Magnifying mission and place: our curiosity drives museum design innovation.
Magnifying mission and place: our curiosity drives museum design innovation.
Our architecture is an integrated part of the museum experience, reinforcing the stories held within its walls and heightening the visitors experience of them. Form, place, and memory. One profound journey. Our approach to their design focuses heavily on museums being more human-centered.
Museums of art, science and culture inspire civic participation, foster lifelong learning, and deepen appreciation for our planet, its history and its future. They enrich our lives and spark wonder and curiosity, reminding us of the joy in the human experience.
Our architecture is an integrated part of the museum experience, reinforcing the stories held within its walls and heightening the visitors experience of them. Form, place, and memory. One profound journey.
Landmark
Our approach to the contemporary museum is to create a landmark architecture which through its form, materiality and sequence heightens the visitors experience of the exhibits and collections. Taking inspiration from their collections, their institutional missions, or their context, we seek to define new and unique architectural identities that support our institutional clients, while at the same time positively contributing to the public realm.
Pulse
A new museum is an opportunity to harness the pulse of the institutions culture, to make its dynamism even more visible, and to allow it to flourish. Ennead has a long history of designing public areas that serve as vibrant hubs for community engagement and inclusivity, nurturing connections and embracing neighboring residents.
Place
A locally sourced and sustainable approach to a museum’s physical attributes, including materials and construction methods, can both enrich its experience and connect it to its surroundings. At every opportunity we engage local partners, fabricators, and suppliers throughout the design process to ensure these details are carefully sourced and crafted. Together, with local participation we harness architecture’s transformative power to evoke emotions, forge connections, and create a lasting sense of place for all.
Museums uniquely ignite creativity and curiosity in visitors – the magic that they create can have lasting impact on their visitors.
Museums uniquely ignite creativity and curiosity in visitors – the magic that they create can have lasting impact on their visitors.
Discovery
At Ennead, we begin with discovery – a full immersion into a museum’s context, collections, and community – an opportunity to learn through engagement and to define experiences which can frame its architectural expression.
Whether a museum for science, history or fine art, the discovery process for each project is meticulously crafted to set the stage for crafting a museum experience which can be embraced by its full community. When designing cultural building’s that process is continuous, while its tone and tenor may be set at the project’s inception, that engagement lasts through out the process as a project’s details evolve and come into focus.
Addressing the needs of a diverse audience is critical to the success of any cultural institution.
Addressing the needs of a diverse audience is critical to the success of any cultural institution.
Inclusivity
In our work, we aspire to instill a sense of belonging to museumgoers.
By engaging diverse perspectives throughout design process, the museum experience becomes more relevant to the audiences it serves. Our team has extensive experience in supporting stakeholder and community engagement.
Ennead Architects and staff from The Milwaukee Public Museum in conversation with the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin.
We prioritize flexibility in museum design
We prioritize flexibility in museum design.
Flexibility
More diverse audiences mean that cultural spaces need to be flexible enough to accommodate the needs different groups of people. Our planning prioritizes flexibility to ensure that visitors from different backgrounds can fully engage with the museum’s offerings and support their interdisciplinary programming.
The Brooklyn Museum
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
The Brooklyn Museum
The foundation of sustainability is a respect for the planet, all living things and the resources already at play.
The foundation of sustainability is a respect for the planet, all living things and the resources already at play.
Sustainability and Wellbeing
Natural History Museum of Utah
We continue to evolve our practices as the environmental story continues to unfold before us, and we actively seek to employ new active and passive design strategies and remain at the forefront of utilizing and developing new technologies to tackle issues of the environment.
Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park of Rowan University
Celebrating civic space in cultural institutions.
Creating Civic Space
Designing cultural spaces is a human endeavor that extends beyond the confines of museum walls. Our goal is to create spaces that strengthen connections between the museum and its surroundings, fostering engagement, learning, and curiosity.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
American Museum of Natural History, Rose Center for Earth and Space
The same attention, thought and care is brought to the both the public and back of house facilities.
The same attention, thought and care is brought to the both the public and back of house facilities.
Collections and Preservation
Collections and conservation facilities have been central to many of Ennead’s museum projects. We understand the building type intimately from both “front of house” to “back of house” issues. Accommodating collections storage, integrating security and creating efficient and inspiring workspaces for administration and staff are crucial to a museum’s success.
Natural History Museum of Utah
Natural History and Science
Our Museums of Natural History serve as vibrant community hubs, fostering dialogue about both our past and collective futures. By presenting science within broader contexts, museums empower visitors to shape their environments and futures.
Science Centers are increasingly making scientific research accessible, sparking curiosity and deeper understanding. Our design work for these institutions supports their hands-on experiences, engaging visitors in sensory exploration and collaborative learning.
Selected Projects
Jean & Ric Edelman Fossil Park of Rowan University
Natural History Museum of Utah
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
University of Michigan, Biological Sciences Museum
American Museum of Natural History
Rose Center for Earth and Space
Starr Natural Sciences Building
David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth
Hall of Ocean Life
Samuel J. & Ethel LeFrak IMAX Theater
New York Hall of Science
History and Culture
Museums of history and culture play a vital role in preserving and interpreting humanity’s collective memory, ensuring that future generations can learn from the past. By providing access to diverse perspectives, artifacts, and narratives, these institutions foster empathy, understanding, and appreciation for the richness and complexity of human heritage.
