Reaching Out

Peter Vanderwarker

he Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA) is a nonprofit institution devoted exclusively to the presentation of contemporary art. Through exhibitions of local, national, and international significance, as well as a program of educational outreach, the museum gives the public access to contemporary art, artists, and creative processes.

The new building for the ICA is the first art museum to be constructed in Boston in almost 100 years and is intended to symbolize the architectural future of one of the nation’s most historic cities. With a developing waterfront and a revitalized harbor walk, the site demanded a structure that would blend in with the surrounding public spaces. As one of New England’s most vibrant cultural institutions, the new ICA building was to be the cultural centerpiece of the waterfront and, it was hoped, an easily recognized architectural landmark. The building’s dramatic cantilevered design integrates the city’s HarborWalk—a pedestrian promenade abutting Boston Harbor—into the museum and offers stunning, uninterrupted views of the harbor. Moreover, the design features sloped stadium seating that extends out to the HarborWalk, providing a place for the public to rest and enjoy the waterfront. A glass-clad performance theater acts as an interior extension of the exterior stadium seating. The same wood finish continues from the walkway up a ramp, across the stage, onto the theater seating, up the back wall of the theater, and across the ceiling and out onto the underside of the cantilever. This creates a ribbonlike appearance. The building has received critical acclaim and has increased public awareness of modern architecture in Boston. Within that context, the design creates an innovative landmark museum for art of the 21st century.

The site for the project is located on the waterfront at Fan Pier. The Chicago-based Pritzker family, sponsors of the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize and the original owners of the Fan Pier properties along Boston Harbor, dedicated the 0.75 acre (0.3 ha) parcel on which the new ICA would be constructed for civic use. The museum is intended to be the cultural cornerstone of the 2.9 million sq ft (269,410 m²) Fan Pier waterfront development—the largest private development project on the South Boston waterfront. In a campaign led by the ica’s director, the ICA won the development rights for this site in a hard-fought competition with other institutions in the city.

In the spring of 2001 the institute chose Diller Scofidio + Renfro, of New York City, as the design architect, and Perry Dean Rogers Partners, of Boston, as the technical architect and architect of record. The New York City office of Arup was hired by Diller Scofidio + Renfro to provide structural engineering; mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) engineering; and fire protection engineering. It was also to design the electric lighting and daylighting schemes for the building as a whole. Arup had supported the architects in the competition phase of the project.

The 65,000 sq ft (6,040 m²) building resembles a large box atop a smaller one, the larger housing flexible, column-free art galleries with movable walls and boasting ceiling heights of 15.5 ft (4.7 m). Within this top level are east and west galleries connected by what is called the Founders Gallery, which spans the entire width of the north end of the exhibition space and extends above the HarborWalk. The design of this signature element was dictated by the need to provide adequate gallery space for the museum’s collections on a lot that was limited in size by the waterfront. The glass-enclosed cantilever, which is 82 ft (25 m) long, invites the public to experience the building from its exterior as well as from its interior.

Peter Vanderwarker

The architecture firms Diller Scofidio + Renfro, of New York City, and Perry Dean Rogers Partners, of Boston, intended to provide a design for the art institute that would integrate interior and exterior spaces and blur the distinctions between windows, walls, and doors, top of this page. The wooden walkway and bleachers beneath the cantilevered gallery space meld with the harbor walkway; the media center hangs from the cantilevered space, above.

The box on which the cantilevered section rests contains a 325-seat theater—on the building’s second and third floors—a two-story education facility, a media and technology center (the Poss Family Mediatheque), an indoor and outdoor café, and a bookstore and gift shop. The media room extends vertically from the underside of the cantilevered space, forming a triangular space in elevation, and the north wall of the café features floor-to-ceiling sliding glass doors that face the harbor. Virtually the entire lower structure is surrounded by glass.

Ground Floor with Suspended Concrete Slab, Pile Caps, and Beam Grillage

Arup, both

Elevation of Grid A8 - Easternmost Exterior Megatruss Elevation of Grid F - Easternmost Interior Megatruss

The owner and the architects imposed a number of complex interdisciplinary challenges. For example, the design was required to integrate all of the building services systems into very small ceiling areas, an unusual requirement for a museum, especially since the wooden ceiling finishes were to be located close to the underside of the floor structures. The heating, ventilation, air-conditioning, plumbing, drainage, and fire protection systems all had to occupy the same space as the structural elements. This required the architects and the engineers to carefully lay out the routes for these services throughout the building.

The four megatrusses run north to south and occupy a two-story space with a cantilever to back span ratio of 3 to 4 and a structural depth of 22.5 ft (6.8 m). The back span ratio is important because it reduces tension on the structure’s back columns and therefore limits the uplift imposed on the building’s foundation system. One megatruss is located on the building’s western side, and a second is on the eastern side; the other two run along the sides of the core in the center of the building. The 24 ft (7.3 m) wide core is located in the center of the building and houses staircases, elevator shafts, and a mechanical mezzanine.

The megatrusses were prefabricated by the steel supplier and feature stiffened, welded connections at each of the truss nodes. The welded connections, which are free of gusset plates, allow for the passage of the mechanical systems into the ceiling of the gallery. The top and bottom chords are spliced at quarter points, and the diagonals are spliced at the midpoints of their heights. Utilizing splice plates and slip-critical bolt connections, the assemblies were limited to eight pieces per truss.

