North Carolina Museum of Art Renovations & Improvements
Anchored by a new open-air Pavilion, improvements to the North Carolina Museum of Art’s East Building and Museum Park create a more connected and active cultural landscape.
Building on its role as an established destination for art and community, the North Carolina Museum of Art has transformed its East Building and Museum Park into a dynamic cultural landscape, centered on a new open-air Pavilion that brings architecture, landscape, and public life into dialogue with the museum’s dynamic permanent collection and its ever-changing catalog of new exhibits.
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Rendering featuring Gyre (1999) by Thomas Sayre as part of the site context.
As part of NCMA’s capital campaign Reimagining the Possible, the campus improvements began as an early programming and pre-design effort that explored how the Museum’s East Building and surrounding Museum Park could evolve as a more connected, accessible, and publicly engaging campus. Over time, this vision, a design collaboration between Architect-of-Record HH Architecture, Design Architect EskewDumezRipple, and Landscape Architect Design Workshop, expanded into a $26.5M coordinated project comprising of multiple interrelated components contributing to a stronger relationship between art, architecture, and landscape across the site.
View of Pavilion and East Building entrance
Pavilion
At the heart of the outdoor improvements is the open-air Pavilion, conceived as a flexible structure that anchors a larger cultural green. Designed to support performances, community events, private gatherings, and informal daily use, the Pavilion blurs the boundary between indoor and outdoor programming. Its canopy is conceived as a folded plane, an expressive yet restrained architectural gesture that defines the space below while framing views toward the East Building and the surrounding landscape.
A key feature of the canopy is its reflective, but not mirrored, surface, which registers light, movement, and the expansive park environment, allowing the structure to remain visually connected to its setting rather than standing apart from it. Integrated infrastructure like AV projection capabilities and a catering kitchen support a wide range of programmed events and enhance the Pavilion’s role as flexible park infrastructure.
Pavilion being used for educational programming & play
Feature stair & lobby space in the East Building
East Entrance
The East Entrance has transformed into a dynamic and geometric three-story volume that bridges the faceted pavilion design with the East Building’s brutalist architecture. The enhanced entry follows the pattern of the concrete structure, creating an energetic sequence to the building’s interior improvements. Just inside the entrance, visitors will experience spaces that offer a range of multigenerational programs, a refreshing update to the cafe, and a place for everyday visitors to relax and connect indoors and outdoors. The most striking alteration is the transformation of the monumental staircase that allows visitors to descend the stairs that open up to a premier view of the expansive Museum Park. Interior features accents of brass with neutral base materials tied to the existing museum, while a new palette of warm and inviting tones creates a vibrant environment for all seasons.
Museum Within a Park
Surrounding landscape enhancements reimagine the park as an active extension of the museum experience. Improved pathways, regraded lawns, and newly defined gathering spaces support intuitive circulation and accessibility while activating underutilized areas of the site. A new park-side terrace with food and beverage access further encourages social use and event spillover, reinforcing the campus as a destination for both everyday visitors and large gatherings.
Upgrades to the park amphitheater modernize a key outdoor venue through enhanced accessibility, and upgraded support spaces, expanding the museum’s capacity to host performances, festivals, and community events. Enhancements to the East Building Park Entrance strengthen the relationship between the museum and its landscape, clarifying arrival sequences, and improving wayfinding between park and building.
Event space & multi-purpose room
Community Arts & Education Center
Cafe & entry
Interior Renovations
Complementary improvements to the Community Arts & Education Center and Art Conservation Center support hands-on learning, public engagement, and the stewardship of the museum’s collection, reinforcing the behind-the-scenes systems that sustain the museum’s public mission. All three levels of the museum’s public spaces benefit from this mission. The improvements are designed for patrons to experience how the collection is preserved while providing the museum conservation team with an elevated work environment that rivals museums across the country.