Art Institute of Chicago

A Study of New Traffic Patterns

Because of the Modern Wing expansion, the Art Institute has been able to renovate and reinstall almost all of its galleries. New traffic patterns were going to emerge as well as new ways to enter the museum complex. One of the most important jobs for the Modern Wing architect, the Pritzker–winning Renzo Piano, was to help bring greater order to this expanded cultural campus. This called for careful planning of retail locations so that they could become a part of the intuitive navigation and occupy activity nodes where visitors would naturally gather along circulation pathways. The Art Institute and Sparks agreed that the Modern Wing’s impact to traffic patterns would place high value along the edges of new active hubs and entries in high exposure areas where visitors would expect to find and be predisposed to a retail experience.

A Diverse Collection to Showcase

The main Modern Wing shop features a diverse selection of art reproductions, books, objects of high design, textiles, gifts and jewelry. The assortment showcases items related to special exhibitions, exclusive pieces developed in tandem with the School of the Art Institute, design objects from today’s brightest talent, and a comprehensive collection of current books on modern art, design, architecture, photography and contemporary art and culture. The design challenge was to develop a merchandise fixture program that would be highly versatile to present a wide range of items in an ever-changing merchandise mix. To achieve this, the designer used a series of nesting tables, interchangeable presentation accessories, small showcases for relocation and a floor layout that allows for fixture configuration changes.

Designing to a Grid

The Modern Wing building achieved a goal of lightness and transparency. It has the familiar elements of Piano’s museums, powerful parallel walls on axes connecting features at either end. In this case the walls dramatically define vistas to Millennium Park at one end. The grid formed by these major walls is further divided into subset grids on parallel axes as well as perpendicular axes forming openings between spaces. The result is a definition of proportion, order, discipline and organization that communicate the functions and circulation within. The grid of this building helped to define the development of the shop floor fixture plans, design of the perimeter casework and the position of all elements within the shops.