Manassas, VA has recently broken ground on an addition to its Manassas Museum. The museum initially opened as a temporary exhibit in 1974 and was later relocated to downtown Manassas in 1991. The addition is set to open in 2023 on the 150th anniversary of the Manassas community.
The Manassas Museum had already had a huge amount of significance in the Historic Downtown, providing space for education, conversation, and a regional connection in the community. As for the addition, the city partnered with GWWO Architects in order to reimagine a renewed civic design.
The renovation will transform the physical relationship between the museum and its lawn by removing an existing isolating courtyard wall. The addition will be situated to engage the community, fully activate the museum green space, and improve visitor flow. The expansion will elevate the museum’s presence, responding to its role as a significant piece of civic architecture while respecting the scale of the historic core and view of the building’s iconic cupola. Visible from the nearby train station, the expansion will attract new visitors to educate them on the story of Manassas.
The addition will flank the building’s existing wings and welcome those arriving downtown. Clad in pre-patinated copper, the form of the special exhibit hall opens to the park creating dynamic views that engage visitors and the community. Transparent glazing along the courtyard will create a continual dialogue between the museum and outdoor spaces.
Renovations to the existing building include a new exhibit space with views into an expanded collections storage area.
The 4,800-sf addition also includes:
- A new exhibit hall
- Offices
- Support space
- An administrative wing located opposite of the new exhibit hall
- A re-envisioned courtyard and amphitheater
- A new entry and corridors with exhibits
Museum sustainable best practices:
- Bird-friendly glazing
- Low-albedo roofing
- LED lighting
- Daylighting in all occupied spaces
- Upgrades to high-efficiency mechanical with energy recovery
On the Building Team:
Owner/Developer: City of Manassas
Landscape Architect: RHI
MEP Engineer: Mueller Associates
Structural Engineer: Thornton Tomasetti
Civil Engineer: Ross-France
Cost Estimator: Forella Group
Geotechnical Engineer: Schnabel
Related Stories
| Aug 11, 2010
Jacobs, HDR top BD+C's ranking of the nation's 100 largest institutional building design firms
A ranking of the Top 100 Institutional Design Firms based on Building Design+Construction's 2009 Giants 300 survey. For more Giants 300 rankings, visit http://www.BDCnetwork.com/Giants
Museums | Aug 11, 2010
Design guidelines for museums, archives, and art storage facilities
This column diagnoses the three most common moisture challenges with museums, archives, and art storage facilities and provides design guidance on how to avoid them.
| Aug 11, 2010
Museum celebrates African-American heritage
The Harvey B. Gantt Center for African-American Arts + Culture recently completed construction on the Wells Fargo Cultural Campus in Charlotte, N.C. Designed by the Freelon Group, Durham, N.C., with Batson-Cook's Atlanta office as project manager, the $18.8 million project achieved nearly 100% minority participation.
| Aug 11, 2010
Design for Miami Art Museum triples gallery space
Herzog & de Meuron has completed design development for the Miami Art Museum’s new complex, which will anchor the city’s 29-acre Museum Park, overlooking Biscayne Bay. At 120,000 sf with 32,000 sf of gallery space, the three-story museum will be three times larger than the current facility.
| Aug 11, 2010
Thom Mayne unveils ‘floating cube’ design for the Perot Museum of Nature and Science
Calling it a “living educational tool featuring architecture inspired by nature and science,” Pritzker Prize Laureate Thom Mayne unveiled the schematic designs and building model for the Perot Museum of Nature & Science at Victory Park in Dallas. The $185 million, 180,000-sf structure is 170 feet tall—equivalent to approximately 14 stories—and is conceived as a large...
| Aug 11, 2010
Piano's 'Flying Carpet'
Italian architect Renzo Piano refers to his $294 million, 264,000-sf Modern Wing of the Art Institute of Chicago as a “temple of light.” That's all well and good, but how did Piano and the engineers from London-based Arup create an almost entirely naturally lit interior while still protecting the priceless works of art in the Institute's third-floor galleries from dangerous ultravio...
| Aug 11, 2010
The Art of Reconstruction
The Old Patent Office Building in Washington, D.C., completed in 1867, houses two Smithsonian Institution museums—the National Portrait Gallery and the American Art Museum. Collections include portraits of all U.S. presidents, along with paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings of numerous historic figures from American history, and the works of more than 7,000 American artists.
| Aug 11, 2010
Silver Award: Please Touch Museum at Memorial Hall Philadelphia, Pa.
Built in 1875 to serve as the art gallery for the Centennial International Exhibition in Fairmount Park, Memorial Hall stands as one of the great civic structures in Philadelphia. The neoclassical building, designed by Fairmount Park Commission engineer Hermann J. Schwarzmann, was one of the first buildings in America to be designed according to the principles of the Beaux Arts movement.
