City Style Article
Exhibiting Flair
The new ICA is a masterpiece of glass, steel, and sweeping views. Oh, and there’s art here, too.
By Sascha de Gersdorff
- Photos by Bob O'Connor.
The just-opened Institute of Contemporary Art—formerly located on Boylston Street—is as forward-thinking as the art it exhibits. Designed by the New York firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, the 65,000-square-foot, four-story building on Fan Pier features two galleries with stark concrete floors, a high-tech art research lab, an 85-seat Wolfgang Puck café, and a glass elevator that’s more spacious than some Beacon Hill studios.
Vivid color abounds in the two-story theater, thanks to 325 tangerine folding seats. The wavelike perforated inner wall, crafted from gypsum and fiberglass, helps enhance acoustics; the theater’s floor and ceiling are made of Santa Maria hardwood from South America—a material found throughout the museum, including the stairwell, accented by a geometric, brightly lit steel banister. In the ultramodern Founders’ Gallery, a 16-foot-tall wall of glass looks out on Boston Harbor.
Vivid color abounds in the two-story theater, thanks to 325 tangerine folding seats. The wavelike perforated inner wall, crafted from gypsum and fiberglass, helps enhance acoustics; the theater’s floor and ceiling are made of Santa Maria hardwood from South America—a material found throughout the museum, including the stairwell, accented by a geometric, brightly lit steel banister. In the ultramodern Founders’ Gallery, a 16-foot-tall wall of glass looks out on Boston Harbor.
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