Harvard Art Museums Featured in ArchDaily

PAYETTE is honored to be featured in the ArchDaily article, Interventions in Pre-existing Architecture: Adaptive Reuse Projects by Renowned Architects. PAYETTE’s collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop for the Harvard Art Museums was featured as one of the “radical interventions.”

Photo Credit Nic Lehoux

The Harvard Art Museums project consolidates the collection under one roof, creating new opportunities for viewing the museums’ diverse collection and studying interrelationships that were previously obscured as a result of physical separation. New and old are knit together with a glass rooftop addition that provides a new home for a dramatically expanded museum Study Center and the university’s renowned Straus Center for Conservation and Technical Studies.

Technically, this is a project that could not be better suited to our practice. Achieving LEED Gold Certification, Harvard aimed for energy performance that has only been reached by a small group of fine arts facilities. And in this case, it was achieved within the context of a historic landmark structure that presents tremendous limitations into what modifications are acceptable and appropriate.

Photo Credit Nic Lehoux

Beyond the signature glass roof structure, which incorporates both interior and exterior shades for solar control, this project includes numerous “inventions” and specialized technologies that are concealed within the walls and under the slabs. From vented slurry walls to 24” thick brick rainscreens, these are the systems that will help an old structure perform as a modern and sustainable museum.