Architect/Designer: Ushida Findlay and Simpson & Brown
Client/ Developer: York Museums Trust
Builder: Simpsons York
Presented by: The Rt. Hon. the Lord Mayor of York, Cllr. Dave Taylor
The comprehensive development to the York Art Gallery started as a design competition won in 2011 by Ushida-Findlay. Kathryn Findlay joined forces with Simpson Brown to implement the project, but she sadly died before the project was completed. The Gallery is now larger by nearly 3000 sq. m. – provided by the opening up of hidden volumes in the roof, the insertion of a new mezzanine, and the construction of a new first floor gallery on the southern side. All this has been done in a way which combines the old and new in an apparently seamless whole – easy to understand as a first-time visitor, elegant in all its details, preserving the best of the Victorian craftsmanship, yet including a number of wildly contemporary gestures such as the blue-glazed tile wall and the wonderful elevated terrace at the back – features that link the museum to the adjacent Abbey Gardens.
