Description

Project description from KMW firm website:

"Located on a magnificent wooded estate endowed with mature trees and views of the adjacent Flints Pond, the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park is a public museum dedicated to contemporary American art. The various aspects of its program are housed in separate buildings on the site with the main galleries in the DeCordova Mansion’s picturesque structure on a hilltop opposite the pond.

A comprehensive masterplan was developed to be accomplished in three phases to address the inadequacies of the physical plant, to improve and expand the educational facilities and renovate the main museum and to add 11,500 sq. ft. of gallery spaces for traveling exhibits. These were provided in a new wing extending outward from the ground floor of the museum descending the hillside to the parking areas, entrance drive and school buildings thus providing a focus and linkage of the various building of the museum compound.

The two gallery levels and the storage level of the wing are entered from a grand staircase placed at one side of the building which follows the slope of the site behind a glass façade and emphasizes the close connection between museum and sculpture park."

Awards:

- 2003 BSA Honor Award for Architecture

Publications:

- Art New England, June 1998

- Banker & Tradesman, April 1998

- The Boston Globe, April 1998

- The Boston Herald, April 1998

See David Dillon, "The Architecture of Kallmann McKinnell & Wood" (2004), pp. 98-101.