It was three years in the making and cost $44 million, but LouisKahn's temple of art, the Yale University Art Gallery, was open forreview Thursday for a nearly daylong stream of media members andluminaries. The real critics - the public - will get their first viewof the renovation Dec. 10, when the university celebrates with a12:45 p.m. ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1111 Chapel St. and a series ofevents, including lectures and screenings.
"Take a New Look" banners were festooned the length of thebuilding, which is as shiny and polished as it was when it opened in1953 to strong reactions. The naysayers criticized it for its radicaldeparture from Yale's neo-Gothic architecture. Others loved the boldstatement of blank walls facing Chapel Street and the extensive useof gray concrete interior walls that to others seemed too cold towarm up priceless paintings.
But gallery officials and architects from the New York City firmof Polshek Partnership Architects understood the genius of thedesign, despite flaws that caused some major problems over the years.They rectified those while keeping Kahn's famous tetrahedral-ceilingand geometric-influenced design intact, and, in fact, improved itwith modern technology.
"This stunning renovation of the Kahn building is a powerfuldemonstration of the broader revitalization of the arts at Yale,"said Yale President Richard Levin.
Part of the renovation was demanded by the vicissitudes of timeand wear, most particularly to the famous York Street curtain wall ofwindows, which, over time, developed breaks in the seals that causedsevere condensation problems, fog and curators' hearts to stop overthe amount of humidity being generated in exhibition spaces. They arenow at a temperate 68 degrees and 50 percent humidity.
"There were a lot of things wrong when we took the windows apart,"said Duncan Hazard, chief architect of the project. "There had notbeen space built in enough to allow for expansion, and the wall wasnot designed to contemporary wind codes."
It was changed to a "thermally broken wall, so outside metal isseparate from the inside metal and not susceptible to temperaturechanges," said Hazard. Aluminum also replaced the temperature-conducting steel.
Another major component of the project was to expand the area forthe gallery's collections, again, restoring Kahn's original vision ofopen spaces, which had been squeezed by the demands of office andclassroom space required for a teaching institution. That has beendone dramatically.
The second floor houses the vastly expanded African art collection(586 pieces), and the Asian collection, which doubled in size. Neatlyjuxtaposed with each other on the third floor are the early Europeanand modern and contemporary art collections, while the fourth floorhas expansive temporary exhibition space and a section of prints,photographs and drawings replete with media facilities and offices.
"I think Louis Kahn would be really pleased with how we have dealtwith the functionality in this beautifully restored gallery," saidJock Reynolds, the director of the gallery.
Visitors enter the Chapel Street entrance into an expansive lobbythat sits between a media center/lounge and a 3,500-square-foottemporary exhibition space, featuring its first exhibit, "Respondingto Kahn: A Sculptural Conversation," curated by Yale students.
Project contractors refired matching bricks and took to theInternet to find new mesh for the stair rails (vegetable steamermaterial from France). The mechanical systems have also beenupgraded. Kahn's tetrahedral ceilings housed the lighting and heatingelements, but replacing them without tearing the concrete apart wasan engineering Rubik's Cube. Now every compartment, rather than everyother one, has a light, allowing greater flexibility and enhancedlighting for exhibition spaces.
For years, many pieces of the collections sat in storage becausethe elevator was too small to get them beyond the first floor. Thenew elevator is three times the size, thanks to the relocation ofmechanicals to the roof and basement, allowing the gallery to bringout many pieces never seen before.
Those who prefer stairs will find Kahn's triangular-shapedstairway in a cylindrical space remains one of the highlights of thebuilding.
The expansion project continues with the renovation of theSwartwout building and Street Hall, which will allow the gallery toextend a block and a half along Chapel Street by 2011.
Donna Doherty may be reached at 789-5672 orddoherty@nhregister.com.
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