LOUISVILLE, KY.- The Speed Art Museum announced that it has retained Cooper, Robertson, & Partners, an architecture and urban design firm in New York City, to develop a Master Plan for the museum. The Master Plan will chart the museum’s architectural future for the next 20 years.

Cooper, Robertson & Partners has assisted art museums across the country in planning for their futures through a process that builds consensus for space use programs and master plans that both meet the needs and goals of an institution, and are feasible to implement. Notable clients include the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Cleveland Museum of Art as well as Harvard University.

The Speed’s master planning process will explore the role of architecture in furthering the Speed’s position as the leading visual arts institution in the state, and comes on the heels of the Cultural Blueprint for Greater Louisville, Inc. Cooper Robertson & Partners believe buildings help shape, and are shaped by their physical and cultural surroundings, so their process has as much concern for the consideration of the larger context as for its constituent parts, and for the public spaces between and around buildings as for the buildings themselves. Since the programming, planning, and subsequent design of a museum are inseparably interrelated, Cooper Robertson’s role is as the manager and facilitator of a process that will assist the Speed in defining its own needs for the next two decades.

Cooper Robertson will be assisted in the master planning process by AMS Planning & Research, Corp. in St. Louis, Missouri, which worked with Greater Louisville, Inc. on the Cultural Blueprint. AMS’s work will guide the strategic planning focusing on mission, goals and audience. Wolf and Company will assist with developing reliable cost estimates for the Master Plan. Wolf and Company has significant experience in developing conceptual cost models and budgeting for museums and other cultural buildings.

The master planning process will build on the museum’s mission, vision, and goals. A participatory approach to identify strategic goals and facility needs will be employed including work with staff, Board, city leaders, museum visitors, and the community at large. AMS will conduct a series of meetings with key stakeholders to understand and validate the museum’s mission and understand the issues that will affect the Master Plan. One issue studied will be the issue of identity and how well the current building projects an image of openness and accessibility to the greater community. The museum is a “listening” institution and is responsive to the needs and expectations of the public it serves. This process will continue the museum’s work toward making itself more useful to the community as well as explore the museum’s goals for education and programming in the future. A public forum about the museum’s master plan will be held at the museum on Wednesday, May 11 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. The museum expects to complete the Master Plan by the end of July.

The master planning process will explore options for expanding the museum. The museum needs additional space for the display of the existing permanent collection and special exhibitions. Space needs are also rapidly growing for collections that are promised to the Speed, including contemporary art, 20th century glass and ceramics, Asian art, African art, prints, and Kentucky materials.

For the past several years, the museum and its Board of Governors have been exploring the expansion needs of the museum. University of Kentucky Dean of the College of Design, David Mohney, and a committee of the Speed visited museums to talk with directors and curators, and discuss the issues surrounding museum building projects. Sponsored by The Sutherland Foundation, the group visited over 50 museums in 15 cities around the world on five separate tours to identify the “best practices” in great museum architecture, including Milwaukee, Wisconsin; Bilbao, Spain; and Basel, Switzerland. . Each of the museums the committee visited invested in internationally important architecture, thus revitalizing itself and its surrounding neighborhoods as well as the city as a whole. An exhibition of photographs from the visits was held at the museum in 2003.

In 2004, The Sutherland Foundation sponsored a symposium presented by the museum as part of its efforts to explore great architecture around the world and open a dialog for improving the visual landscape in Louisville through innovative building projects. The keynote speaker was World Trade Center redevelopment architect, Daniel Libeskind. Other participants were journalist Kurt Andersen, and museum directors Lisa Phillips of the New Museum in New York, and Charles Desmarais, former director of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Philanthropist Emily Rauh Pulitzer also participated. An open forum with the speakers provided the public the opportunity to discuss great design principles in the context of a possible museum expansion.