New design details revealed for Memphis Brooks Museum of Art's Downtown space

By Stephen MacLeod – Reporter, Memphis Business Journal

Mar 29, 2023

The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art has filed with the Design Review Board, (DRB), a Downtown Memphis Commission (DMC) sub-board, to get approval for the designs of its new Downtown space.

The DRB documents give extensive new details on the long-planned location, which is being designed by Switzerland and New York-based Herzog & de Meuron and local firm archimania. The former buildings on the site on Front Street, a fire station and parking garage, have both been demolished as construction inches ever closer on the proposed 117,000-square-foot museum. Grinder Taber Grinder is the general contractor on the project.

The design calls for two main parts, the museum itself and the public park that is designed to sit on top of it.

The leadership of the Brooks Museum intends for its space Downtown to be a connector of people as much as an art museum. Free, community amenities planned include over 60,000 square feet of free indoor and outdoor art-filled public spaces; a rooftop sculpture garden; a courtyard; an events terrace; a river amphitheater; a storefront for artists; a cafe; and a theater.

A garden is designed to sit on the roof of the museum and be open to the public — complete with a pond, flowers, sculptures, and trees.

Then there is the art museum itself, a 59,000-square-foot facility that is set to feature galleries to display and make art. In addition to the Brook's collection of more than 10,000 works of art, the museum plans to also feature maker spaces and studios, allowing guests to doodle, create, or sculpt their own works. The Brooks will also feature a store for artists to showcase local artists and their works for purchase.

"Memphis' art museum will be a hub to spark the creativity for our local makers as well as a vehicle to drive the creative economy," the DRB application states. "The artist market, filled with the best locally made artisanal goods, will present tourists and locals the very best of Memphis-area originality."

The spaces are also intended to have constant programming, from live music to weddings to classes and traditional events like Chalkfest.

The move Downtown is part of a plan to reshape the museum’s identity and presence in the city, and that’s an exciting goal to build toward, the Brook's executive director, Zoe Kahr, told MBJ in October.

“It’s a huge opportunity to rethink the program and rethink how we’re using the collection: what we’re highlighting, what stories we’re telling,” she said in the fall. “I love that there will be beautiful gallery spaces to take advantage of the river, the courtyard is going to be a really special space to do events, and then that front porch on Front Street, I think it’s going to be amazing for people to feel drawn into the museum."

The Brooks Museum's design application is scheduled to be reviewed at the DRB meeting on April 5.