Building 7 at MASS MoCA had special appeal to the painter Sol LeWitt, its gutsy hard-edge spaces reminiscent of the studios he worked in all his life — an ideal site for a retrospective of his work. Planning for the exhibit began in 2005 with a model of Building 7. Working with the building model, LeWitt developed the exhibit sequence and spatial orientation for his wall drawings, while Bruner/Cott devised the wall layouts, lighting, and architectural details of the installation. Architecture and art merge in this semi-permanent exhibit of 100 wall drawings; the work is spread chronologically across three levels.
Natural light complements the art; building design sets highly detailed wall drawings against rough-textured mill structure. A soaring vertical connector links all three floors of the building to the rest of the museum. Building on Bruner/Cott’s Master Plan for MASS MoCA, Building 7 activates new areas of the historic complex and creates an elegant new loop within the existing circulation path.
2011 Boston Society of Architects | Honor Award
COMPLETED
2008
SIZE
33,000 sf
COST (2008)
$3.5 million