Two 100-year-old German warehouses in Wuhan, China, central China’s most populous city, will be conjoined to create a 150,000-sf Metro Museum. The new building will use 75,000 sf of the site for the museum while 64,000 sf will be for commercial use, including restaurants, a café, and a gift shop.
One of the museums entrances will be underground inside the Line 7 Metro Station. Escalators will provide visitors entering via this entrance with views of each museum floor through incased glass as they ascend to the top of the four-level museum. The museum’s focal point is a tunnel-boring machine used to excavate metro tunnels. The boring machine extends two floors and is visible through floor-to-ceiling windows outside of the building. A circular ramp allows visitors to gain a close-up view of the parts and details of the machine.
Rendering courtesy of GreenbergFarrow.
Once arriving at the fourth floor, guests will walk through a Visitor’s Center where they can explore the museum’s cabinet of curiosities (small collections of objects) as they descend an atria spiral staircase from the top floor to the ground floor. The ground level includes restaurants, a sculpture garden, and an auditorium.
“Our goal was to optimize the space to function as both a place of curiosity and socialization, with multiple revenue streams for the museum. Generating revenue beyond the admission fee is critical to the fiscal health of museums today,” says Rodney Abney, Principal of GreenbergFarrow, in a release.
Rendering courtesy of GreenbergFarrow.
The new museum will become the largest and most comprehensive Metro Museum in China. It is expected to cost $40.8 million and open in September 2019.
Rendering courtesy of GreenbergFarrow.
Rendering courtesy of GreenbergFarrow.
Related Stories
| Jan 19, 2015
HAO unveils designs for a 3D movie museum in China
New York-based HAO has released designs for the proposed Bolong 3D Movie Museum & Mediatek in Tianjin.
| Jan 13, 2015
Steven Holl unveils design for $450 million redevelopment of Houston's Museum of Fine Arts
Holl designed the campus’ north side to be a pedestrian-centered cultural hub on a lively landscape with ample underground parking.
| Jan 2, 2015
Construction put in place enjoyed healthy gains in 2014
Construction consultant FMI foresees—with some caveats—continuing growth in the office, lodging, and manufacturing sectors. But funding uncertainties raise red flags in education and healthcare.
| Dec 29, 2014
'Russian nesting doll' design provides unique fire protection solution for movie negatives
A major movie studio needed a new vault to protect its irreplaceable negatives for films released after 1982. SmithGroupJJR came up with a box-in-a-box design solution. It was named a Great Solution by the editors of Building Design+Construction.
| Dec 28, 2014
AIA course: Enhancing interior comfort while improving overall building efficacy
Providing more comfortable conditions to building occupants has become a top priority in today’s interior designs. This course is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Dec 22, 2014
Skanska to build Miami’s Patricia and Phillip Frost Museum of Science
Designed by Grimshaw Architects, the 250,000-sf museum will serve as an economic engine and cultural anchor for Miami’s fast-growing urban core.
| Dec 15, 2014
Studio Gang tapped for American Museum of Natural History expansion
Chicago-based Studio Gang Architects has been commissioned to design the $325 million Gilder Center for Science, Education and Innovation at the American Museum of Natural History in New York.
| Dec 9, 2014
Steven Holl wins Mumbai City Museum competition with 'solar water' scheme
Steven Holl's design for the new wing features a reflective pool that will generate energy.
| Dec 2, 2014
Main attractions: New list tallies up the Top 10 museums completed this year
The list includes both additions to existing structures and entirely new buildings, from Frank Gehry's Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris to Shigeru Ban's Aspen (Colo.) Art Museum.
