Competition Proposal for Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Bird's Eye View of Model

This acclaimed design for a museum expansion by Steven Holl Architects is as much about landscape and light as it is about architecture. Instead of a large, ungainly mass that would compete with the original museum building, Holl imagined the new addition as an intervention in the museum’s sculpture garden, with five glass “lens” structures that connect below ground and rise above ground level in irregular prisms of translucent glass. These lenses serve to gather and diffuse light for the galleries below; the largest of these contains a large, transparent glass lobby, library, and café, which stands out from the other glowing volumes to invite visitors inside. Like many contemporary projects, the building’s environmental contribution—its large green roof—is fully integrated in its architectural imagery and space.