Buone notizie per il nuovo anno, per l'arte italiana, con l'ampliamento del Magazzino Italian Art previsto per il prossimo anno e che conferma il successo di questa iniziativa ideata dai collezionisti Nancy Olnick e Giorgio Spanu promotori della cultura artistica del nostro paese.
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Magazzino Italian Art announced plans to strategically expand its campus in Cold Spring, NY, with the acquisition of 3.5 acres of additional land and creation of a new 13,000-square-foot pavilion for special exhibitions, and public and educational programs. Designed by Spanish architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo, the latter of whom designed Magazzino’s main building, the new free-standing pavilion will enable the nonprofit museum to support its growing program across its 9.5-acre campus. This expansion will create over 5,000 square feet of flexible exhibition and programming spaces as well as new visitor amenities, including a reading lounge and a café. Groundbreaking is expected to begin in spring 2021, with exhibitions and programs continuing uninterrupted at Magazzino’s main building.
Since opening to the public in June 2017 under the directorship of Vittorio Calabrese, Magazzino has significantly expanded the range of exhibitions and programs it presents on-site, online, and in partnership with institutions throughout the region. Alongside its ongoing investigation of Arte Povera and postwar Italian art, Magazzino has provided critical platforms for contemporary artists by commissioning new work and organizing monographic and group presentations, including Bochner Boetti Fontana, which is currently on view, and Homemade. The museum has also fostered new scholarship and critical research in the field through its on-site Research Center and Scholar-in-Residence program, as well as enlivened its local community through annual film festivals, performing arts programs, and public performances.
"Magazzino was launched with a commitment to serve as a cultural hub and vibrant community resource and to provide opportunities for inspiration and engagement with Italian art and creativity,” said Magazzino Italian Art Director Vittorio Calabrese. “Our program has grown increasingly ambitious over the past three-and-a-half years as we have grown as an institution. The new pavilion will enable us to better serve our community with expanded resources for visitors and provides us flexible spaces so that we can expand our programmatic offerings in Cold Spring.”
Magazzino Italian Art Co-Founders Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu added, “As long-time residents of Putnam County, we are deeply committed to contributing to the cultural landscape of the region in a meaningful way. Our decision to open Magazzino was informed by our desire to share postwar and contemporary Italian art and bring people together. It is our intention to ensure that our fellow community members are part of the process of bringing this new pavilion to life, from contracting local construction services to engaging the public in educational offerings that we will now be able to offer throughout the year.”
Nestled in a hillside on Magazzino’s campus, the new pavilion will be located adjacent to the main building and will mirror the structure in its rectilinear design. With a concrete façade punctuated by windows and a series of skylights, the pavilion will foster a dialogue between art, architecture, and the surrounding natural landscape. The building will add nearly 3,600 square feet of new gallery space to the campus, including two natural light-filled galleries for special exhibitions on its main level and a third gallery on its lower floor for the display of Murano glass, and ceramics. The lower level will also feature a flexible, 1,500-square-foot programming space overlooking a sunken outdoor courtyard that will enable the museum to host community programs year-round, including film screenings, lectures, panel discussions, and other educational and public events. On its top floor, which meets the ledge of the hilly terrain, a café and reading lounge with indoor and outdoor seating will provide visitors for an opportunity for a moment of respite.
“Conceived to complement the existing museum building and reflect its elegant and simple modern design, the new pavilion brings a new dimension to the museum’s evolving campus,” said project architect Miguel Quismondo. “With strategically placed windows and skylights, the building introduces new opportunities for visitors to enjoy the beauty of the campus as it adds much needed space for the museum’s growing education and curatorial program and allows for the presentation of projects in new formats. I am thrilled to be working with my mentor Alberto Campo Baeza on the design for this new structure. This project reflects both the institution’s growth as well as Nancy and Giorgio’s belief and commitment to the Cold Spring community.”
About the Architects
Alberto Campo Baeza is a Spanish architect and Professor at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Madrid (ETSAM). Campo Baeza’s practice is characterized by its creation of powerful spiritual relationships between the principle components of architecture: gravity, space, light, time. In partnership with Miguel Quismondo, Campo Baeza created the Olnick Spanu House in Garrison, New York, in 2008.
Campo Baeza has been recognized internationally for his designs, teachings and theoretical writing, including the Torroja Award for his design of the Caja Granada, the Heinrich Tessenow Gold Medal, the Arnold W. Brunner Memorial Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Letters, Royal Institute of British Architects International Fellowship, the International Prize of Spanish Architecture (PAEI 2015), the Attolini Lack Medal of the Anahuac University of Mexico, the Piranesi Prix de Rome in 2018, an Honorary Fellowship of the American Institute of Architects and the Gold Medal for Spanish Architecture in 2020, among others. He has published many seminal texts on architecture, including “La Idea Construida”, “Pensar con las manos”, “Principia Architectonica”, “Poetica Architectonica”, and “Varia Architectonica.”
Campo Baeza’s work has been featured in exhibitions around the world, including the S.R. Crown Hall, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, at Chicago’s Illinois Institute of Technology College of Architecture; the MA Gallery of Toto in Tokyo; the MAXXI Museum in Rome; and the American Academy of Arts and Letters, New York; among other museums. His complete work has been published in a monograph by Thames & Hudson (2015).
Miguel Quismondo founded MQ Architecture in 2013. His design practice blends design and construction management to achieve a personalized and precise result. Over the past decade, Quismondo has worked closely with Olnick Spanu on the design, construction, and management of Casa Olnick Spanu, The Olnick Spanu Art Program, and Magazzino Italian Art.
Quismondo, AIA, received his degree in architecture from the Polytechnic School in Madrid and developed his career in the United Sates, first at Perkins+Will and later collaborating with Spanish architect, Alberto Campo Baeza, in the construction of Casa Olnick Spanu. His work has been exhibited at La Biennale di Venezia and published in Architectural Record, A+U, Casabella, ABC, Domus, El Paìs, and El Mundo. Quismondo holds a Master of Science in Real Estate Development from Columbia University in New York, as well as a Master of Science in Construction Management from New York University. Quismondo is the recipient of the 2018 AIANY Design Award in Architecture, the Dedalo Minosse International Prize, Regione del Veneto Special Award, the Honorable Mention 2018 AN Best of Design Award for Cultural Space, the runner-up for the Up 2018 Building of The Year Award by American-Architects, and he was longlisted for the 2019 Dezeen Awards in Architecture, for Magazzino Italian Art.
