Parrish Art Museum | Herzog & de Meuron

The Parrish Art Museum by Herzog & de Meuron, is an art museum that moved in 2012 from Southampton Village to Water Mill, New York. The museum focuses extensively on work by artists from the artist colony of the South Shore (Long Island) and North Shore (Long Island). The museum encountered opposition to its plans to modernize and enlarge its historic Jobs Lane complex.In 2005 the Museum purchased a 14-acre (57,000 m2) site in Water Mill, New York for $3.8 million on the site of a former tree nusery immediately adjacent to the Duck Yard Vineyard winery 2.3 miles (3.7 km) from the original location on Jobs Lane, Southampton, for $3.8 million.

The museum board’s decision was the new Parrish Museum was not to take the form of an extension of the existing building of 1897, but was to be designed as a new complex on a new and undeveloped site. Chosen from a list of 65 architect candidates, Pritzker Prize winners Herzog & de Meuron were engaged to develop a new building for the site. The original plan Herzog plan called for an $80 million village 62,974 square foot museum consisting of 30 modest, low-slung buildings, The buildings were to resemble the studios of area painters. However financing fell apart in the Financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the museum dramatically downsized to be less than a third ($26.2 million) of the original budget.

The new structure is designed as a gigantic barn[13] 634 feet long and 94 feet wide. It has poured concete walls. It has 37,300 square feet of gallery space — more than twice the Jobs Lane site, a 6,000 square foot porch as well as educational and multi-purpose spaces. Inside, the single-floor museum is structured in a very simple way, with public functions (such as reception, store, and café) to the west, administrative offices and art handling to the east, and the galleries, arrayed in two parallel bars, on either side of a central hall with moveable walls. There are seven galleries, totaling 7,600 square feet, for the permanent collection, and three for temporary exhibitions. All of the galleries are illuminated by daylight that shifts gradually throughout the day and changes with the seasons.

The building which parallels the Montauk Highway to the south and the Long Island Rail Road tracks to the north is said to have been situated so it can catch the “Hamptons light” which is said to be a reason for the area’s popularity as an artist colony (its location about a mile from the Atlantic Ocean to the south and two miles from the Little Peconic Bay to the north). It officially opened on November 10, 2012. The first temporary exhibit was by Malcolm Morley who has a home in Bellport, New York.

Project Info:
Architecture: Herzog & de Meuron (Jacques Herzog-Pierre de Meuron)
Location: Water Mill / United States
Photography: matthu placek
Year: 2012
Work started in: 2008
Work finished in: 2012
Client: Parrish Art museum
Status: Completed works
Type: Museums