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Fifteen years after the museum’s original completion, a seamlessly integrated expansion increases gallery and education space while extending Crystal Bridges’ deep integration of art, architecture, and nature.
Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art Expansion
The 114,000-square-foot expansion features a series of new pavilions with galleries, educational spaces, and amenities for visitors. Extending the museum’s original looped circulation, the addition completes a figure-eight across two stream-fed ponds within the ravine. Building on the original design, the expansion is inspired by the Ozark setting and regional building traditions, with exposed southern yellow pine beams, sloping roof forms with extended overhangs, expansive floor-to-ceiling glass, copper cladding, and a series of porches overlooking the museum’s grounds.
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A new bridge provides additional areas to display sculpture, pottery, and glassware and features Quartz and Honey, a 40-seat café where patrons can dine with unobstructed views of the landscape.
The new Contemporary American Art Gallery expands the museum’s permanent collection galleries, creating additional space for works that reflect the breadth and evolution of American art today.
Warm southern light and cool northern light mixes through sculpted ceiling light scoops.
A new temporary exhibition gallery hosts large-scale installations with balanced daylight.
The expansion advances the museum’s mission of arts accessibility, education, and community engagement with a dedicated 14,000-square-foot Learning and Engagement Hub.
With five acres of landscape surrounding the expansion, including streams, gardens, wooded trails, and a 15,000-square-foot pond, the architecture and transparency of the new pavilions maintain the Ozark environment as an active part of the visitor experience.