High Museum of Art

On a chilly February day I find myself in Atlanta visiting the High Museum of Art. Those who know me know that I love museums, in particular, museums that are as beautiful to look at as is the art within them. While far too many museums are simply drab concrete shells that do little to inspire, the High Museum is indeed architecturally beautiful.

On the day that I visited the High, the sky was obscured by low hanging fog that was pushed along by swiftly moving air currents, carrying a bitter chill and intermittent rain. Fortunately, the High is an incredibly large museum, offering ample room to escape the dreariness of winter lurking outside. Even on such a dark afternoon the museum was bright and well lit, owing largely to the incredible architecture that seemed to pull in every bit of light that the melancholy sky could muster.

The main building of the High Museum, built in 1983, was designed by Pritzker Prize winning architect Richard Meier. One of the greats of modern architecture, Meier has designed other iconic buildings including the Getty Center, New Harmony’s Atheneum, and the Jubilee Church in Rome. Like most of the structures Meier has designed, the High is white, the outside covered in porcelain-enameled steel panels. Over the two decades and change since then, much of the museum’s interior was changed – windows and skylights were covered up and interior walls were added. The problem was that there was simply too much light entering the museum for the sensitive artwork on the walls, in some cases 200 times too much. While all this light was bad news for the art, it was an amazing testament to just how effective daylight can be at providing illumination for large structures.

“Light, whether direct or filtered, admitted through skylights, ribbon glazing, clerestory strips, or minimal perforations in the panel wall, is a consistent preoccupation throughout; apart from its functional aspect, [light] is a symbol of the museum’s role as a place of aesthetic illumination and enlightened cultural values” – Richard Meier

The technology of the time simply was not what it is today, and much of the architectural intent was lost when skylights were covered up and interior walls added. In recent years however, the High was renovated to reverse many of the changes that had been made and to implement new technologies. Interior partitions that divided galleries were removed and high-tech window films were applied to the glass to filter out harmful ultraviolet light and control the amount of illumination that was allowed in.

In 2005, three new buildings at the High were opened to the public, doubling the size of the museum. The new buildings were designed by another Pritzker Prize winning architect, Renzo Piano. With 312,000 square feet, the High Museum is certainly worthy of the title “world class.” The permanent collections are impressive, the European collection perhaps the most so. My only disappointment after an enjoyable afternoon is that I don’t live in Atlanta; visiting this museum often would certainly be a pleasure.