Carnegie Museum of Art has commissioned New York design practice AD—WO to reimagine the Heinz Architectural Center, the Oakland institution's longtime home for studying and displaying architecture inside its 1907 building. The project will bring new gallery spaces, a collection study center, and infrastructure meant to strengthen the link between curatorial research and what visitors actually experience when they walk through the doors.
AD—WO is led by founding partners Emanuel Admassu and Jen Wood, according to Carnegie Museum of Art, which describes the firm as an award-winning art, architecture, and urban design practice. The museum's own site notes the redesign will create flexible gallery spaces supporting exhibitions, education, research, and public programs — a shift from the center's more research-oriented footprint of the past three decades. News of the commission was first reported by Bloomberg.
The Heinz Architectural Center occupies ground between the museum's historic halls and the Scaife Galleries, the wing designed by Edward Larrabee Barnes that opened in 1974, per the museum's own account. It was established in 1993 as a forum for presenting, exploring, and incubating architectural ideas of regional, national, and international significance, and its collection now holds roughly 6,000 architecture-related objects.
Who's Behind the Redesign
AD—WO describes itself on its own site as an art and architecture practice that designs installations, exhibitions, buildings, and public spaces, with Jen Wood working as a licensed architect in New York state and Emanuel Admassu serving as an assistant professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation. The firm's own profile page, hosted at ad-wo.com, states the practice was founded in 2018, while a separate profile from United States Artists places its founding in 2015 — the two accounts don't agree on the exact year. United States Artists also describes the firm as based in New York City, with connections extending to Naarm/Melbourne and Addis Ababa.
Part of a Larger Push at Carnegie Museums
The Heinz Architectural Center overhaul fits into a broader moment for Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, which launched a $500 million fundraising campaign called All Together. The campaign had already raised roughly $360 million, or 72% of its goal, during an initial quiet fundraising phase, according to a report from wesanews.org. That same report described plans to make the 33-year-old Heinz Architectural Center feel more welcoming and less like a closed-off study center, while museum officials said the Carnegie Museum of Art's grounds and exterior are also slated for renovation.
This isn't the first time the Heinz Architectural Center has been rethought. A remodeling and expansion in 2000, designed by Cicognani Kalla Architects of New York, prompted curators to take what one described as a fresh look at the collection, according to an archival account from Carnegie Museums. That earlier gallery stuck close to the design vocabulary of the museum's original spaces.
A Nearby Comparison Down the Hill
The Heinz Architectural Center's reinvention arrives as another Pittsburgh arts institution reshapes its presence just steps away. Carnegie Mellon University has unveiled a design by ZGF Architects for a new, roughly 29,000-square-foot home for its Institute for Contemporary Art, set to nearly triple the Miller ICA's current size as part of the larger 338,900-square-foot Richard King Mellon Hall of Sciences complex, according to Carnegie Mellon University. That building is planned to open to the public in 2027 and will connect to the Carnegie Museum of Art through a public plaza, putting two major design overhauls within sight of each other on the same campus.
