Located in the arboretum at Penn State, the Palmer Art Museum provides nearly 20,000 sq ft of gallery space. In its new and more accessible location, the museum also aims to create a gateway to the arboretum. The building also houses retail space with the potential for cafe programming, event space, education space, collections/curatorial support space and administrative space.

The three-story main museum, which includes a basement level, connects to a separate three-story education and administration wing by a gallery bridge. The design team organized the facility around a series of exterior courtyards, which creates several exterior gathering spaces including an entry court, sculpture court, event court and education court.

Skylights with multilayered diffusing and control bring natural daylight into a combination of single and double height galleries. Views to the landscape are provided in and between galleries, with light mitigated by an ornamental metal screen.

Photo courtesy Holder Construction

The design team prioritized the siting and building design to connect the museum to the site and surrounding landscape. The interior and exterior spaces were designed to “blur the boundary between the museum and the arboretum,” according to the design team. While providing landscape views, the design also had to limit light and heat exposure inside the galleries. To achieve that balance, crews installed an automated window and skylight shade system, stringent glass makeup and an architectural metal screen that framed each window. The metal screen was designed at each elevation to deflect light with the solar angles at that specific location while accommodating the changing angles throughout the year.

With preconstruction undertaken early in the COVID pandemic, the construction team faced numerous supply chain issues, including lead times of more than 50 weeks for electrical panels and equipment. Custom aluminum curtain wall mullions had lead times of 20 weeks to design and acquire. Custom stone was quarried from a local source that could only be cut during certain portions of the year because the quarry shut down during the winter months.

Crews also had to contend with extensive rock on the site. Located next to the arboretum and existing utilities, blasting wasn’t an option, so chipping had to be used for the entire below-grade basement. Because crews had to execute chipping through the winter months, temporary heating and defrosting was needed to keep the conditions workable during freezing temperatures and after snowstorms.

Photo courtesy Holder Construction

Despite these challenges, the team delivered the two-year project on schedule in August 2023.

The completed facility features the largest art museum collection between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia, according to the project team. As a key element of Penn State’s land-grant mission of teaching, research and public service, the museum serves as a vital and accessible cultural resource for university students, faculty, staff and scholars. Through its objects, programs and outreach, the museum aims to create a welcoming, inclusive and vibrant forum for authentic arts experiences as well as a site for cultivating meaningful dialogue about art and ideas.