Farnsworth Art Museum

Rockland, Maine

The Farnsworth Art Museum consists of a variety of buildings, including some historic structures. Schwartz/Silver reconfigured these buildings into a coherent landscaped campus. Parking was organized into a single lot along the side of the site, and facing it is a new, clearly identifiable, glass and steel entrance lobby. The lobby stands between the original main building of the museum and a new building designed in a contrasting vernacular style. This houses a new gallery and a study center, with an attached stone storage building. Across the street at the end of the campus is a former church acquired by the museum and converted, on the suggestion of the Wyeth family, into the galleries that display their work.

Our first goal was to get something that is consistent with the nature of the work and with the Wyeth family’s ideas and tastes. All of us wanted to wind up with buildings that would have a traditional look, but at the same time we knew we would need a cutting-edge architect, or else the results would look contrived. It’s a delicate balancing act, and Schwartz/Silver has been amazingly adept.
— Christopher Crosman, Director, Farnsworth Art Museum

Collaborators

Structural Engineer: Ocmulgee Associates, Inc.
Mechanical and Plumbing Engineer: Allied Engineering
Surveyor: Titcomb Associates
Photographer: © Steven G. Gerrard