In Kansas City, Modernist Museum Addition Complements Beaux-Arts Original

Holl's addition, situated next to the Beaux-Arts museum built in 1930s, creates a series of glass blocks that continues from a new public plaza on the north end to frame one edge of a long, rolling sculpture park at the south. The architect describes the blocks as "lenses" that draw light into the museum galleries.

"The result is a building that doesn’t challenge the past so much as suggest an alternate worldview that is in constant shift. Seen from the north plaza, the addition’s main entrance gently defers to the old building, the crystalline form suggesting a ghostlike echo of the austere stone facade. From there, the eye is drawn to the distinct yet interconnected translucent blocks, which are partly buried in the landscape."