• Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to secondary sidebar

New York Almanack

History, Natural History & the Arts

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Adirondacks & NNY
  • Capital-Saratoga
  • Mohawk Valley
  • Hudson Valley & Catskills
  • NYC & Long Island
  • Western NY
  • History
  • Nature & Environment
  • Arts & Culture
  • Outdoor Recreation
  • Food & Farms
  • Subscribe
  • Support
  • Submit
  • About
  • New Books
  • Events
  • Podcasts

Brooklyn Museum Plans New Entryway Experience

February 2, 2015 by Editorial Staff Leave a Comment

unnamed(35)The Brooklyn-based design firm SITU Studio has been selected by the Brooklyn Museum to create a new environment in the entry Pavilion and Lobby to transform the Museum’s entry. Taking a cue from retail and the hospitality sector, the new SITU-designed entry experience will focus on an assemblage of reconfigurable modular furniture designed to connect staff with visitors, while improving traffic and way-finding.

The transformation of the Lobby and Pavilion are a part of Bloomberg Connects, a global initiative from Bloomberg Philanthropies that provides funding for the development of technology to increase access to cultural institutions and enrich visitor experiences. Through this program, the Brooklyn Museum is expected to develop ASK, a mobile app that will be beta tested with visitors in March and launch in June.

ASK seeks to improve the visitor experience by providing a platform for visitors to ask staff questions that will be answered in real time during their visit. Location-based technology is being implemented throughout the Museum so that staff can see what works of art visitors are near.

The SITU design will establish a completely new visitor entrance sequence and experience and feature a mobile group of interactive hubs, ticketing booths, signage, and information displays. Moving into the galleries, there will be wall-mounted question-and-answer stations. This approach will provide an opportunity for the Museum to test different solutions by examining the interactive potential of these modular components and adjusting and reconfiguring them as necessary.

When the program launches in June, an audience engagement team will be based in a specially designed hub in the lobby area to respond to visitor questions, both on the mobile app and in person. Pre-visit information about exhibitions, hours, and directions will be available on the app at any time, but the interactive component is available only when geo-location indicates that a visitor is in the Museum.

In 2011, SITU Studio created a site-specific architectural installation, ReOrder, that inaugurated the first phase of the Brooklyn Museum’s project for the 10,000-square-foot colonnaded hall on the first floor. The installation re-imagined the classically ordered space to serve as a hub-a place for visitors to congregate, relax, view temporary exhibitions, and see an occasional performance-through the creation of a series of stretched fabric canopies and integrated furnishings that expanded and augmented the profile of the columns, transforming them from base to capital. It was the recipient of the 2011 Interior Design Best of Year Award for large exhibition installation.

Beginning with support for audio guides in 1999, Bloomberg Philanthropies has helped cultural institutions stay current with the latest trends in technology and revolutionize the visitor experience. In addition, the foundation has provided funding for technology at institutions including the American Museum of Natural History, Art Institute of Chicago, Cooper Hewitt Design Museum, Jewish Museum, Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Science Museum in London, Museum of Modern Art in New York, Gardens by the Bay in Singapore, Tate Modern, Metropolitan Opera, New York Botanical Garden, and Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Photo provided: The present Brooklyn Museum Lobby (photo by Cat Guzman).

Print Friendly, PDF & Email

Filed Under: History, New Exhibits, New York City Tagged With: Brooklyn, Brooklyn Museum, Museums, New York City, NYC, Public History, Technology

About Editorial Staff

Stories written under the Editorial Staff byline are drawn from press releases and other notices. Submit your news to New York Almanack here.

Reader Interactions

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Primary Sidebar

Help Finish Our 2022 Fundraising

Subscribe to New York Almanack

Subscribe! Follow the New York Almanack each day via E-mail, RSS, Twitter or Facebook updates.

Recent Comments

  • GARY SCHOEN on Moose Are Back in New York State: A Population Update
  • Deb Heller on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End
  • John Warren on Civil War in the Mohawk Valley: The Battle of Oriskany
  • Richard Daly on Poetry: Mention It, Don’t Insist
  • Norma Coney on Civil War in the Mohawk Valley: The Battle of Oriskany
  • David Forest on Knapp’s Folly: Sullivan County’s Columbia Hotel
  • John Jarosz on State Rebuilding of High Peaks Wilderness Roads Challenged in Court
  • Marlene V Thompson on Supporting the Poor in Saratoga County
  • Sue L on Hair Ice and Frost Flowers
  • dave on Catskills Resort History: The Beginning of the End

Recent New York Books

The Great New York Fire of 1776
The Sugar Act and the American Revolution
battle of harlem hights
Ladies Day at the Capitol
voices of wayne county
CNY Snowstorm book front cover
The Struggles of Boston's Black Workers in the Civil War Era
Expanded Second Edition of Echoes in These Mountains
historic kingston book

Secondary Sidebar

preservation league
Protect the Adirondacks Hiking Guide