A continuous stretch of white mass, interrupted by the tilt of the hilly landscape upon which it sits, and a linear kink that extrudes its mass upwards on the extreme edge of the edifice—these attributes warrant Robert Olnick Pavilion’s designation under the epithet of a sculpture. Its interiors, too, sustain this appellation of a sculptural figure, with the presence of strategically placed skylights that invite natural light into the indoor gallery spaces at different angles throughout the day. Conceived by Spanish architects Alberto Campo Baeza and Miguel Quismondo, Robert Olnick Pavilion is situated within Magazzino Italian Art, the only museum in America dedicated to Italian art. This art museum and research centre in New York, USA, co-founded by Nancy Olnick and Giorgio Spanu, is primarily dedicated to platforming and advancing the public appreciation for postwar and contemporary Italian art. Magazzino Italian Art, through its curatorial, scholarly and public initiatives, helps explore the enduring impact of Italian art on a global level.

The newly built Robert Olnick Pavilion serves as an extension to the Magazzino Museum, which was also designed by Quismondo and opened to the public in 2017. The older structure, a rectilinear edifice hosting an area of nearly 20,000 square feet, has, since its institution, hosted a wide array of art showcases, the extent of which has now exceeded the capacity of the museum. To sustain and append the communal cultural impact of the institution within the Hudson Valley, the Olnick Spanu family invited Baeza and Quismondo to design the Robert Olnick Pavilion in 2022. The new space, completed in September 2023, adds nearly 3600 square feet (334 square metres) of gallery space to the campus.

The new exhibition space is named after Nancy Olnick’s late father, Robert S Olnick, who also founded New York’s real estate agency Olnick Organization. Stationed on a hillside within the Magazzino campus, the structure is located next to the main building that was constructed in 2017. Apart from serving as an extension to the previously configured exhibition space, the Robert Olnick Pavilion also mirrors the rectilinearity, height, inner measurements and colour palette of its predecessor. “Conceived to complement the existing museum building and reflect its elegant and simple modern design, the new pavilion brings a new dimension to the museum’s evolving campus,” shares Quismondo. “We understand that this new building must complete and complement the main Magazzino building. To do this, it is arranged perpendicular to the first, creating a unitary enclosure between them. The new extension is removed from the main complex with an appropriate distance to resolve functional issues,” the architects add.

The placement of the pavilion on the site was determined taking into account the location of the existing utility building (that houses the fire pump, cooling tower and power service) that services the Magazzino museum. “It seemed natural to design the new building relating to the existing hierarchy and allow for a pedestrian and vehicular connection with the existing museum,” Quismondo explains. The form of Robert Olnick Pavilion, is, hence, developed by the architects as an active response to the previously situated entities on the site. “With a concrete façade punctuated by windows and a series of skylights, the pavilion will foster a dialogue between art, architecture, and the surrounding natural landscape,” mentions an excerpt from the press release, enunciating upon the relationship between the structure and its proximal landscape.

The concrete structure, cast in situ and resting upon a concrete foundation, measures 155 feet in length and is 35 feet wide. Steel beams and bar joists further support the building structurally. All the fenestrations in the pavilion are fitted with thermal glass, with low emissivity coatings, to reduce heat loss. The flat roof, on the other hand, is fitted with a PVC membrane over tapered insulation, to ensure optimum water drainage. The interior floors of the structure are finished with either polished concrete or sealed concrete, and the walls are made up of a layer of gypsum board covering the plywood.

Keeping in mind the diverse range of programmes that the pavilion will host, there was also a need to provide different entrances into each of these different areas and levels of the structure, such that each space can be utilised independently for different purposes, simultaneously. With regard to this requirement, the architects utilised the upper curvature of the hill cutting through the structure, to station an entrance at the upper level.

The upper floor hosts a cafe, lounge area and reading space, with both indoor and outdoor seating. This level within the structure is made accessible through a large entrance that lies at the end of a path—surrounded by a garden and an animal farm—running on the ground where the hill peaks. The lower floor, on the other hand, hosts two display galleries that are accessible through a humble entrance carved on the wall of the pavilion, and the basement level accommodates a showcase area set up for the display of Murano glass and ceramics. This lowermost level also features a flexible 1500-square-foot programming space that overlooks a sunken courtyard. This space, along with the open-to-sky courtyard space, is configured to serve as a flexible and informal area for hosting community events, film screenings, lectures, panel discussions and other related educational and public events.

Moving further, towards the northwest face of the structure, one comes across the main exhibit area. This cubic space is prominently visible in the silhouette of the structure—a concrete expanse extruding upward from the parallelepiped-shaped structure, like ‘a lighthouse, a beacon or a banner claiming attention to the Magazzino campus.’ Citing the openings that illuminate this space, the architects refer to the room as "a white cube traversed by light." The cubical room is hailed for its isotropic design, which essentially means that the interior space is a perfect cube defined by six equal planes. “Isotropic space, as defined by the dictionary of the Royal Academy, has the same characteristics in all directions and from any point. If we could fly from the centre, the space would be identical in all directions,” enunciates the description from the architects’ statement. Each of these planes is punctured with an opening in their respective corners, hence, permitting sunlight to pierce through the white expanse at all times during the day.

This cube, the focal point of the museum, both from within and without the structure, is designed to house temporary exhibitions. Each edge of the cube measures 10 metres, and each side of every opening punctured on the walls and ceiling measures 2.10 metres. “We have chosen 2.10 as the size of the opening so that, when located on walls that are in contact with the floor, they have suitable dimensions to serve as doorways. The two holes thus positioned, will be entrance doors to our white and luminous cubic enclosure. Furthermore, it is of primary importance that these 2.10 x 2.10 holes are all very deep. Following simple logic, we eliminated the opening corresponding to the floor plane. In addition, we created a particularly interesting feature by drilling a 2.10 x 2.10 deep hole in the centre of the wall, so that the entire spatial operation can be understood at a glance,” the architects share.

Citing the connection between the older museum and the new one, the architects share, “We understand that a central, important theme is the union between the current building and the new one, resolved with an avenue planned as a common access plane that, when crossing the new building, allows transparency on the ground floor as a perspective background that works very well, spatially. This transparent space will be the lobby of the new building, and will also house the bar facilities.”

The architects, hence, manage to structure an edifice that holds space for the showcase of art, emerges from the site of its precursor, integrates itself within the extant landscape without pushing out existing entities, and commands an indomitable presence redolent of visceral artistic installations.

Project Details

Name: Robert Olnick Pavilion
Location: Cold Springs, New York
Built Area: 13,000 square feet (1200 square metres)
Year of completion: 2023
Architects: Alberto Campo Baeza & Miguel Quismondo
Project Architect / Project Manager: Jacobo Mingorance
Construction Manager: Miguel Quismondo with Jacobo Mingorance
Client: Magazzino Italian Art Foundation
Collaborators: Ignacio Aguirre López, Alejandro Cervilla García, Tommaso Campiotti, Juan Carlos Bragado, Ignacio de Silóniz, Alfonso Guajardo-Fajardo Cruz, María Pérez de Camino Díez, David Vera García, Sara Fernández Trucios, Luca Redaelli, Gloria Saá García, William Mulvihill
Structural Engineers: Michael P. Carr, P.E., María Concepción Pérez Gutiérrez
MEP Engineers: CES-Consulting Engineering Services Engineers
Lighting Consultant: MAP Design Studio
Cost Consultant: Slocum Construction Consulting, Inc
Kitchen Consultant: Chef Luca Galli