Albright-Knox Gundlach Art Museum Reopens in Buffalo with OMA Expansion

The Albright-Knox Gundlach Art Museum in Buffalo reopened on June 10, 2023, following a $230 million expansion and renovation project by OMA. The project includes a new 27,000-square-foot wing named after Jeffrey E. Gundlach, who donated $65 million, a renovated 1962 building by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, and a skybridge to the neoclassical Wilmers Building. The new wing, built on a former parking lot, features a three-story glass structure dedicated to the permanent collection. The courtyard, previously inaccessible, now serves as a hub for free public events. Artist Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces created a glass-and-steel canopy titled "Common Sky" for the courtyard. A digital tapestry by Miriam Bäckström greets visitors at the parking garage entrance. Since closing in 2019, the museum acquired 518 new works, including pieces by Simone Leigh, Sin Wai Kin, G. Peter Jemison, Phyllis Thompson, Dara Birnbaum, Joan Jonas, and Martha Rosler. The museum was founded in 1862 as the Buffalo Fine Arts Academy, with its first building financed by John Joseph Albright in 1905. It became the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in 1962 after a donation from Seymour Horace Knox. The latest name change honors Jeffrey Gundlach.