Rediscovering Atlanta’s Architecture: The High Museum

By Author: National Monuments Foundation
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Atlanta is frequently accused of forgetting its history. Indeed, as progress marches forward and the city's core bustles with new development, older structures are discarded as worthless, usurped by monotonous, anonymous gleaming glass towers. We can learn from the losses of the Loew's Grand Theatre, the Piedmont Hotel, the original Equitable Building, Terminal Station, and several other smaller but no less significant buildings that demolition of historic fabric is a loss for our city. And the significance of appreciating the classical architecture that has survived.

Recently, the tide has begun to turn, with notable preservation successes, such as the Bell Building, the Forsyth-Walton Building, and the Trio Laundry, as well as the establishment of the Means Street Landmark District and the designation of the former Trust Company Bank Monroe branch as a landmark, thanks to public support.

Even so, as new construction consumes the city, much of Atlanta's rich built environment is taken for granted. Inspired by the near-loss of Breuer's Central Library (and the actual loss of countless other buildings), this 12-part ...
... series seeks to highlight buildings that Atlantans have relegated to irrelevance as well as those that we should continue to treasure, such as the High Museum of Art. The city will be able to better appreciate the wealth of buildings that make the urban realm a vibrant, rich, diverse, and interesting place to inhabit if we can recognise their unique merits and the nuanced designs that brought them into existence.

Art itself
The High Museum of Art is one of the Southeast's premier art institutions, but the buildings that house the collections are works of art in their own right. The High, a gleaming white aggregation of geometric forms, stands out as a distinct presence on Peachtree Street in the heart of Midtown.

The High Museum's four buildings — one designed by Richard Meier in 1983 and three by Renzo Piano in 2005 — are each a product of their time and designers. Nonetheless, the buildings work well together as a campus, arranged around a central courtyard and united by a monochromatic white colour scheme.

Growth and a post-modern masterwork
The High Museum collections were housed in the mid-1970s in the Woodruff Arts Center, which had been completed in 1968 as the Memorial Arts Center. The centre encircled the existing minimalist red brick building that had been the museum's first purpose-built facility, which had been built after the loss of many of the city's art patrons in an aeroplane crash. The museum, led by director Gudmund Vigtel, recognised the need for a new facility as Atlanta and the High's collections grew.

Richard Meier
Vigtel and a selection committee scouted the country for an architect for the new building before settling on New York-based Richard Meier, who had found great success in modern residences emphasising basic geometries and a stark white palette.

The High Museum's design is reminiscent of his early residential work, consisting of a cube with one corner filleted, forming a swooping three-story glass reveal of an atrium at the museum's core. The ticketing area and theatre are housed in secondary volumes that protrude from the front of the building in a variety of geometric shapes.

A tongue-like ramp shoots from the volume's centre to Peachtree Street's sidewalk, drawing patrons under a white portal-like structure as they ascend toward the museum. Patrons must turn 180 degrees to enter the curvilinear welcome pavilion rather than entering the atrium directly. By doing so, Meier created a sense of anticipation, compression, and ultimately release in the building's core, which is surrounded by galleries.

While the stark white exterior and bold geometries are eye-catching, the central atrium is the design's high point. During the day, light pours into the atrium from the four-story-high glass ceiling, casting shadows from the heavy supporting members radiating out from the centre of the quarter-circle. Natural light then enters the galleries through gaps between the tops of the walls and the ceiling.

The grand atrium, monument architecture design galleries, and ramps glow through the curving three-story glass curtain wall at night, which is amplified by the reflective white enamel façade, as seen from Peachtree.
A series of curving ramps connect the gallery spaces at the atrium's outer edge, providing the building's main circulation. The design was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright's Guggenheim Museum in New York (1959). However, the High's ramps are narrow and only used for circulation, whereas the Guggenheim's broad ones also serve as gallery space.

When it was finished in 1983, the structure was hailed as a success around the world. Meier's design not only provided a dedicated home for the High's collections, but it also served as a geometric sculpture and a study in light.

Avant-garde The work launched Meier's career as a museum designer at the time. He would go on to win the Pritzker Prize and be appointed to design the Getty Center in Los Angeles (1997).

Meier's Peachtree Street entrance is no longer in use.

A legacy of design
Museum visitors are treated to not only a collection of art but also an experience of the art of architecture, thanks to the high quality of the buildings and the complementary visions of the two architects. The campus stands as a lasting testament to the High's dedication to bringing high design to the city.

Know more about National Monuments Foundation, please visit www.thenmf.org.

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