Selected Projects
Museum of the City of New York
National Museum of American Jewish History
Newseum / Freedom Forum Foundation
Scandinavia House: The Nordic Center in Americ
Smithsonian Institution
The Castle
Arts and Industries Building
National Museum of the American Indian
Cultural Resources Center
Vietnam Veterans Memorial Education Center
William J. Clinton Presidential Center
Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center
The National Inventors Hall of Fame
Seamen’s Church Institute
Visual Arts
Our museums of art are crafted to foster curiosity, civic engagement, and innovation. Our gallery designs encourage exploration and flexibility, enabling diverse activities from art viewing to live performances, ensuring each visit is immersive and memorable.
Selected Projects
Asheville Museum of Art
Barnes Foundation, Programming and Site Analysis Study
Brooklyn Museum
Entry Pavilion and Plaza
Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art
The Great Hall
Morris A. and Meyer Schapiro Wing
The Drawing Center
Peabody Essex Museum Renovation
Smithsonian Institution Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museu
Stanford University
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
Anderson Collection at Stanford University
The Westmoreland Museum of American Art
Yale University Art Gallery
Kahn Building Renovation
Yale University Art Gallery Renovation
The Walters Art Museum
Academic Museums
Our work for academic museums of art across national institutions has given us a glimpse into the efficacy of their museum spaces to support immersive, interdisciplinary, and engaging programming. These museums and galleries create a sphere removed from the pressures of the commercial world where students, artists, curators, researchers, and faculty can experiment.
Selected Projects
The Bard Graduate Center
New York University, Grey Art Museum
Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Design and Media Center
Smith College, Brown Fine Arts Center
University of Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art
Ennead’s Museum Center Leadership
The Museum Center engages in a wide variety of initiatives, such as tracking current and best practices in museum design trends, attending and speaking at national museum design conferences, researching museum building typology history, and participating in facility tours and lectures. The Center also compiles benchmark data on our museum projects as well as metrics from other major national institutions. Sustainability is a high priority in the design of cultural buildings. Recognizing that museums often have unique requirements, the Museum Center provides critical knowledge on optimizing passive architectural and active mechanical strategies to reduce energy consumption while achieving high-performance, flexible, and resilient spaces for art and culture.
Richard Olcott
Partner
Museum Practice Leader
Jarrett Pelletier
Principal
Museum Practice Leader
Video
Stanford University's Anderson Collection
Richard Olcott discusses how the museum embodies the character of the patrons behind this remarkable collection of 20th-century artwork.
Natural History Museum of Utah
Take a video tour of this Natural History Museum in Salt Lake City
The Milwaukee Public Museum
Before the design for the Future Museum began, the architects and the museum staff toured together through the state of Wisconsin.
Shanghai Astronomy Museum
Experience this new museum for the city of Shanghai.
NJPBS “Keeping the Pinelands”
Edelman Fossil Park Segment with Tom Wong
Site specific installation at Mass Art's Design & Media Center
Rainfield is the first site-specific installation in the College's Design and Media Center. See how the artist and Mass Art student collaborated to see it built.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts
At Stanford University, Richard Olcott presents this addition to the historic university art museum
Richard Olcott FAIA, FAAR, is a Design Partner at Ennead Architects where over the last four decades he has developed an award-winning body of work for leading cultural, civic, and educational institutions around the globe. Richard’s work is grounded in the power of architecture as an interpretive medium, one that can communicate the complexities of contemporary society and create a lasting cultural impact. He is interested in how architecture can reinvent itself within the existing urban condition through absorption, addition, and transformation. Eschewing a formulaic language, he creates buildings that are at once expressive of their missions and rooted in their uniquely specific contexts.
Richard’s work has received numerous awards for design excellence, among them, National AIA Honor Awards, New York State AIA Awards, New York City AIA Awards and American Architecture Awards from the Chicago Athenaeum.
Museum Experience
San Diego Museum of Art, San Diego, CA,
NYU Grey Art Gallery and Study Storage Center, New York, NY
Peabody Essex Museum Expansion and Renovation, Salem, MA
Anderson Collection at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Smithsonian Institution, Arts and Industries Building Renovation and Expansion, Washington, DC (unbuilt)
Museum of the City of New York Expansion, New York, NY
Yale University Art Gallery, Expansion, New Haven, CT
Yale University Art Gallery, Kahn Building Renovation, New Haven, CT
William J. Clinton Presidential Center, Little Rock, AR
Copia: The American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts, Napa, CA
Stanford University, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts Stanford, CA
To see Richard Olcott’s full bio click here.
Jarrett Pelletier AIA is a Principal at Ennead Architects, where for the past 16 years he has developed bespoke, high-performance designs for preeminent academic and cultural institutions. Jarrett’s design process is one of inclusion and engagement. He believes that architecture must reach beyond aesthetics to create spaces that enhance human interaction and wellness, build communities, and embody sustainable thinking. Some of his notable projects include: the Biological Science Building and Natural History Museum at the University of Michigan; the Phil and Penny Knight Campus for Accelerating Scientific Impact at the University of Oregon, and the Alta Community Center in Alta, Utah.