Selldorf Architects

The Museum of Biblical Art is the first scholarly museum dedicated to art inspired by the Bible. Located at Broadway and 61st Street in a Modernist steel and glass building designed by Skidmore, Owings and Merrill in the 1960s, the museum inherited a gallery and rare-books area in a space formerly occupied by the Gallery at the American Bible Society. Its new home was designed by G and L Architects, which merged with Selldorf Architects in 2004. The architects’ renovation organized and defined the spaces for the museum, creating a clear main entrance and well-articulated, logically ordered galleries.

An 8’ x 14’ pivot door now opens into the main gallery and all door entrances are framed in ebony-stained oak. The new design retains the original glass curtain wall that fronts the stacks holding the museum’s rare scripture collection. New bronzed metal and glass windows were added to allow for abundant natural light while climatically separating the museum’s new education center from the building’s two-story atrium. The renovation added 30% more space as well as the mechanical systems essential to a contemporary museum, including lighting, climate control, security, and fire detection and suppression. (Photos: Peter Aaron | Esto)