2016-2017 ACSA/AISC Steel Design Student Competition

This is a Sculpture Museum located on the campus of the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). The total area of the IMA campus is 152 Acres, which consists of the existing main Art Museum, the 100 acre Art & Nature Park, historic homes and performance spaces. We have proposed a sculpture museum that acts like a link between the main art museum and the Nature Park.

The site for our Sculpture Museum lies between the two and has a canal that flows across the site. This is a contoured site and has total of 60’ drop in elevation. Currently, a visitor has to walk downhill from the main museum and walk across the Waller Bridge to reach the Art and Nature Park.

Our central concept lies in taking best advantage of the topography and scenic vistas found at the site. Firstly, we started off with connecting the highest and the lowest points on site, making the museum span across the canal. But at the same time we made sure not to obstruct the view of the canal. The other idea was to create openings in certain locations of the building so as to have vantage points that offer good views to the rest of the campus. The building form re-enforces the circulation path of the visitors through the building.

Building performance was an important driver for the project. We have a central courtyard and a narrow building width of 45’ to bring natural light into the building. We have used energy analysis software (Sefaira) to develop a high-performance building envelope. We have used steel for the building structure. A radial and a rectangular framed system have been used in combination with 25’ high steel trusses to span across the canal.