on 13 June 2003
Unusually for a cutting-edge British architect, Rick Mather has had most of his best work built in England, including award-winning projects at the Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Maritime Museum. Not to worry, though: he’s currently master planner for the South Bank arts complex, which should provide the perfect opportunity to piss everyone off and ensure future planning applications are viewed with the correct attitude of narrow-minded suspicion.
Sensibly, Mather has just unveiled his first major US commission, a $100m expansion of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, undertaken in association with local practice SMBW. With a brief to open up the institution to the city, the design adds a five-storey glass entrance wing, a central atrium spanned by six glass bridges, and a 40ft-high window onto the Richmond Boulevard.
The whole thing may be a bit lacking in Libeskind-style out-of-the-box-ness, but it’s one hell of an attention-grabbing box.
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