SELLDORF ARCHITECTS TO RENOVATE FRICK COLLECTION

The Frick Collection has selected Selldorf Architects to lead its renovation project, which aims to improve the traffic flow in the institution’s galleries while preserving their character, Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times_ reports.

After a public outcry last year that forced the Frick to shelve plans for an expansion, which included a six-story addition and the removal of its gated garden, the museum decided to renovate its existing building rather than add to its square footage.

The institution reviewed twenty proposals for the project before it chose Selldorf Architects, which has worked on other cultural institutions such as the Neue Galerie in New York and Clark Art Institute in Massachusetts.

“It’s about enhancing the visitor’s experience and making it utterly seamless, so that it doesn’t harm any of the existing experience that people cherish, myself included,” Annabelle Selldorf said. “We’ll do our darndest.”

Director Ian Wardropper said, “She’s somebody who has a clear vision of respect for historical buildings but at the same time has a clean, elegant, modernist aesthetic that is very much about welcoming visitors today.”

The institution initially tapped the architecture firm Davis Brody Bond for a major expansion in 2014 but abandoned the plans after they were highly criticized by architects and preservationists.

Designs are expected to be completed by next winter.