The new landscape elements for the Norton Museum in West Palm Beach, Fla., will be a sculpture garden and landscape amenities. This will be Gustafson Guthrie Nichol's first project work in Florida.
Photo: Norton Museum

The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla., announces that Kathryn Gustafson of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol will be the landscape architect for its new expansion designed by architecture firm Foster + Partners, under the direction of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Lord Norman Foster.

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol will transform the parking lot at the main entrance on the Museum's south side into a 9,000-square-foot sculpture garden, and add landscape amenities throughout the museum grounds.

Based in Seattle, Gustafson Guthrie Nichol's previous work includes the Lurie Garden in Millennium Park in Chicago (2004); the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Campus in Seattle (2011); and the winning competition design for Union Square on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. (2012).

Gustafson Guthrie Nichol and Foster + Partners previously collaborated on the Robert and Arlene Kogod Courtyard at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery (2007) and CityCenterDC (2013), a 10-acre site in the heart of downtown Washington, D.C.

"We're thrilled to announce the addition of Gustafson Guthrie Nichol to the design team for the Norton's expansion," said Hope Alswang, director and CEO of the Norton Museum. "The new sculpture garden will provide a welcoming space for our visitors, and an optimal open-air venue for our popular Art After Dark program with live music, lectures, and film screenings." The sculpture garden will be located adjacent to a glass sculpture gallery that connects the interior of the museum with the lush, green setting.

The Norton Museum of Art opened in 1941 in a building designed by Marion Sims Wyeth with pavilions flanking a central courtyard. The Foster + Partners master plan restores the east-west symmetry and circulation of the Museum's original 1941 design by relocating the entrance to the west along the major thoroughfare of Dixie Highway, and also takes advantage of the 6.3-acre campus to re-create the sense of a museum within a garden. The expansion will also increases gallery space by 12,000 square feet, and add a state-of-the-art auditorium.

The design for the building is currently in the schematic phase, with construction expected to begin in 2016. Initial plans for the garden will be unveiled in summer 2015.

"We are excited to work with Norton Museum at this important moment in its history," said Gustafson Guthrie Nichol founding principal Kathryn Gustafson. "This project is our first in Florida, and gives us another opportunity to collaborate with Foster + Partners to create a serene garden setting that complements the design of the expansion, and provides outdoor space for the exhibition of art and other programs."