Last Friday Rachel and I took a field trip to the Akron Art Museum to see for ourselves the controversial architecture.  As the museum was being built I hated it.  After reading more about the architect and his plan for infusing the city of Akron with a “three-dimensional representation of our social culture,” I came to appreciate his talent.  He is renowned for adaptive re-use of historic buildings, mixing old with new.  In this case, new is represented by his use of steel and glass with weightlessness implied by the dramatic angles of the towering structure. 

I am a firm believer in mixing old with new in design.  In my own home I have antiques in every room, but wall colors, other furniture, art and accessories represent today’s fashions. 

I feel the architect succeeded in respecting the past by surrounding the old museum’s building with the new structure, yet forging Akron into the future with today’s architectural fashion (sleek, transparent, clean lines).

The art itself is presented well in spacious rooms with hip but subdued colors (not to detract from the art itself).  Area artists from Akron, Cleveland and Hudson are well-represented.  Abstract art, sculpture and paintings are blended into each space in a comfortable flow.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 26th, 2007 at 12:21 pm and is filed under Home Improvement, Taking Care of Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.