Museum of Delineation

Project Team: Brittany Drapac

Columbia University GSAPP: Core Studio II / Joaquim Moreno

Date: Jan. 2009-May 2009

Site: Bowery District, New York, NY

Program: Public museum of drawings

Size: 54,000 SF

The Museum of Delineation is sited between SANAA’s New Museum and the Bowery Mission in New York’s Lower East Side. I began by visualizing the museum as a collage of shifting layers, like its neighborhood of collaged histories and social fabrics. The museum’s design is inspired by the action of drawing itself: it wavers between scribble and precision, constantly generating multiple scales and depths. Public plaza steps carve into the ground floor for access to the cafe and drawing arcade. Galleries for large, small and digital works weave within the narrow lot, while the auditorium projects over the entry, and the escalators above extend towards the street, providing a transitional pause mid-museum. The valley-shaped roof encloses a drawing room and winter garden, filtering rainwater into a reflecting pool below.