Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art
The Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art ("The Johnson Museum") is an art museum located on the northwest corner of the Arts Quad on the main campus of Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. Its collection includes two windows from Frank Lloyd Wright's Darwin D. Martin House, and more than 35,000 other works in the permanent collection. It was designed by architect I.M. Pei and is known for its distinctive concrete facade. History President Deane Waldo Malott established the original University Art Museum in 1953. The A. D. White House was renovated to house Cornell's art collections. The current museum, constructed in 1973, is named after its primary benefactor, Herbert Fisk Johnson, Jr., a Cornell Class of 1922 graduate, head of S.C. Johnson & Sons ("Johnson Wax"), and a former member of the university's Board of Trustees. Architecture The Johnson Museum of Art was designed by architect I.M. Pei. It can be characterized by its fifth floor, which cantilevers over the open aired sculpture garden. It was designed so that it would not block the view of Cayuga Lake, and offers a panoramic view of the same from its north and west sides. It also houses a room for meetings on the sixth floor, which was used for many years by Cornell's Board of Trustees. The unique location of the museum presented several architectural challenges; building space was limited, and it could not overwhelm the view of Cayuga Lake or the nearby Arts Quad. Moreover, it would sit atop the knoll where tradition said Ezra Cornell chose the site for his university, at the north end of the Stone Row of McGraw, Morrill, and White Halls. The design sought to visually terminate the north end of Library Slope. The resulting design was a narrow tower and a bridge, which critics have likened to a giant sewing machine. The building was awarded the American Institute of Architects Honor Award in 1975. The building's design also appeared on the cover of Scientific American as an early example of computer graphics. Extension In 2011, the museum opened renovated spaces and a 16,000-square-foot extension inspired by the original plans drawn up by Pei Cobb Freed & Partners. The head architect was John L. Sullivan III, Cornell class of 1962. The project cost $22 million, including some renovations to the main building, and was funded by major grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Kresge Foundation. The Asian art storage area was relocated from the center of the fifth floor to the lower level of the addition, making room for additional public gallery space on the fifth floor. An outdoor Japanese garden was created outside the extension. In 2015, Cornell filed a lawsuit against Pei Cobb Freed & Partners for "architectural malpractice," citing an "inherently flawed and materially defective" design of the new wing. Cornell claimed the addition was "fundamentally flawed" and resulted in over $1.1 million in damage costs. Collections The permanent collection consists of more than 35,000 works of art.