The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art | 2017-2022

Location: Iowa City, Iowa, USA
Architects: BNIM
Lead Architect: Carey Nagle, Levi Robb and Rod Kruse
General Contractor: Russell Construction Company
Client: University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art,
Photographers: Nick Merrick, Michael Robinson and Hannah Gray

The University of Iowa Stanley Museum of Art establishes a new cultural arts destination that restores a state-of-the-art and resilient home to the museum’s extensive and world-renowned collection for the first time in 14 years. When historic flooding of the Iowa River impacted The University of Iowa campus in 2008, the University’s art museum was left without a permanent home on campus. The museum envisioned a new destination on campus that would serve as a reimagined library and laboratory for the arts and support its mission in encouraging transformative encounters with works of art and contemplation of the human story.

The Stanley Museum of Art is immersed in campus activity on its new site. An inviting entry plaza and transparent, daylight-filled art lounge lobby, adjacent to Gibson Square Park, serve as an inviting front door for the facility and provide space for performances, student gathering, classes, and artist talks, allowing artistic expression to extend from within the walls of the museum to become a central component of the campus experience. The museum has welcomed 52,000 visitors in the 2022-2023 academic year, engaging the campus and community through artistic partnerships, school visits, academic programming events, and roundtable discussions and dialogues.

A series of flexible gallery spaces offer students, faculty, and visitors space for observation, discussion, and exploration of the collection and enable focus on the principles of curating, an initiative central to the Stanley Museum of Art’s mission. The upper levels of the building include a visual arts laboratory classroom where collections can be further utilized for teaching as works of art are installed for students' coursework observation. A visible storage room allows for dense display and research of the collection, and an outdoor terrace and sculpture courtyard also contribute to an engaging museum experience.

The Stanley Museum of Art is designed as a rectilinear solid interrupted by interconnected voids, creating a form that provides a protective and respectful home for the display, conservation, and storage of the collection while inviting generous daylight into public spaces. A three-story light well and occupiable volumes establish connections to daylight, enhance transparency and wayfinding, and guide visitor experience. The museum’s dynamic and kinetic dark, warm brick exterior establishes an elegant campus presence and complements the masonry characteristics of neighboring structures, conveying the timelessness of the collection housed within.

A key consideration in our work with the Stanley Museum of Art was the need to deliver the highest quality of conservation environment for the University’s outstanding collection while also working within a limited budget with respect to the performative and programmatic criteria. The result is a facility that is both elegant and pragmatic at $444 / gross square foot (inclusive of sub-grade parking). Resiliency was also of utmost importance in the design of the Stanley Museum of Art. The museum is elevated above the 500-year flood plain and equipped to maintain its temperature and humidity band necessary for the conservation environment for a minimum of 72 hours in a flooding event.

Design for Water: Given the relationship with the 500-year floodplain and the museum’s history, the main level the Stanley Museum of Art and all building systems are elevated above the flood plain. The building was also designed to maintain its temperature and humidity band necessary for the conservation environment for a minimum of 72 hours in a flooding event. Systems redundancy was provided, and emergency power was configured to be serviced from high ground above the 500-year flood plain.

The open-air sub-grade parking structure beneath the museum was also designed with passive flood resiliency in its ability to serve as an overflow basin, reducing hydrostatic pressure and protecting the museum and surrounding area. The design team also provided oversight in the development of and authored a report for the University’s emergency response plan. At the scale of the site, no potable water is used for the native landscape irrigation. In addition, the native landscape cleans particulate from surface stormwater. Given the site’s immediate adjacency to the river, the team collaborated with the City to place stormwater infrastructure designed to manage flow of immediate site stormwater to the river in advance of upstream peak flow in support of the holistic resiliency strategy. Design for Energy Energy use intensity (EUI) is 35% below the code baseline for the Stanley Museum of Art.

A heat recovery chiller is the single strongest systems-based energy strategy, responsible for approximately 60% of the captured savings; delivering “waste heat” from the chiller to provide the necessary reheat to maintain constant temperature and humidity settings necessary for the art conservation environment (70 degrees F +/- 1 degree and 50% RH +/- 5%). Lighting power density is 36% below the code baseline. A low window-wall area ratio provides significant insulation that, in concert with the thermal mass of the brick masonry and the continuous air/weather barrier, provides strong performance and a protective enclosure.

This maintains and passively supports the art conservation environment to protect the priceless artifacts within, while doing so with limited energy resources. The interior lightwell delivers controlled daylight in support of collections needs while interior spaces such as the visual laboratory and classrooms welcome the public in through glazing towards public circulation. Multiple layers passively protect works on display from UV exposure through wood grille screening, UV resistant glazing, and roller shades. Occupant sensors throughout the building also save energy and limit light exposure for the light-sensitive works on display. Design for Resources A focus on regional materials is seen throughout the Stanley Museum of Art.

This is highlighted at the exterior by the regionally extracted and manufactured manganese ironspot masonry skin which forms the primary building enclosure system. In the interior, FSC certified and regionally harvested white ash is seen throughout the gallery flooring and public space wall and ceiling cladding. Zero and low VOC materials were rigorously used throughout in support of a healthy indoor environment for occupants and collections alike. The Stanley Museum of Art also achieves a 48% reduction in embodied carbon relative to the baseline in support of a holistic, low-carbon approach. Local and reginal fabricators and craftspersons executed the work throughout the building, suporting the local and regional economy which was of particular importance as the global pandemic impacted project teams early in the construction cycle.

Their craft is celebrated and on display in elements such as the custom textured brick masonry façade, the wood grille wall and ceiling cladding, and the architecturally exposed structural steel of the primary stair. The durable and low maintenance materials contribute to a 100+ year building and a responsible allocation and maximum use of the resources contained within. Design for Ecosystem A partially depressed open air sub-grade parking structure serves a dual purpose for the Stanley Museum of Art’s site, helping provide direct parking access for museum patrons and serving as an overflow basin to passively respond in the event of a flood and protect the museum through its durable finishes coupled with an engineered parking concrete slab which allows for the free passage of potential flood waters to avoid the immense hydrostatic pressure.

This strategy not only serves the museum, but it also offers the potential for flood resilience for the surrounding campus ecosystem. Ninety five percent of the project landscape is provided with native and adaptive species. This landscape solution creates a beautiful site amenity and biodiversity throughout the seasons, requires no potable irrigation, manages stormwater quality and quantity control, and provides a habitat for regional fauna and pollinators. Durable, low-maintenance materials are used throughout to support a 100+ year facility. The museum’s primary masonry skin simultaneously speaks to its context while expressing its program and in concert with its high R-value envelope and contiguous weather and air barrier, provides mass and insulation to efficiently and sustainably support the long-term preservation and care of the collection.