The geometry of the roof trusses and the skylights derived from the desire to channel natural light into the gallery below from the north side of the building. The roof trusses feature an inverted triangular cross section with two top chords and one bottom chord, each fabricated from welded pipe sections. The top chords are spaced 6 ft (1.8 m) apart on center, and the sets of top chords are spaced 6 ft (1.8 m) apart on center. The bottom chords are spaced 12 ft (3.6 m) apart on center. Skylights are located between the sets of top chords, and the “legs” of the triangles are covered in gypsum board to reflect the light admitted by the skylights. A transparent mesh fabric scrim connects the bottom chords to diffuse the natural light and distribute it evenly into the gallery spaces below. The MEP systems use raceways inside the roof trusses to distribute conditioned air throughout the galleries.

The gallery floor trusses form a planar system fabricated from standard hot-rolled W-Tee chords and double-angle diagonals with a 52 in. (1,320 mm) structural depth. Their layout, spaced 6 ft (1.8 m) apart on center, allows the mechanical systems to enter the ceiling of the theater between the trusses as they exit from the vertical distribution shaft, which is located in the core of the building. The geometry of each truss is developed to allow for the passage of 24 in. (610 mm) diameter ducts in each of its openings. This provides for the north–south distribution of utility services from the main supply lines as well as return ducts at the south end of the theater.

The structure for the Poss Family Mediatheque hinges like a door out of the diaphragm of the gallery floor structure. The floor of the media center functions as a horizontal cantilever for lateral loading. Vertical loading is transferred via hangers into the megatrusses.

The building’s facade is a conventional “stick system” of glass and metal panels on a 3 ft (0.9 m) grid supported by mullions, which span between the individual floors. The glass facade of the north gallery consists of hanging glass fins, which cantilever from the roof diaphragm to ensure that views of the harbor to the north are unobstructed.

In general, the building structure and all of the building envelope elements were designed in accordance with the sixth edition of the Massachusetts Building Code.

The foundation system for the building consists of steel H piles with concrete pile caps and a grillage of concrete beams. The ground floor is a suspended concrete slab supported by the grillage of concrete beams, which tie the pile caps together. The steel piles are HP 14×117 (360 mm deep) and are more than 100 ft (30.5 m) long. Their capacities are 430 kips (1,912 kN) for compression and 100 kips (444 kN) in tension. They transfer loading via end bearing and friction into the ground. Geotechnical information for the design of the foundation system was provided to Arup by Haley & Aldrich, of Boston. In addition to a coating, a cathodic corrosion protection system was provided to protect the steel piles from the marine environment.

The efficient steel truss structural design not only provided room for the building’s mechanical systems in an efficient and aesthetic way; it also permitted a rapid and accurate erection procedure. Many of the building’s structural elements were fabricated in shops under controlled conditions, a process that facilitates verification of the geometries and precambers, controlled welding, and faster corrections when required. For example, once the fabrication of the megatrusses had been completed, the trusses were preassembled to verify their tolerances and then shipped to the site for final assembly.

Moreover, the gallery floor trusses and the triangular roof trusses are all similar in shape and size, minimizing the engineering and detailing time required. Fabrication in the plant is repetitive, thus maximizing the production rate of the gravity support system.

At the construction site the megatruss assemblies were bolted together on the ground in a staging area, and each megatruss was then lifted into place by a pair of cranes. The two interior megatrusses are stabilized against lateral loading by diagonal bracing, which is integrated in the core of the building. Temporary bracing during construction utilized the permanent bracing in the core, allowing for simple erection procedures of an otherwise complex structure. The only other lateral bracing, apart from the diagonal bracing in the core of the building, is located on the building’s east side. The absence of bracing on the west side of the building provides unobstructed views of the harbor through the lobby and the theater.

The roof and gallery floor trusses were lifted into place as “infill” elements and bolted to stabilize the top and bottom chords of the megatrusses. With all of the major structural elements in place, the remaining structural systems—standard wide-flange composite floor framing on the second and third levels—were then erected

Construction began in the fall of 2004 and the building was occupied in December 2006. Macomber Builders, of Boston—supported by the international construction firm Skanska—was selected as the construction manager. (Macomber announced in January of this year that, after 103 years, it was ceasing operations.)

Within the structure, the electric lighting design establishes a warm atmosphere in the evening, inviting the public to visit during the nighttime hours. The lighting creates a warm reflective glow against the wood finish on the cantilever above. The exterior of the gallery is illuminated on the east, south, and west faces, bathing the glass channel facade in white light and imparting a glow that drapes over the spaces below.

Peter Vanderwarker

The ribbon of wood that extends up the staircase of the structure and over the seating inside the theater, up the theater walls and across its ceiling, and back out again to the underside of the cantilever is a unifying element that creates a sense of motion and drama in the new structure.

The naturally lit upper gallery box meets the ICA’s need for more space, making it possible to host exhibits from the museum’s permanent collection as well as temporary exhibits of the work of established and rising artists. The many types of exhibits that will grace the museum will benefit from the open spaces in the galleries, the adaptable partitions, and the adjustable shades that have been provided. The galleries can easily be modified to suit changing needs from exhibit to exhibit because such environmental conditions as shading, lighting, temperature, and humidity can all be controlled. The building attracts visitors to the site without distracting them from the artwork itself.

The design of this museum required close collaboration between the architects and the engineers throughout the process, and the structural design helped with the architectural articulation. This example of the merging of engineering and architecture has provided the institution with a building that is as much a piece of contemporary art as are the performances in the theater and the exhibits in the gallery.

The unique and ambitious design of the Institute of Contemporary Art addressed the client’s needs and expectations. The building, like the artwork within, conveys a distinct and contemporary image to the harbor front. The unique structure of the building, the integration of public spaces, and the radiant facades serve as a beacon to the residents of the Boston arts community—and to national patrons as well.