Although originally completed in 1928, the Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) was originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition. Since then, its collections and visitors have increasingly expanded such that more exhibit spaces are required. The museum administers collections containing over 240,000 significant art objects. And the most recent expansion by Frank Gehry is scheduled for completion in 2021.
SITE
2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia, PA
DATES
2001 - Masterplan of museum (Historic Consultant)
2003 - Window consultation
ARCHITECTURE
Dan Chong, Planning and Window consultant (VITTETA)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Client
DESCRIPTION
Along with the master-planning the main museum's expanded spaces, Dan's work also included heritage building envelope consultation of the main museum and adjacent Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building. These buildings are listed on the state’s historic registry.
The museum client let us know that during the cold winters, there would be heavy condensation on their single pane glass windows which being uninsulated - was one of the primary reasons for very high heating costs during the winter season. Dan's work as a window consultant revolved around providing technical energy efficient options to feasibly replace, retrofit or upgrade the windows while at the same time preserve the historic bronze window frames originally fabricated by Tiffany Studios of New York
