The four story, 117,000-square-foot MIA expansion was organized in two sections on the west side of the site facing Stevens Avenue. A linear addition is located in front of the Tange Wing, along Stevens Avenue and a square block is located to the south fronting onto a garden space.
The whole of the new addition is clad in Jura Beige (layer number 15). Jura Beige stone was selected for its performance in harsh climates as well as its color, which is complimentary to the existing building materials. Subsequently it became apparent that is was cost competitive to North American limestone. The new addition was organized into two parts: one a three story bar paralleling Kenzo Tange’s western wing; and the other a three story volume that terminates circulation from the bar and provides new entries to the Institute.
The central atrium space acts as a turning point in the plan organization of the Institute, providing a foyer to the galleries and study rooms arrayed around it. The atrium space also acts as a space to reorient the visitor at the end of a series of galleries, if the visitor has entered the Institute from the main entrance and approaches the new addition via the galleries. Each of the three atrium level floors are covered in 1 ¼” Jura Beige (layer number 10, Select), Jura Red Brown (layer number 3 -6), Jura Grey Blue (layer number 1 Select) and Brandy Crag, a green English Slate. Set in a pattern of woven Jura Grey Blue bands with Jura Beige square fields the stone floor brings a durable stone floor with a color that is conducive to the art being displayed within the space.
At the lower floor of the three-story atrium is a circular field of stone, aligned with the atrium floor openings, bordered with Jura Grey Blue and filled with a pattern of Jura Red Brown and the English Green Slate. At the western side if the atrium is a three story open stair that connects each of the levels together. The stair’s treads, risers and the railing cap are constructed of Jura Beige to match that of the atrium floor. Around the atrium are the new “white box” galleries that provide a 40% increase in gallery space for the Institute. This addition to the Institute was built to last well into the next century, and the use of Jura Stone on the interior and exterior of the building makes that possible.
After an extensive search by the owner and architects for a stone whose color would be suitable for the context of the addition, the team began to research Jura Stone’s physical properties and buildings where Jura Stone had been erected in Europe and North America. Physical property testing and freeze thaw testing was performed by Wiss, Janney, Elstner Associates of Chicago. Simultaneous to those tests, the owner; architects; testing engineer; construction manager and an independent stone consultant traveled to Eichstatt, Germany to inspect the quarries and the fabrication quality control.
The group also visited a number of buildings in Munich and London, England to see how the stone had performed on buildings over time. What the team found to be particularly convincing were circumstances where a building’s exterior wall had begun to fail, yet the Jura Stone itself had not. The history of the stone’s performance coupled with satisfactory test results allowed the team and owner to proceed with the project development with Jura Beige as the primary exterior cladding. A second stone, Green County Granite, was added along the base of the building to protect the Jura Beige from salt damage, water and biological staining from the ground plane. Columns used within the building’s niches were fabricated from colored pre-cast concrete to match the Jura Beige, as were some secondary panels on the building’s roof. The use of the Jura Beige Stone solved questions of color and performance, but also allowed the building to have a level of visual quality that is unmatched by any other material that was available to the team.
The design of The Minneapolis Institute of Arts exterior wall was a system of prefabricated concrete panels (6” thick) with an exterior cladding of Jura Beige Stone (2” thick). The selection of this system, and its materials, was based upon the desire for an economic means of construction that would perform well for the Institute in the harsh Minnesota climate. JMS Quarriers cut and finished the exterior wall slabs to the architect’s specifications and drilled anchorage holes as specified by the engineers. Slabs were shipped to the United States where they were transferred to the pre-cast concrete company, Gage Brothers of Sioux Falls, South Dakota for assembly. A series of Jura Stone slabs were set into a concrete form, face down, with eight to twelve pieces of Jura stone cast into each pre-cast panel. The panels were then transported by truck to the site in Minneapolis, where they were lifted into place and attached to the building’s concrete frame.
The Addition provided 117,000 SF of new space for the Institute, resulting in a 40% increase in the total gallery space and was completed in December 2005.
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