Stone & Feather: Steven Holl Architects / The Nelson-Atkins Museum Expansion

Museums have become the pre-eminent building type for the expression of new architectural ideas. Holl's expansion of the Nelson Atkins Museum of Art achieves a fusion of architecture with landscape that redefines the boundaries of the museum-going experience while creating one of the most unorthodox and breathtakingly beautiful examples of recent museum design. Holl's structure emerges from the landscape as five interconnected glass structures or "lenses," which both draw light into the building and serve to accentuate the museum's sculpture garden, providing both new spaces and angles of vision. Executed through close collaboration with museum curators and artists, the building achieves a dynamic and supportive relationship between art and architecture. A critical assessment by architectural historian Jeffery Kipnis, a generous selection of the architect's preliminary watercolour studies and breathtaking photography make this volume an essential reference.