Cedar Rapids, IA

Once a modest city-based organization—The Cedar Rapids Art Association—our conceptual planning and design workshops had a major role in the success of its transformation into a regionally prominent art museum. These workshops attracted lead gifts from key donors and coveted collections from the reknowned printmaker, Mauricio Lasansky.

The Cedar Rapids Museum of Art occupies a full city block in the heart of downtown. Connected to the lobby of the new museum, the old Carnegie Library building with its once grand spaces, including the historic Reading Room, was restored and re-purposed for special events, museum store, café, and administrative offices.

The Museum’s most successful architectural achievement is the new gallery spaces; a series of distinct, rectangular rooms tied together by subtle, diagonal pathways of view. In these intimate, accommodating, well-lit galleries, the individual works of art are radiant and engaging. Each holds its own, no matter what its size, chromatic content, or composition.

MUSEUM NEWS