Skip to main content

Daylight shine through the canopy to the wood and glass structure
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion seen in profile deep in the woods
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)
The low-slung form of the pavilion, bathed in dappled light, hovering above the forest floor, acts as an apparition in the woods
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)
Natural light shines down on a deck surrounded by glass and forest
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)
Wood slats form a semi-transparent envelope of deck, wall, and roof, supported by a steel exoskeleton, allowing light and moisture to filter through it
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion exterior view of dynamic wooden roof
Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion, Indianapolis, Indiania (2010)

Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion

Close Project

Project Information:

INDIANAPOLIS MUSEUM OF ART VISITORS PAVILION
Indianapolis, Indiana (2010)

The Ruth Lilly Visitor’s Pavilion provides a place of reflection and assessment, a place of questioning what has been directly experienced by the visitor and of what was observed, or not, of the processes — natural and cultural — at work within the Art + Nature Park. It too serves as a threshold for those entering the park from the Indianapolis greenway system. Educational activities for a few or fifty persons help visitors gain a deeper, and perhaps, even more meaningful understanding of the relationships between conditions nature-made and man-made. Positioned lightly upon the earth, detached with column supports, a horizontal frame structure in tension as much as compression. A continuous perforated surface of ipe wood slats forms a semi-transparent envelope of deck, wall, and roof, supported by a steel exoskeleton, allowing light and moisture to filter through it. The folded planes of the envelope sandwich glass enclosed program elements. The low-slung form of the pavilion, bathed in dappled light, hovering above the forest floor, acts as an apparition in the woods.

General Contractor: Geupel DeMars Hagerman
Structural: Guy Nordenson & Associates
MEP: L’Acquis Consulting Engineers
Acoustical: Dr. Tahar Messadi
Civil: Cripe Architects & Engineers
Curtain Wall: Kate Kulpa, AIA
Landscape: Ed Blake

 

Project Awards:

2012:
+ American Institute of Architects Honor Award
+ Chicago Athenaeum American Architecture Award
+ Indiana AIA High Honor Award
+ Gulf States Regional AIA Honor Award

2011:
+ Arkansas AIA Honor Award
+ Architect Magazine Design Review Award
+ World Architecture Festival Finalist: Display and Visitor Centers

Marygrove Early Education Center

Marygrove Early Education Center

Lamplighter School Innovation Lab

Lamplighter School Innovation Lab

Crystal Bridges Eleven Servery

Crystal Bridges Eleven Servery

Ledger City Center

Ledger City Center

Thaden School Bike Barn

Thaden School Bike Barn

Thaden School Performance Building

Thaden School Performance Building

Shelby Farms Park Structures

Shelby Farms Park Structures

Shelby Farms Park Restaurant and Event Center

Shelby Farms Park Restaurant and Event Center

Thaden Reels exterior photo of it's angular modern structure at night

Thaden School Reels Building

Flyrite

Flyrite

The restaurant space showing a beautiful mix of materials of concrete masonry units and plywood

COOP Ramen

Lamplighter Barn

Lamplighter Barn

Harvey Pediatric Clinic red metal and glass profile shot looking across parking spots

Harvey Pediatric Clinic

Steven L. Anderson Design Center Exterior exterior made of Indiana limestone, architectural concrete, and fritted glass

Steven L. Anderson Design Center

Shelby Farms Park Visitor Center seen at sunset featuring a large overhanging 'front porch' overlooking fresh-cut grass

Shelby Farms Park Visitor Center

The church exterior seen at night, made of a box rib metal panel and red cross that shines from the top of a tower

St. Nicholas Eastern Orthodox Church

The low-slung form of the pavilion, bathed in dappled light, hovering above the forest floor, acts as an apparition in the woods

Indianapolis Museum of Art Visitors Pavilion

Montessori Elementary entrance at night

Montessori Elementary

Keenan Tower House lit up at night as it towers over trees in the forest

Keenan TowerHouse

Exterior shot of the glass window walls and metal structure seen at sundown

Fayetteville High School

Blessings Golf Clubhouse seen at dusk lit from inside looking over the cut grass

Blessings Golf Course

Montessori Primary, Fayetteville, Arkansas (2014)

Montessori Primary

A wooden floors, walls, and ceilings look out through glass at the concrete museum

Crystal Bridges Museum Store

The building's exterior lit from inside at dusk during a rainstorm

Gentry Public Library

Interior airy wooden seating area below second flow overlooks with white ceiling and natural lighting

Northwest Arkansas Free Health Center

The exterior shows red stucco that spans the length of the gym with large blue volume, clad in a prefinished box rib panel

Quapaw Wellness

A view of the buildings beautiful white exoskeleton and night with lights shining from inside

Srygley Office Building

The Fulbright Building

The Fulbright Building

Moore HoneyHouse lit from inside at night with glowing jars of honey shining brightly through the glass

Moore HoneyHouse