Parrish Art Museum / Herzog & de Meuron

The new building that will now house the collections of the Parrish Art Museum is designed by Herzog & de Meuron, two miles from the current site in the village of Water Mill, on the north side of Montauk Highway. The fourteen-acre site accommodates the 34,510-square-foot building and the existing landscape. The reserved design is respectful of the landscape and channels the natural beauty through crisp forms and simple materials, while preserving the artistic legacy of the museum.The architects drew their inspiration from the surrounding landscape and their visits to the artists’ studios in Long Island’s East End. This was the starting point for the design of the Parrish Art Museum which began with the basic parameters for a single gallery space, using the proportions of a studio and deriving a simple house section with north-facing skylights. Two of these galleries flank a central circulation spine that produces the simple extruded form of the building. The building has an east-west orientation to take advantage of the natural north light which penetrates the gallery spaces. A sensibility to the environment is developed through the use of large sections of glass that provide broad open views through the museum and onto the landscape, which is designed by Reed Hilderbrand Associates. It is shaped into a meadow features grasses, native wildflowers and a hedgerow of oak and evergreen trees that provide a northern boundary of the site. A shaded porch surrounds the entire building, creating a large public space for visitors.