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Renowned for its collection of modern and contemporary art, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is one of the oldest and most significant public arts institutions in the United States. This expansion - the most significant in the museum’s 161-year history - dramatically enhances the museum campus’s accessibility and relationship with the public, while providing much-needed additional gallery and exhibition space for the display of art, along with new areas for year-round public programming.
The Buffalo AKG Art Museum is both embedded in the tranquility of nature and implanted within the energy of a city. It sits at the northern edge of Buffalo’s historic Delaware Park, designed by Frederick Law Olmsted. Known for its role in the industrial revolution and ongoing revitalization, the city itself has a rich architectural history—from silos and manufacturing facilities to buildings by Eero Saarinen, Louis Sullivan, and Frank Lloyd Wright. Yet despite being in the park, the museum’s two existing buildings sit side-by-side and severed views and access to it from the city, and even from inside the museum itself. This project not only expands the museum to accommodate its growth — but also reconnects it to the park and city and establishes a new openness to public activities.
The Buffalo AKG project involves extensive preservation and renovation work on existing resources, as well as efficiency-enhancing upgrades of existing buildings. An entirely new mechanical plant incorporates highly efficient and sustainable heat pumps, and existing building systems were updated for enhanced performance, including the installation of high-efficiency LED lighting. Sustainability and building performance is an important consideration for the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building as well. A custom digital frit works with interior shading and HVAC to efficiently control solar heat gain and ensure thermal comfort for the building’s occupants despite the cold climate. A new 3400-square-meter lawn replaces an impermeable parking lot, aiding onsite stormwater management.
The project work involved substantial renovations to the museum’s two existing buildings, along with a new signature addition, the Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building, which adds 2,800 square meters of indoor and outdoor exhibition space. Conceived as a transparent counterpart to the more hermetic existing buildings, this new structure presents a wraparound glass veil enclosing a sculpture promenade that visually connects the building with the surrounding park. Key systems including fire protection, radiant heating and cooling, lighting, and shades are seamlessly integrated into the façade structure.
Central to the goal of more closely integrating museum facilities, the new building and the existing, renovated buildings connect through an ADA-compliant enclosed bridge. Weaving around historic oak trees preserved on the site, the bridge facilitates both visitor movement and art handling.
The project also adds green space with an underground parking structure, transforming a surface parking lot into a 3400-square-meter lawn and enabling the restoration of a grand entry stair at the 1905 neo-classical Wilmers building. Another entry point was restored at the 1962 modernist building, enhancing accessibility. The exposed outdoor courtyard is now enclosed by the site-specific installation Common Sky by Studio Other Spaces, facilitating free year-round, public usage. Interior renovations add new classrooms, art studios, and a restaurant, and also update the 350-seat auditorium.
Since reopening in June 2023, more than 115,000 patrons have visited the museum – double its last pre-renovation yearly attendance -- with over 11,000 on opening weekend alone. Speaking about the project, AKG director Janne Siren said, “As much as this monumental building project is a transformative event in the history of the museum, it will also have an immense impact on the cultural life of Buffalo and for all the audiences we aspire to serve inclusively.”
Executive Architect: Cooper Robertson is a leading architecture firm with a diverse body of work. The firm is recognized nationally for design excellence with over 150 major awards for projects that integrate architecture and urban design at many scales, from buildings to public spaces to cities. Cooper Robertson is acknowledged as among the foremost museum planning and design firms in the country and has worked with over 55 museums through their reinvention and expansion, resulting in some of the world’s best museum architecture.
Design Architect: The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. With offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Dubai, OMA has created buildings and masterplans around the world that insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities. OMA New York was established in 2001 to oversee projects in the Americas.
