Building
The building was the first free-standing glass and steel frame structure of its type to be built in the United States. Construction took place from 1928-1931, when Higgins hired Boston architect Joseph D. Leland to design the new home for his collection. It was so innovative that Leland was instructed to build a one-story prototype to prove that the building would stand. The distinctive L-shaped, four-story facility is an extremely rare example of steel frame Art Deco architecture.
The interior walls of the main galleries were constructed of plaster on metal lathe, formed to resemble the stone Gothic arches of a medieval castle. In the spring of 1992, construction of an auditorium with state-of-the-art media capacity, a museum-quality climate-controlled special exhibits gallery, and fully equipped classrooms and education offices was completed. A central HVAC system was also installed to provide the proper environmental climate.
Read more about this topic: Higgins Armory Museum
Famous quotes containing the word building:
“People do not know the natural infirmity of their mind: it does nothing but ferret and quest, and keeps incessantly whirling around, building up and becoming entangled in its own work, like our silkworms, and is suffocated in it: a mouse in a pitch barrel.”
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–1592)
“And of the other things death is a new office building filled with modern furniture,
A wise thing, but which has no purpose for us.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“The artist must be an egotist because, like the spider, he draws all his building material from his own breast. But just the same the artist alone among men knows what true humility means. His reach forever exceeds his grasp. He can never be satisfied with his work. He knows when he has done well, but he knows he has never attained his dream. He knows he never can.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)