MASS MoCA Building 6 / Bruner/Cott & Associates

Architects: Bruner/Cott & Associates
Location: North Adams, MA 01247, United States
Lead Architects: Simeon Bruner, RA; Henry Moss, AIA, LEED AP; Jason Forney, AIA, LEED AP; Aoife Morris, AIA, LEED AP; George Gard, AIA; Stephanie Power, AIA; Lena Kozloski, AIA, LEED AP; Nat Crosby
Area: 130000.0 ft2
Project Year: 2017
Photographs: Michael Moran

Construction Manager: Gilbane Building Co.
Mep/Fp Engineers: Petersen Engineering
Electrical, Fa Engineers: R.W. Sullivan
Structural Engineering: ARUP
Acoustics: Acentech
Specifications: Kalin Associates
Environmental Consultant: GZA
Lighting Consultant: Lumen Studio
Code And Fire Protection : Cosentini Associates
Civil Engineering : Hill Engineering
Cost Estimating : Daedalus
Food Service : Colburn Guyette
Hardware: ASSA ABLOY
Structural Wood Testing: Wood Advisory Services, Inc.
Existing Conditions Building Scan : Existing Conditions Survey, Inc.
Environmental Graphics: Over,Unver
Owner : Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA)

Text description provided by the architects. A pioneering adaptive reuse project, Mass MoCA breathes new life into a 17-acre industrial complex built in the late 1800s. The museum was completed in three phases, initially opening to international acclaim in 1999. The third and final phase, Building 6, is the realization of the architect’s 25-year master plan, which continues Mass MoCA’s “museums within the museum” concept. Two buildings with a combined 130,000sf of undeveloped space create areas for video, film, and multi-media exhibits, as well as events, workshops, and storage.

The massiveness of both the buildings and the complex, with interlocking courtyards, bridges, and walkways, offered the opportunity to experiment with open spaces, structural elements, and connections. Design interventions weave in and out of over one thousand columns, hundreds of windows, and acres of maple factory floor. Existing spaces are edited, sculpting a two-story glass-roofed central core, a lounge at the museum’s “prow,” and two-story openings for art and visual connections. The original building remains legible—giving scale, context, and history—but has been thoroughly transformed for its new life as a museum.

The building’s most important orienting, ceremonial, and transitional spaces are created through the act of sculptural salvage, rather than the addition of new materials. All bricks, structural wood, and finished wood used on the project are salvaged from the building itself—greatly reducing transportation, extraction, and industrial energy. The result is a transparency that encourages experimentation and collaboration within the framework of a place known for centuries as a center for innovation.