The new 8000 m2 Anchorage Museum Expansion also creates a new entrance to the museum.The organisation of the new building is based on five linear volumes of varying length and height arranged along the western face of the existing building.This arrangement forms a new facade and entrance facing downtown Anchorage.

The new building offers windows through which the activity of the museum is observed.The visitor,from within,is reoriented to the city context and its extraordinary natural setting beyond.The glass facade of the new four-storey building is fritted with a striped mirror pattern,providing views out of and into the museum and reflecting the sky and surrounding mountainous environment.

The interior design concept exposes the concrete structure as part of the character of the internal spaces.Walls are constructed between columns to establish a series of rooms within the new building.The main public spaces-the entrance lobby,circulation atrium,cafe,and exhibition spaces-use different colours and materials to give each its own identity.

The Anchorage Museum Expansion will also house the Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center,exhibiting 600 Alaska Native ethnographic artefacts from the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian.The Common Created in front of the museum will provide a new public space for downtown Anchorage.

Client:Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center
Gross Floor Area:8404 m2
Design Architect:David Chipperfield Architects
Architect of Record:Kumin Associates Inc.
Associate Structural Engineer:Magnusson Klemencic Associates
Structural Engineer of Record:BBFM Engineers Inc.
Services Engineers:Affiliated Engineers NW Inc/RSA Engineering
Quantity Surveyor:Davis Langdon
Facade Consultants:W.J.Higgins and Associates Inc.
Lighting Consultants:George Sexton Associates
Exhibition Designers:Ralph Appelbaum Associates

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