By Megan Kirby
With groundbreaking taking place this fall, the new $30 million SCAD Museum of Art is set to become the college’s most iconic structure.
The 90,000 square foot expansion will fill the area located behind Kiah Hall and will stretch westward towards Turner House, encompassing the Central of Georgia Railroad Freight Depot building, the Eichberg Hall rear parking lot and the current student walkway.
Taking their place will be the new home for the expansive Walter O. Evans Center for African American Studies, and gallery space for the museum’s collection of over 4,500 pieces.
The new museum, designed by Atlanta architects Lord, Aeck & Sargent, in collaboration with Savannah architect Neil Dawson, will also house a 250-seat auditorium, art storage space and classrooms.
A large courtyard will fill the area between Eichberg Hall and the new museum, offering shade trees, sloping lawns and pavilion spaces. In a further effort to make use of historic building elements, Savannah gray brick, which is currently stacked on site, will be used to edge a building-length “water gallery” reflecting pool.
The nearly 800-foot long exterior of the new museum will, in the words of its designers, “engage in a dialogue of contrasts.”
This will be accomplished through the incorporation of the remains of the 1853 railroad depot with ultramodern glass and polished concrete.
Christian Sottile, a SCAD professor and urban designer, created illustrations of the proposed expansion, showing Turner and Papy streets undergoing a face lift to match the new construction; sidewalks will be widened, trees will be planted and new bike and scooter racks will be installed. Additionally, a ‘glass awning’ will be extended from the museum over the sidewalk area to protect pedestrians from the elements.
Perhaps the most significant feature of the new SCAD Museum of Art, however, will be a multi-story, illuminated glass tower, which will also function as a side entrance. Referred to as the “lantern” by its designers, it will be located opposite the terminus of Papy Street, providing a visual directionality to what is being called the up-and-coming part of town.
The illuminated lantern will also be visible from the bridge approach to the city, making the SCAD Museum of Art a new landmark on the Savannah skyline.
The Office of Institutional Advancement is currently raising the $30 million required for completion of the museum. Information about the campaign and the future of the SCAD Museum of Art is available here.
