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:
“A building is akin to dogma; it is insolent, like dogma. Whether or no it is permanent, it claims permanence, like a dogma. People ask why we have no typical architecture of the modern world, like impressionism in painting. Surely it is obviously because we have not enough dogmas; we cannot bear to see anything in the sky that is solid and enduring, anything in the sky that does not change like the clouds of the sky.”
—Gilbert Keith Chesterton (1874–1936)
“Travelling is the ruin of all happiness! There’s no looking at a building here after seeing Italy.”
—Fanny Burney (1752–1840)
“... what’s been building since the 1980’s is a new kind of social Darwinism that blames poverty and crime and the crisis of our youth on a breakdown of the family. That’s what will last after this flurry on family values.”
—Stephanie Coontz (b. 1944)