Institute of Contemporary Art

Boston, MA - 2006

The new Boston Institute of Contemporary Art is located on the harbor at Fan Pier in south Boston. The 62,000 square foot building includes 18,000 square feet of galleries, a performing arts theater, a restaurant, a bookstore, education/workshop facilities, and administrative offices. The building design negotiates between two competing objectives: to perform as a dynamic civic building filled with public and social activities, and as a controlled, contemplative atmosphere for individuals interacting with contemporary art. The "public" building is built from the ground up; the "intimate" building, from the sky down.

The Boston Harborwalk borders the north and west edges of the ICA site. This surface is metaphorically extended into the new building as a pliable wrapper that defines the building’s major public spaces. It folds up from the walkway into a "grandstand" facing the water, it continues through the skin of the building to form a stage, then turns up to form the theater seating, then seamlessly envelopes the theater space, ultimately, slipping out through the skin to produce the ceiling of the exterior public "room." Above the wrapper sits the "gallery box": a large exhibition space on one level that dramatically cantilevers over the Harborwalk toward the water.