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Redesigned Lenfest Hall at the Philadelphia Museum of Art West Entrance opens onto a soaring event space and new galleries. (Emma Lee/WHYY)
For decades, the Philadelphia Museum of Art has known it needed more space. Recently, architect Frank Gehry helped them realize they had the space they needed the whole time.
About 90,000 square feet has been carved out of what used to be staff office space and a vaulted corridor running underground for 640 feet, spanning the entire footprint of the museum, unused for nearly 50 years.
This weekend, the museum unveils its “Core Project,” a major renovation project four years in the making. The centerpiece is a forum space with 40-foot-high ceilings with a dramatic switchback staircase connecting the underground lower level to the first floor at the west entrance.