In-Depth: Quadracci Pavilion at the Milwaukee Art Museum

From Milwaukee Museum of Art

My first encounter with anything designed by Santiago Calatrava, famed Spanish sculptor, engineer, and architect, was a small bridge he had designed adjacent to the Bundespressekonferenz in Berlin.  The small structure, hugging the river with it's sweeping white form, is sculpture and function in one package.  The simple move of the bridge transforms the area, lifting the spirits yet not screaming "LOOK AT ME."  Function and design combined in the simplest and most effective of ways.  It was with this high hope that I journeyed a cold October day to see the new expansion he had done in Milwaukee on the advice of an architecture interested friend of mine.

After trekking all the way up to Milwaukee, a beautiful and frigid city, I have to say that while the move is monumental, the result is less than impressive.  As an architect, Calatrava is drawn into the same things that I found failed a lot of people I work with, studied with, and studied in architecture.  The grand gesture of the sculpture has allowed a building to be built which is stunning in some ways, and falls incredibly flat in others, all while living in a world that could never hope to maintain in terms of what he has dreamt.

As seen above, the exterior of the building is built to be a showpiece.  I won't go into detail with pictures here as any Google search will bring you more than enough of this building to make you think you could sketch it with a crayon on the back of your Dentist's dated Hilights from the year you started Pre-K.  Calatrava is truly a sculptor, and his bird-like mechanical bris soliel (which in my opinion serve no other function than looking hot) are beautiful in still and motion, especially against a blue sky (see above again.)  But they, in my opinion, are the most significant part of the building.  His anchoring of the form of the wings to the body of the building with a pyramid-shaped glass roof is less than inspired, but an answer nonetheless, even if it is a maintenance nightmare.  The shaping of the front of the great hall, the body of the bird so to speak, is also overplayed in the form of a bow.  There are more inspiring ways to go about this.  But we'll let this slide, being a waterfront building.  The galleries are uninspired, looking much like the midsection of the Event Horizon painted in gloss white and slammed into the side of a bird.  Add these to the balanced block of service elements on the other side of the hall and you've got a museum expansion that features its architecture much more than its art.  (It should also be noted that it equally overshadows an older portion of the museum designed by Eero Saarinen that is very much in my opinion what a museum should be.)  Outstanding and beautiful from an engineering standpoint, is the addition of a tensile cable support bridge linking the museum to the elevated park across the road.  Calatrava's engineering once again standing out in its simplicity and form.

From Milwaukee Museum of Art

On the interior side of the building, things could be called a mixed bag.  The great hall under the wings is truly that, a space designed with the great in mind.  The bow shape draws those who have just entered the museum from the basement garage, the bridge, or the main level into the building and towards the lakefront with its large sloped glazing offering a sweeping vista of Lake Michigan.  Finish is classic and refined for Calatrava's aesthetic, with stark white walls, unimpeded glass, sharp stainless, and polished Carrera marble.  It is an awe inspiring space.  A major flaw in my opinion is that the design specified a heavily tinted glass for the ceiling and walls, which causes the whole room to be bathed for the most part in a rather sickening bluish green light.  On the sunny day I was there it was almost unnatural, and you can see this effect on some of the photos I took in that space in the linked gallery.  Additionally Calatrava's choice of materials so fine into such a heavily traveled area are detrimental, with the soft marble and fine stainless grates having already taken on heavy wear, deflection, and gouging by anything from dragged cases to high heel shoes.

There are great moments however.  Two of those are related to the garage.  The garage itself runs directly under the main galleries.  Because of the shape of the building, it's walls are lined with light wells which allow daylight to flood the outer walls giving the space a lightness.  Additionally Calatrava has used his sculptural engineering prowess to span the space from a central Y system, allowing parking in two aisles divided in the middle.  The space reminds one of a sterile cathedral, yet is warmer in my opinion than the great hall above it.

Additionally the reception hall from the garage to the museum is an amazingly simple yet powerful space.  Circular, it has two levels, the garage and an intermediate, built into the hillside, allowing for accessory functions for arriving patrons such as restrooms, a meeting room and offices.  It's walls, washed by recessed lighting are smooth, with the marble steps gleaming under the warm glow, and the floor of the great hall opens above it to show a wonderfully placed Calder mobile, which seems three dimensional at first, but then shows depth as one either moves up by elevator or stair.  The elevator is also something of contention to me.  While intriguing from a design standpoint, it is clearly a VERY expensive custom built piece.  This money would have been much better spent elsewhere in my opinion.  See pictures to see what I mean.  A simple glass elevator would have done where formally this echoes to nothing around it.

The galleries it is worth noting are quite expansive and equally sterile.  This is normally good for a museum, but in this case the shape of the ceiling and length in certain exhibitions make it seem like an afterthought, a hanger attached to a mansion.  In the case of my visit the work was quite modest and at times intimate, and the scale used for the exhibition of at times the full width of the hall and long lengths was in my opinion a detriment to the work.  

It should also be noted that the gift shop divides part of this space as does a conference hall, two things that seem to break up the galleries and be separate from the other accessory functions, opposite the great hall.  Why these weren't put with other civic uses is something I do not understand.  Perhaps it was the choice to put circulation on either side of the long galleries, something I would have preferred to have seen altered in favor of a long central corridor for work and two long side galleries as the halls seem to be afterthoughts.

I would like to also make a personal note that you should call ahead before you visit.  Although I planned ahead, I discovered that once I had gotten there, large portions of the museum were going to be closed in a half an hour for a private function.  This pitch wasn't given until after I had paid for the ticket.  Bad form.

From Milwaukee Museum of Art

To come to a conclusion one has to I think look at Calatrava's career.  The building has spectacular engineering prowess and sculptural value, but it seems to me that for reasons mentioned above, Calatrava has not yet fleshed out how to make "his" type of building like he would his bridges.  Built to be resilient as well as beautiful.  This building will stand out for a while, but neglect is already setting in due to the complication of the design.