PAST AND FUTURE. EUROPE AND ASIA.

PERMMUSEUMXXI represents a historic moment for the new Perm, the separation of the City’s past from the City’s future. Today Perm understands itself differently. And the world will soon understand that difference. The Perm Art Gallery belongs to the future. The closed city is now the open city, and the new museum marks that transition iconically.

A transition in the City’s life means new purpose, new energy, new optimism, and the promise to symbolize this transition at an equally important point of geographic transition – as a conceptual bridge between Europe and Asia.

THE MUSEUM IN THE CITY, AND THE CITY IN THE MUSEUM

The museum views the City to the south, and the Kama River to the north. And the city looks back – from the cathedral, theatre, and central library areas; from the river bank, the port, the train at the river’s edge, and the Popova Street Bridge; from the regional administration buildings, and philharmonic society buildings; from the cathedral area, north along the Popova Street Promenade, and east and west along the new Okulova Street Walk.

From almost every vantage point in Perm, the visual experience of the City includes the new Perm Museum. The new experience of the City is synonymous with the substantial presence of the new gallery.

SITE STRATEGY: THE BRIDGE AND THE SKY

The riverside site for the Museum presents a number of unique opportunities. The proposed new building exploits the special qualities of the site with 2 essential iconic gestures: one, the building bridges the land; two, the building stretches to reach the sky.

The Museum site is conceived as a public park within which the new building is sited. To the south the City. To the north the Kama River. In between the Museum in the Park. And not only is the Museum in the park: the Museum is conceived as an extension of the park with terraces, walks, viewing sites, and landscaped roof decks that unite the project experience of art, with the landscaped experience of the building, site, and river.

LANDFORM

The land is reconfigured to provide two new pedestrian “Canyons for Art”, one east, one west of the entry lobby and forecourt. Pedestrians proceeding east and west on the Okulova Street Walk or arriving at Okulova from the Popova Promenade – the proposed south-north pedestrian route to the site -- can pass on either side of the lobby and descend northward into
the “Art Canyons”, pass under the building, down a series of art exhibit terraces, under the tracks, and down to the river’s edge.

BRIDGE BLOCKS

There are five primary built elements that comprise the building organization. To the west, built into the excavated site, is the “West Bridge Block” that spans the West Art Canyon; in the center is the Entry Lobby and Forecourt; to the east is the “East Bridge Block” that spans the East Art Canyon. The lobby is an almost entirely glass element with entry desk, stairs and elevators to various events and levels, topped by a mounded extension of the reconfigured land form that sits on a portion of the lobby roof. The lobby is essentially open to City, River, and sky, designed to accommodate a wide range of changeable exhibits.
Off the lobby to the west are the library and bookstore; to the east is the restaurant. Restaurant, bookstore, library, and lobby have views to the north, to the bridge, the park, the river edge, and the port. The east and west ends of the bridge blocks on the first level contain service and storage with adjoining loading access.

The museum administration is located on a mezzanine floor directly above the entry level looking over the lobby and the Kama River.

Guests move by stair or elevator from the lobby up to level 2, containing the contemporary collection in the West Bridge Block and the regional collection in the East Bridge Block. Alternatively, guests can pass through the lobby, down generous stairs and outside to the terraced exhibit area and down to the river bank. At either end of the bridge blocks on level 2, glass doors open to multipurpose gardens for exhibits and public or private gatherings. The landscaped garden areas are contiguous with the surrounding park, so the museum roof gardens extend the park site.

A bridge spans the lobby east/west, allowing guests to move back and forth from regional to contemporary collections, to view the lobby exhibits below, or to look out on the landscaped mound that holds exterior exhibits on the lobby roof.

SKY BLOCKS

On the second, third, and fourth levels the East and West Bridge Blocks are joined by the east and west “Sky Blocks”. The bridge blocks run parallel to the proposed Okulova Street Walk, and perpendicular to the proposed Popova Street Promenade that will form the major new urban connections from the City to the Museum river site. The two Sky Blocks connect east and west at the bridge blocks, then rise out of the site, and as they rise vertically they incline or gesture to the north, toward the City, to include particular vistas both from the City to the Sky Blocks, and, from within the Museum to the most important City views.

The East Sky Block is designed as a series of large stepping platforms. So the east block is a terraced interior, providing a variety of spacious and flexible venues for the classical collection, and at the top platform, a unique vantage point affording City views to the south and west.

The West Sky Block contains the education department and children’s gallery, a stepped theatre seating area with a multi functional performance stage at the base of the steps, and an open performance, exhibit, or gathering space at the top, again affording city views, this time to the east and south. An exterior stair leads up and out of the block to a roof deck, exhibition area, and café, again integrating the conception of art exhibition with the external use of the building for park-like space and views to the City and River. Both the theatre and theatre café are accessible to the public whether the other galleries are open or closed.

STRUCTURE AND MATERIALS

The structure of the proposed museum combines concrete and structural steel. The exterior material is red sandstone. The interior floors are concrete, the walls, red sandstone and white cement plaster, and the interior partitions that hold the art are to be made of glass.


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