BIG architects’ kimball art center proposal wins competition

BIG architects’ winning proposal for the new kimball art center all images courtesy of BIG

international architecture practice BIG architects have designed the winning proposal for the new kimball art center in park city, utah, USA. the nonprofit community art center first began in 1976, whereby the local community transformed the kimball brother’s garage into what is today’s kimball art center.

the new facility is designed to balance the neutrality of an exhibition space with the distinctiveness of a building in park city’s unique context, while also addressing the contemporary through industrial vernacular, recalling the architecture of park city’s mining heritage. the new kimball arts center will take advantage of its location’s climate, and will employ the natural properties of its construction materials, composed of massive stacked timber elements. generous skylights and large ribbon windows will flood the structure’s interior with diffused light, while a solar hot water installation on the existing roof – together with ground source – will provide close to all of the heating requirements.

BIG beat out other shortlisted proposals by brooks + scarpa, sparano + mooney, tod williams + billie tsien architects and will bruder.

see designboom’s earlier coverage of BIG architects: kimball art center proposal here.

building in context

large ribbon windows will flood the structure’s interior with diffused light

interior view of the twisting wooden structure

site model

section

section

rooftop plan

plans