Clad in white terracotta tiles, the Orange County Museum of Artwork (OCMA) cuts a hanging determine on the Segerstrom Middle for the Arts in Costa Mesa. Designed by American architectural agency Morphosis, the 53,000-square-foot museum opened to the general public in October 2022. Not solely does the constructing home OCMA’s assortment of over 4,500 objects, nevertheless it additionally supplies areas for training, exhibitions, and occasions, in addition to a grand staircase supposed to perform as a group house.

In true Southern California type, the constructing’s structure has a robust relationship between indoor and outside house. Massive home windows that break up the terracotta facade enable streams of sunshine to pour into the inside. Guests are welcomed into an open, ethereal atrium and are then invited to stroll up a grand staircase to a spacious higher plaza on the roof terrace. Designed for use for occasions and exhibitions, the plaza takes up almost 70 p.c of the museum’s footprint.

The museum’s gallery areas have been primarily organized at floor stage as storefronts in an effort to attach pedestrians to the gathering. There are additionally smaller, extra intimate galleries, that hook up with the mezzanine by way of a sky bridge.

By way of supplies, the collection of tile, glass, and metal provides OCMA a glossy, futuristic really feel. The agency designed the outside facade to play with the colour and types of the encircling structure, with the intention to mix into the surroundings.

“By making a gradient of architectural depth, from complicated varieties on the museum’s entry to rectilinear and versatile varieties throughout the galleries, the constructing is a memorable and hanging surroundings for formal and casual experiences with artwork,” states Morphosis.

The undertaking is a triumph for the OCMA, which was based in 1984. A name for designs was first put out in 2015, and building started in 2019. With the opening of the brand new constructing, OCMA is getting into a part that may enable it to show extra of its everlasting assortment whereas persevering with to develop its short-term exhibitions, installations, and performances.

The brand new Orange County Museum of Artwork designed by Morphosis opened to the general public in October 2022.

The facade is clad in white terracotta tiles punctuated by massive home windows.

Gentle streams by the massive atrium and storefront galleries that home OCMA’s assortment of Twentieth- and Twenty first-century artwork.

A grand staircase leads as much as an unlimited plaza on the rooftop terrace…

…whereas sky bridges join smaller upper-level galleries.

The undulating varieties and colour of the facade have been chosen to create a dialogue with the encircling structure.

Morphosis: Web site | Instagram

All pictures by way of Mike Kelley. My Fashionable Met granted permission to characteristic photographs by Morphosis.

Associated Articles:

World’s Largest Astronomy Museum Opens in Shanghai

Distinctive Design Museum Has a Kind Impressed by Rocky Mountain Peaks

This Wave-Formed Artwork Museum in China Is Coated With 13,000 Aluminum “Scales”

New ‘First People Museum’ in Oklahoma Is Devoted To Sharing Indigenous Tales