Washington, dating to 1914, have deteriorated to a point that threatens the museum’s holdings. Relocating to Griffith Park will result in more than five times the current gallery space to showcase a collection of Native American art and artifacts that is considered one of the largest and most significant in the world. Los Angeles architect Brenda Levin and urban planner Fred Glick are exploring potential future uses of the 12-acre Mt. Washington campus, whose buildings are listed in the National Register of Historic Places.
In Griffith Park, approximately 50,000 sq. ft. of the Overland-designed master plan will be dedicated to the Institute for the Study of the American West, with large spaces for the Autry Library and the collections of the Braun Library, which is currently located at the Mt. Washington site. Incorporated as well will be classrooms, seminar and symposium rooms, and research offices for the Institute’s scholars.
A new visitor services center and an expanded museum store and cafe will also be components of the new design. Anticipating growth beyond this first phase, the master plan will include plans for an expansion of the exhibition space and storage for the Museum of the American West. The master plan will be devised to have minimal impact on the Griffith Park campus’s lawn and other natural areas.
“These new buildings will help fulfill the Autry’s mission to be an accessible, enlightening, inspiring, and nationally respected center of exploration of the American West. Moving the Southwest’s art and artifacts to a larger space, with the participation and guidance of the Native American community, will provide a proper home for the extraordinary collection,” said Autry National Center Trustee Tally Mingst, who served on the architectural selection committee. “Overland Partners’ extensive work for cultural institutions demonstrates their understanding of how architecture can tell multiple stories and offer a variety of experiences to visitors.”
To select an architect, a committee of Autry trustees and staff reviewed 17 responses to a request for qualifications sent out in September 2004. The field was winnowed to six, and committee members and staff visited the offices and past projects of the firms. In late November, four finalists were asked to develop a presentation: Overland Partners, Michael Maltzan Architecture of Los Angeles, Lake/Flato Architects of San Antonio, and Antoine Predock Architect of Albuquerque. All four firms sent representatives to visit the Autry and tour the buildings and collections, and, in turn, selection committee members and staff visited more of the architects’ past projects. In early February, the finalists returned to the Griffith Park campus to present their approaches to a design solution for an education pavilion.
“Overland Partners will collaborate with the Autry National Center to create a new facility that weaves individual threads of diverse cultures into a unified architectural expression of the Center’s mission,” said Tim Blonkvist, FAIA, a principal at Overland Partners. “To better integrate the Autry with the landscape of Griffith Park, my partners and I plan to use natural materials extensively, in a way very much in keeping with the story that the Autry is trying to tell.”
Overland will begin work immediately on designs for the Autry National Center, with the goal of presenting a final design to the Autry’s Board of Trustees by the end of 2005. Construction is anticipated to begin in 2006.
# # #
Contacts:
Massie Ritsch Jay Aldrich
Sugerman Communications Group Autry National Center
310.689.7538 323.667.2000, ext.329
massie@sugermangroup.comjaldrich@autrynationalcenter.org
Websites:
www.autrynationalcenter.org
www.overlandpartners.com
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