Both Wright’s proposed annex of 1949-52 and William Wesley Peters’ annex, originally designed as a ten-story structure, are acknowledged by the new addition. Its parti was determined by two critical intersections with the original building: first, with the rotunda at the existing circulation core, and second, with the monitor building along its east wall. It provides balcony views and access to the rotunda from three new two-story galleries and one single-story gallery. A transparent glass wall, connecting the monitor building and the addition, reveals the original facades from both the outside-in and the inside-out.The pavilions are now integrated functionally and spatially with the large rotunda as well as with the new addition. The new fifth-floor roof sculpture terrace, the large rotunda roof terrace, and the renovated public ramp reveal the original building in a new extended and comprehensive perspective.

The entire original structure is now devoted to exhibition space. Each ramp cycle affords the option of entry or views to new galleries. Within the rotunda, numerous technical refinements have corrected omissions in the original construction and brought the building up to current museum standards. Re-glazing the central lantern, opening the clerestories between the turns of the spiral wall, and restoring the scalloped flat clerestory at the perimeter of the ground floor exhibition space have recaptured the sensitivity to light evident in Wright’s original design.

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