LA JOLLA, CALIFORNIA
The Museum was founded in 1941 and
occupied the Scripps House, an early Modern villa designed in 1915 by
Irving Gill. The renovations created a new facade for the existing
buildings in order to enrich the museum's image and civic presence and to
make it more inviting to the museum-goer. The Scripps House front
were exposed and restored, and the vine-covered pergolas of the original
garden was reconstructed to form a new entrance court to the museum and
the new restaurant.
Behind the new facade contains arched windows reminiscent of other nearby Irving Gill buildings, the restaurant, guest quarters for visiting artists, and an expanded bookstore. The existing concrete arcade and entrance courtyard were replaced by a new central court-elegantly paved and surmounted by a sky lit dome - which provides access to the bookstore, auditorium and galleries, and serves as a banquet hall for special gala events.
A new gallery addition at the northwest corner of the site added 20,000 square feet of new exhibition and art storage space to the museum. The exhibition and art storage space to the museum. The exhibition space includes four new galleries, as well as smaller intermediary spaces that provide "intermissions" between the main galleries - views to the ocean, window seats and access to paved terraces overlooking the garden below.
James Williamson, AIA of WPA served as project architect while an associate at Venturi, Rauch & Scott Brown, Architects.