Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - Construction for the $230 million expansion project at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum along Elmwood Avenue is in its final stages after more than three years in the making.
"We could not be more excited as Team AKG," said Janne Sirén, Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. "We broke ground in November of 2019, five months later, COVID made landfall in the United States and we had to deal with all those issues that the pandemic brought with it. But we were able to pursue construction through the pandemic, and now we are two months from the opening day. So it is truly an exciting moment. I ask all of your listeners to pray for good weather, because it will make our site work much easier to complete when it's sunny skies."
Listen to WBEN now!
After being temporarily closed during the ongoing construction, the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is slated to re-open to the public on June 12, 2023. However, the plans were forced to be altered for a number of different reasons from when ground broke on the project across from the SUNY Buffalo State Campus.
"Our original opening date pre-pandemic, or pre-full impact of the pandemic, was November of 2022. Then in January of 2022, due to supply chain disruptions, we punted the opening by six months from November of '22 to the end of May. And because of [Winter] Storm Elliott, basically we lost 2-3 weeks, [so] we adjusted the opening date from May 25 to June 12," Sirén detailed.
The expansion project set for completion in June modernizes the museum’s campus with the construction of a new building on the Northwest corner of the campus, the Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building. It will add 30,000 square-feet of gallery space for the museum’s world-renowned modern and contemporary art collection.
Meanwhile, the courtyard of the museum’s existing Seymour H. Knox Building will be covered with new artwork by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces. The project also includes substantial updates to the Robert and Elisabeth Wilmers Building, originally completed in 1905, preserving its architecture, while also making the spaces more accessible and visitor friendly.
In addition, the campus will see enhanced landscaping with the addition of the Great Lawn in front of the Wilmers Building. It will sit as a centerpiece to the new and old museum buildings, serving as both a destination itself and a gateway to all the renovated AKG Museum has to offer. Replacing the old surface lot, the greenspace will re-connect the museum to the Elmwood Village neighborhood and SUNY Buffalo State University, it will re-claim areas of Delaware Park on the West side of the museum.
Related
Aside from what the newly renovated museum will feature on the outside, Sirén says plenty of people in the community are also looking forward to what will be featured to see inside come June.
"We asked this question from our community, even before we started construction: 'What do you want to see?' And everybody wanted to see more of the collection," he said. "Our opening here will be a display only of the collection. It will present more than 400 works from the collection in all of the buildings, ranging from the beloved Mirrored Room, to a room of impressionist and post-impressionist art, all the way to recent acquisitions that no one has seen yet."
With the museum being closed to the public since major construction started on site, there could be some concern about the potential for lost enthusiasm for the gallery, especially following the pushbacks the museum has been forced to make due to issues along the way. While Sirén is uncertain how visitation will be once the museum is back open for the public, he says based on the queries they are getting and the number of media interview requests they have, they expect to be very busy come the summer months.
"I can only assess people's reactions, really, from the hard hat tours I have given, and I think I've given more than 100 of them during the course of this project, more recently than in the early phases of it now that we've been able to sort of tour the interior of the building with individuals who have either contributed to the project, or have otherwise had an interest. I hear a lot of 'Oohs' and 'Ahhs', I hear a lot of 'Wows' and 'Amazings'," Sirén said. "What people are particularly taken by is the new vistas that the new building will open to Delaware Park. You see our community in part of Buffalo from an entire new vantage point through the glass windows of the Gundlach Building. And you have this beautiful John J. Albright glass bridge that connects the neoclassical Wilmers Building to the new Gundlach Building, and that bridge, in itself, is a sculptural artwork, I would call it. It's a part of architecture, but it really is an artwork in its own right. I imagine that children of all ages will love walking through that bridge around this grove of oak trees that grows over there in its middle."
So how close is the Buffalo AKG Art Museum to being ready to welcome visitors back to their galleries? Sirén says they're already in the works of putting the artwork in place for show.
"Inside the Wilmers Building, the neoclassical building, art installation is in progress. More than 200 works of art have been installed already, and installation of art in this building will be complete in the next 10 days," he said. "At that point, we will pivot the art installation effort to the Gundlach Building, and that one will then be the last one to be installed. Then we are ready for the public."
With the new Gundlach Building, Sirén says it can hold more than 160 artworks on its three floors, thanks to its large galleries with 16-to-18-foot ceilings. This will allow for the works of art in the Gundlach Building to be larger.
While there is plenty in store for visitors when it opens its doors come June 12, people are encouraged to visit the Buffalo AKG Art Museum's website to stay on top of all the happenings slated on the calendar.
"There is so much planned, you should just keep an eye on our website," Sirén said. "There will be music, performances, tours, picnic opportunities. I think it's going to be a bustling place during this coming summer.
"I want to thank every Western New Yorker for being with us during this project, for your patience with living amidst a construction site if you've been driving on Elmwood Avenue. We apologize for these disruptions, but we are grateful for your patience, for your support, and we look forward to welcoming you to the Buffalo AKG."
Related
