Bloch Building (Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art)

The Bloch Building is the contemporary addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, designed by architect Steven Holl and opened June 9, 2007. Its five translucent glass “lenses” step down the eastern edge of the museum campus through the sculpture park — a deliberate modern counterpoint to the museum’s 1933 neoclassical “temple.” Time magazine named it the number-one architectural marvel of 2007.

[!info] Cornerstone-adjacent entry Created out of the deep-dive on the Shuttlecocks. Citation-first; sourced to named references with links.

Design

The Bloch Building was designed by Steven Holl (with partner-in-charge Chris McVoy of Steven Holl Architects), who won the international design competition in 1999.¹ Rather than a single mass, the addition is a series of five glass pavilions — which Holl called “lenses” — that rise above roughly 165,000 square feet of largely underground gallery space, increasing the museum’s size by about 71 percent.¹² By day the lenses admit filtered natural light to the galleries below; by night they glow from within, and the whole addition steps down the hillside through the Kansas City Sculpture Park.³

The design is a conscious contrast with the original 1933 Beaux-Arts Nelson-Atkins building — an inward-facing, opaque “temple to art.” Where the older building is classical and solid, the Bloch is translucent, horizontal, and woven into the landscape.³² It opened on June 9, 2007, at a cost of approximately $95 million.¹²

The addition houses galleries for contemporary art, African art, and photography, along with special-exhibition space, the Spencer Art Reference Library, the Noguchi Sculpture Court, and a café.¹

Name and donor

The building is named for Henry W. Bloch (1922-2019), co-founder with his brother Richard of the Kansas City tax-preparation company H&R Block — named in honor of Marion and Henry Bloch, whose family foundation was the lead donor.¹²

Recognition

In 2007, Time magazine ranked the Bloch Building number one on its list of the year’s best new architecture — “The 10 Best (New and Upcoming) Architectural Marvels.”¹² The building is widely regarded as one of the most significant works of American museum architecture of its decade.

Sources

Footnotes

1. Wikipedia — “Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson-Atkins_Museum_of_Art — Confirms: Steven Holl (competition won 1999); five glass “lenses” over ~165,000 sq ft; opened June 9, 2007; ~$95 million; named for H&R Block co-founder Henry W. Bloch; Time No. 1 architectural marvel of 2007. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

2. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art — “10 Years: From Opening to New Challenge (the Bloch Building).” https://www.nelson-atkins.org/10-years-opening-new-challenge-bloch-building/ — Confirms: June 9, 2007 opening; 165,000 sq ft / 71% increase; “2007’s No. 1 architectural marvel”; naming in honor of Marion and Henry Bloch. ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵

3. ArchEyes — “The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art Expansion by Steven Holl Architects.” https://archeyes.com/the-nelson-atkins-museum-of-art-expansion-by-steven-holl-architects/ — Confirms: five glass “lenses”; contrast with the neoclassical 1933 “Temple to Art”; integration with the sculpture park along the eastern edge. ↩ ↩²