BIG presents $2 billion plans for Smithsonian campus overhaul

A two-storey underground space will also be created, providing visitor services, a cafe and a shop. Existing hard-to-find entrance pavilions will be replaced with glass-walled accesses. News: Bjarke Ingels’ firm has unveiled its plans for a «radical reinterpretation» of the Smithsonian Institution campus in Washington DC, creating new entrances and underground extensions (+ slideshow). «By forging new links between the various technical, programmatic, logistical and curatorial demands, we have created a new landscape of connectivity and possibility. «Bjarke Ingels Group has given us a plan that will offer open vistas, connected museums, galleries bathed in daylight, new performance venues, gardens that invite people into them, and it will visually attract visitors who will have an unparalleled experience,» he said. «The masterplan provides the first-ever integrative vision for the South Mall,» stated Wayne Clough, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. «To resolve the contradictions between old and new, and to find freedom within the boundaries of strict regulation and historical preservation, we have chosen to carefully reinterpret the elements that are already present in the campus,» said Ingels. Meanwhile, the roof of the quadrangle building under the Haupt Garden will be replaced, allowing daylight into the underground complex for the first time. The first works are set to commence in 2016, but a public meeting will be held in December to consider any alternatives. We believe this plan holds the potential to guide the Smithsonian South Mall campus into the future while remaining firmly rooted in its heritage,» he said. «It’s a great honour and a humbling challenge to reimagine one of the most significant American institutions on the front lawn of the nation’s capital,» said Bjarke Ingels, who also recently installed a maze in the city’s National Building Museum. Related story: BIG’s Givskud Zoo makeover to offer «freest possible environment» for animalsThe project will centre around the renovation of the Smithsonian Castle, the red-stone building that currently serves as the Smithsonian’s headquarters, but will also include new mall-facing entrances to the National Museum of African Art and the Arthur M Sackler Gallery.