Walker Art Center Campus

Walker Art Center Campus

Walker Art Center Campus

Walker Art Center Campus

The landscape design of the Walker Art Center addresses the renowned museum (Barnes, 1971), its extension (Herzog & De Meuron, 2005) and the surrounding greenscape, seeking for an integration between interior and exterior spaces in order to offer an encompassing art experience to enthusiastic visitors.The previously uncharacterized open field is turned into an iconic hill, fulfilling the ambition of the Walker Art Center to become a cultural space that is open to locals and tourists of all backgrounds, whilst giving voice to a variety of artistic expressions ranging from visual arts, to performing arts, film and design. The hill, valued for its openness, flexibility and visibility, acts as a non-volume in countering the imposing mass of the museum buildings. This vast urban landscape is activated through a careful selection of planting, an extensive network of connections and the curated placement of sculptures and installations. Trees and plants are composed as scattered rectangular groupings, each one with a unique identity. These ‘vegetal volumes’, almost like rooms, are linked through paths, ramps, stairs and clear reference points, offering the public a comprehensive spatial experience of ephemeral happenings, works of art, emblematic architecture and the larger urban context. Moreover, the improvement of circulation in the area gives the possibility to introduce new, unexpected viewpoints –especially between inside and outside– and to complement the indoor museum spaces with atmospheric outdoor settings, to be used for open air performances and events.

In the first phase of the project, we had a fruitful collaboration with artist Ai Wei Wei and architect David Adjaye.

44.96845, -93.289195

Collaborators
HGA
Taylor and Miller Architecture and Design
Year of the project conception
2011
Year of completion of the project
2017
COST (€/m²) ($/m²) (€/ha) ($/ha)
146 €/m²
Price category
Articulation
Price subcategory
Jardines espacios de infraestructuras públicas
Surface
2.10
Customer type
Empresa privada
Customer Name
Walker Art Center - Olga Viso, director
U.M.
ha
Address
725 Vineland Pl
Coordinates UTM
Latitud: 44.96845 Longitud: -93.289195
City / Place
Minneapolis
Region
Minnesota
Country
United States