North Carolina Museum of Art
Thomas Phifer and Partners

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners
The North Carolina Museum of Art (NCMA) recently revealed the design for its new building, to house the institution's permanent collection, the renovation of the existing Edward Durrell Stone building, and the nation's largest museum park.

The new NCMA building is a low, single-story pavilion that merges visually with the rolling green surroundings.The building will be clad in satin polished stainless steel panels flush-mounted to seamlessly and softly reflect the landscape and changing conditions of sky and atmosphere to ethereal effect.

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners

The new building was designed to sit very softly and gently upon a natural carpet.

/Thomas Phifer

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and PartnersSouth Elevation

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and PartnersWest Elevation

A revolutionary system of rhythmic vaults and coffers bring nature inside the entire building by capturing daylight through highly engineered, glass-enclosed occuli.


Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners

To control the light falling through the coffers, the design team has created a unique system in each oculus to block, filter, and then softly direct the light that is allowed into the galleries. Various combinations of these elements will allow the Museum to effectively dial up or dial down the natural light allowed into the galleries, supplementing it with electric lighting.


Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners
The Lobby in the new building will house the information desk, a museum shop, a café, and provide immediate visual access to art installed in the long Central Hall of the Permanent Collections Galleries.

Works by Rodin will be installed at the end of the Central Hall, where a clear glass window wall will offer vistas onto gardens, more Rodin works, and the unfolding landscape in the distance.


Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners
The existing Edward Durrell Stone (1983) building will be upgraded to house temporary exhibition galleries, expanded education program spaces, new collection management facilities, and staff offices. The renovation will provide visual and physical coherence with the NCMA museum park.

A new arrival Plaza, conceived as a hub for the ensemble of new and existing components, will unify the new Phifer building, the Stone building, the existing outdoor amphitheater, designed in 1997 by Smith-Miller Hawkinson Architects, with artist Barbara Kruger, the gardens, art park, and parking areas.


Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners
The roof system was developed by the Phifer office in collaboration with electric lighting consultants at Fisher Marantz Stone of New York and daylight engineers at Ove Arup of London.


Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners

Image courtesy Thomas Phifer and Partners
The NCMA houses the art collections of the State of North Carolina. Today the Museum's permanent collection spans more than 5,000 years, from antiquity to the present, making it a premier cultural destination in the southeastern United States.
The institution's completed campus will be the nation's largest art museum park, with walking paths, bike trails, ecological projects conceived with artists, and site-specific commissioned works in a rolling green landscape fringed by pine woods.