New Art Museum’s Future Look : Architect Describes Design for Newport Harbor Structure as an Invitation to Visitors to ‘Wander and Explore’

Preliminary drawings and a model of the Newport Harbor Art Museum’s new $25-million building in Newport Beach were unveiled Tuesday by museum officials.

Genoese architect Renzo Piano called his design for the 10-acre site “a place of discovery, a microcosm protected by an organic shelter which invites visitors to wander and explore.” The new structure, scheduled to open in 1992, is at the intersection of East Coast Highway and MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach, about one mile from the present building. The site is a parcel donated by the Irvine Co., which estimates its value at $10 million.

Officials said the expansion is necessary because the museum’s present 23,000-square-foot building is too small to show the permanent collection and temporary exhibits simultaneously. Triple the size of the current facility, the new space will eliminate the museum’s “down time”--when nothing is on view because a temporary exhibit is being installed.

Piano, architect of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris and the Menil Collection Museum in Houston, acknowledged that the Newport Harbor plan has been described as “low-key” and “modest.” Saying that he envisioned a structure that would not dominate the works of art, he nevertheless insisted that the simplicity and clarity of the design and the “emotional experience” of discovering the interior space were “monumental” qualities in the best sense.

The interior space of the new one-story, 87,129-square-foot museum will be defined by a series of longitudinal walls parallel to Coast Highway. Carving the low-lying (about 26 feet high) building into the hill was Piano’s response to the site’s 32-foot view-plane limitation. Zoning regulations dictate that construction may not block views of the ocean.

Piano, 51, said the design “acknowledges the primacy of the automobile as a means of transportation in Southern California” and establishes “a private, ‘secret’ entry, away from the noise of the traffic at the busy intersection. . . .”

The barrel-vaulted roof, which Piano calls a “flying carpet” will be “the first room of the museum” that a visitor will encounter. It will merge with the surrounding vegetation of the hillside and serve as the entrance to the museum. Entering from Avocado Avenue, visitors will park on a lot level with the roof and traverse a rooftop sculpture garden. Entry to the museum will be a quick (15-second) glide downward into the museum’s lobby on an escalator.

Inside, a pedestrian “street” running through the center of the building will connect the “fingers” that house the various departments and functions of the museum: two permanent-collection galleries, one temporary-exhibit gallery, the auditorium, restaurant, bookstore, education and staff support areas.

Throughout the museum, interior space will be penetrated by nature. The two permanent collection galleries will be lighted by natural light (directed through the roof as well as laterally), and visitors will have multiple views of the surrounding gardens.

Building materials have not yet been fully determined, but Piano said the vaulting will be concrete, connected with cast-iron elements. He said he would like the walls to be a natural material, preferably stone.

Museum board member Rogue Hemley said a $50-million capital campaign (for the building, furnishings and endowment) is “above the first 20%” of its goal. Earlier estimated as $40 million, the new figure is due in part to a $5-million increase in the projected cost of the building.

Board member David Carroll said the six-month design development phase of the project would begin in late August. Ground breaking is set for late 1990, and the museum is projected to open in late 1992 or early 1993.

Founded in 1962, the museum’s permanent collection emphasizes post-World War II California art.