Studio Gang and SCAPE Integrate Old and New, Building and Nature, at the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts | Architectural Record
After nearly 80 years of piecemeal growth encompassing eight additions and a multitude of styles, the Arkansas Arts Center had become an architectural jigsaw puzzle that was hard for visitors to navigate and disconnected from its setting in Little Rock’s MacArthur Park. So in 2016, it began a process of reimagining itself for the 21st century, hiring Studio Gang to expand its building once again, and taking a new name—the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts (AMFA). The challenge for Jeanne Gang and the team at her eponymous Chicago firm was to add yet another piece to this beloved institution while making sense of it all and reaching out to its leafy surroundings and the city beyond. Eventually, Gang decided that the right approach was to crack open the structure and graft a sinuous, light-filled atrium onto it.
