The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kanas City, Missouri, has announced the six finalists that will be moving to the second stage of an international competition seeking design teams for a planned expansion project with an estimated construction budget of $160–170 million.
When the competition launched in October, organizers envisioned that five shortlisted firms would advance to the next round. However, in “recognition of the high-quality of submissions,” the museum is now proceeding with six finalists from a total first-stage pool of 182 teams hailing from 30 countries. The finalists are no strangers to high-profile cultural commissions. Two of the firms in the running hail from outside of the United States—Tokyo’s Kengo Kuma and Associates and Genoa- and Paris-based Renzo Piano Building Workshop—while the remaining four are U.S.-based: Selldorf Architects, Studio Gang, Weiss/Manfredi, and WHY.
“The invitation to envision our future was a call-out to creativity,’ said Nelson-Atkins director and CEO Julián Zugazagoitia in a press statement. “We’re at an invigorating moment for the museum. Though this is a complex project requiring deep analysis and rigor around the budget, all options are on the table. We want the finalist teams to make bold design moves and challenge the brief, while also respecting the existing museum spaces.”
Notably, the 91-year-old Nelson-Atkins, famed for its encyclopedic collection that includes more than 42,000 objects, completed a major expansion project in the not-so-distant past: 2007’s Bloch Building designed by Steven Holl. That project joined the museum’s original 1933 Beaux-Arts building designed by Kansas City firm Wight & Wight.
The planned expansion will yield a new addition (or ensemble of additions) of approximately 61,000 square feet; the scope of the project also entails a partial renovation of the 1933 building as well as an “activation and amplification” of the larger museum campus, which includes a 22-acre sculpture park.
“The interest in this project is a recognition of how the acclaimed Bloch Building expansion captured the public imagination and was pivotal for the Nelson-Atkins in increasing museum attendance and access,” added Zugazagoitia.
As previously reported, highlights of the new addition(s) will include a primary entrance and welcome foyer, a photography center, new featured exhibition galleries, learning and engagement spaces, a black box-style theater, and a restaurant for indoor/outdoor dining and events.
Each finalist team will receive a competition fee of $75,000 for their design work when the competition, organized by Malcom Reading Consultants, concludes with the selection of the winner, which will take place in spring 2025. The museum will also host a public exhibition next spring featuring the finalists’ design concepts. Prior to that, on December 12, Zugazagoitia will lead an “architectural finalists showcase” in which representatives from each shortlisted firm will be on hand to present previous work and describe their general approach. While that event is a paid, ticketed affair open to the community, general admission to the museum is free of charge.
