Under construction
SANAA
Kazuyo Sejima + Ryue Nishizawa
Glass Pavilion
Toledo Museum of Art
Toledo, Ohio

The Glass Pavilion, an annex across the street from the Toledo Museum of Art, will contain an extensive glass art collection, temporary exhibition galleries and glass making facilities.

Image courtesy SANAA

Because of its location, in a park at the southernmost end of a historical Victorian-style housing district, It was necessary to consider both the preservation of the dense growth of 150-year old trees in the park and the surrounding historical neighborhood in conceiving the design.

SANAA designed the museum as a low, single-story pavilion with a series of courtyards open the sky, so that visitors, when inside the building, still feel they are walking under the trees.

Image courtesy SANAA

The visionary programmatic requirement of combining the two somewhat contradictory programs of the “rough” glass making studio and the “refined” museum galleries, showing them both equally and concurrently, was the catalyst for the design.
Bringing the surrounding park into the building, not only visually but also as an experience, adds to the complexity of the floor plan.

Photo courtesy SANAA
Mock-up

The curved glass walls, separating the spaces in the building, give visitors visual contact with the outside, the glass making activities, and the art, at all times.

Image courtesy SANAA
Entrance Foyer

The spaces, each containing a different function, are arranged and shaped to separate gently, but also connect. The “in between” spaces, a result of the independent shapes, function as a dynamic buffer, sometimes emphasizing closeness, something strengthening the distance.
The shape of the walls guide visitors in different directions, creating unique experiences throughout the sequence of spaces.

Image courtesy SANAA
Main foyer

Image courtesy SANAA
Hotshop

The approximate 32.000 square feet of glass originates from a batch of float glass in Austria that, prior to being shipped to the site in Toledo, was curved and laminated in southern China.
Thin solid steel columns and the use of 3/4” solid plate steel wall for lateral bracing create the lightness of structure to enhance the sense of clarity.

Photo courtesy SANAA
Facade mock-up

Photo courtesy SANAA
Interior, Summer 2005

The mechanical system uses the cavity space as a temperature buffer, reusing the cooled air of the galleries to cool the hot shops, and recycling the heat generated by glass ovens to heat the cavity in the winter through coils embedded in the topping slab. Even the curtains in the cavity fulfil a key role in the mechanical system.

The Glass Pavilion is the first US building designed by SANAA.

Photo courtesy SANAA
View from Monroe Street, Spring 2005

Drawing courtesy SANAA
Ground Floor Plan

Total area: 76,000 square feet
Site area: 218,700 square feet
Estimated completion: Spring 2006

arcspace Inauguration feature

Photo: arcspace

SANAA, Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa, invited the entire Tokyo office “the SANAA family” to the inauguration of their first American building. The sun was out, the building looked beautiful, and the atmosphere was joyfull.