Architect Matthew Baird Will Develop Master Plan for Woodmere Art Museum


woodmere museum

Photo of Woodmere by Flickr user road_less_trvled.

Museums are having a moment in Philly right now. The Franklin Institute is getting a magical shimmer wall. Footage of a mystery driver careening down the stairs at the Art Museum is playing on a loop everywhere (it is also getting a rare Vermeer). Even the Mutter museum is getting more press than usual – a feat at Halloween – with a sesquicentennial Civil War exhibit.

Not to be outdone by its Center City peers, the Woodmere Art Museum in Chestnut Hill has just named locally born (but New York-based) Matthew Baird as the architect who will develop a new master plan for the six-acre estate.Baird is known for serving as the project architect on the American Folk Museum and has won the usual AIA awards.
So far, the plan is set to include both reuse and new construction to update the existing estate and its adjacent property, the Director’s House.The Woodmere is hosting an open house on Thursday, November 21 at 6 p.m. to introduce Baird and talk details on the project. In addition to updates to the Director’s House and the estate, plans will also call for landscaping to enhance accessibility and to convert a stable currently known as “the ruins” into an education space.