As visitors pass under the elaborate arch facing Fairmount Avenue, they will enter a beautifully preserved entrance lobby that offers a variety of choices.
Straight ahead, visitors may stroll into the new addition with the café, skylit galleria, and to a suite of galleries, including the Joan Spain Gallery of costume and textiles, the Julien Levy Gallery for photographs, and the Collab Gallery for modern and contemporary design.
Turning left from the lobby, they could enter a rotunda adjoining the museum shop and leading into the expansive gallery for changing installations, which extends the entire length of the Pennsylvania Wing.
The handsome staircase or an elevator from the lobby to the second floor will take visitors to the new library reading room with its views of the park and city.
Walking past the Wachovia Education Resource Center, in which teachers from all over the region will find art information to help them prepare their classes, they will find treasures on view in the study gallery for costume and textiles.
A highlight of Richard Gluckman’s design is the skylit galleria some
35 feet high, 200 feet long and widening to 20 feet across as it meets the lobby and café.
With its terrazzo floor and tilted, corbelled wall, this new space connects the addition with two bridges to the original building along the length of the pre-existing, north-facing exterior brick façade.
It provides dramatic space for a variety of works of art, with a succession of four tall alcoves presenting special opportunities for display.
The space can also be utilized for cocktail parties or catered dinners arranged through the Museum’s catering department.
