New Landscape Links the Museum to Its Context
Located in the heart of campus, the new Princeton University Art Museum announces itself through vistas that appear through tree-lined allées and unexpected portals between trees and shrubs. As one approaches the building, strategically placed works of art seem to rise organically from textural plantings and verdant lawns, sentinels of the art-filled experiences that lie within.
Meandering walkways gently slope around the building, responding to the landscape’s natural movement as it drops off toward both west and south, while the University’s storied walks pass near the Museum’s new entrances, following the historic flow of foot traffic and inviting visitors into—and even through—the new facility.
Newly planted native trees, ground covers, and shrubs—including Canadian serviceberry, American holly, spicebush, Virginia bluebells, and Shenandoah switchgrass—as well as more exotic plants and bulbs now surround the building’s perimeter. This flora, along with the many historically important mature trees that were preserved during the building’s design and construction, help frame and soften the Museum’s facades while visually linking the new complex to Prospect Garden and what the current Princeton University Campus Plan describes as “the loose arrangement of buildings” in central campus.
The pathways, plantings, and other outdoor features that reveal the expansive new building and integrate it into its surroundings were designed by the acclaimed landscape architecture firm Field Operations. Renowned for award-winning projects including Chicago’s Navy Pier, New York City’s celebrated High Line, and Seattle’s Waterfront, Field Operations is the landscape architect for the current generation of Princeton University capital projects, including the new residential colleges, the Meadows neighborhood on the south side of Lake Carnegie, and the new Environmental Studies and School of Engineering and Applied Science facilities.
The firm’s extensive knowledge of the University’s built environment, traditional footpaths, and topography has guided its design. “The Museum is at a very interesting intersection on campus that we paid a lot of attention to,” said associate partner Tatiana Choulika, who oversees the firm’s Princeton projects. Located at the crossroads of several significant paths, including McCosh Walk and the diagonal walk that extends from Rockefeller College to the Frist Campus Center, the Museum neighbors important historic structures, such as Whig and Clio Halls and Prospect House.
“We tried to weave the Museum complex into the campus so the new building looks like it’s always been a part of it,” Choulika continued. For instance, she noted that the wide path that extends from Cannon Green, continuing down the steps flanked by Bruce Moore’s iconic Pair of tigers (1968), leads to the Museum’s western perimeter and a prominent expanse of lawn where Doug and Mike Starn’s (Any) Body Oddly Propped (2015) is sited. This eighteen-foot-high glass, steel, and bronze sculpture has come to symbolize the Museum since it was installed in front of the old building a decade ago.
Other sculptures are similarly integrated into the landscape. Michele Oka Doner’s treelike Titan (2004) was placed in the wooded area adjacent to the new winding pathway that curves sinuously around the new building’s eastern edge to create an accessible corridor across an otherwise steep slope, while Richard Serra’s Easy Rider (2002)—a recent gift—sits to the south of the Museum. A newly acquired ceramic sculpture by Jun Kaneko, Untitled (Dango 13-11-27) (2013), is carefully positioned among the trees and tufted plants to the north of the new complex, acting as a signifier for pedestrians moving along the historic McCosh Walk. These works join a handful of sculptures installed on the building’s terraces and facades, including new commissions by Nick Cave and Diana Al-Hadid, as well as George Segal’s The Dancers (1971)—a recent donation in white-painted bronze that will emerge from the shadows of the new West Terraces—and Rose B. Simpson’s figural Heights I (2022), which keeps watch to the south from its second-floor perch.
The site’s slope influenced the landscape design in other ways, inspiring the construction of the outdoor Malkin Amphitheater, adjacent to the Haskell Education Center. However, the hill’s steep angle in this area required the project team to think creatively to make the education center’s entrance accessible, eventually designing a plant-lined path that smoothly curves with the natural incline.
To invite passersby into the Museum, Field Operations varied the height and placement of plants to create sight lines into the building. Low shrubs, grasses, and flowers allow for an unobstructed view into the ground-floor Welcome Gallery, while a deliberate break in the trees that line McCosh Walk reveals the new entrance to the Department of Art & Archaeology and Marquand Library.
Guided by Princeton’s Sustainability Action Plan, the majority of the vegetation surrounding the Museum is native to the region. Plants were selected for their likelihood to withstand climate change—as well as hungry deer and rabbits—while providing critical food and habitat for insects and birds. In addition, lushly planted bioretention areas to the south of the building include deep-rooted natives that absorb and slow the flow of stormwater, reducing the risk of flooding.
In keeping with the character of the area near Prospect Garden, which traditionally included non-native plants and trees, the east side of the building features more exotic species. Protecting the Museum’s mature trees—particularly the famed dawn redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides)—was a major part of Field Operations’s work. In the 1940s, seeds and saplings from that newly rediscovered species of redwood, which was previously thought extant only in prehistoric times, were distributed to institutions around the world to propagate rare “living fossils.” The Field Operations team designed a retaining wall to safely hold the Princeton redwood’s roots and provide the moisture levels the species prefers. As Choulika explained, “The contractors had to carefully work around the tree.” Thanks to their avoidance of the roots and the monthly ministrations of a University arborist, this and other important specimen trees continue to thrive.
Taken together, the preserved trees and new plantings, the intersection of old and new pathways, and the dynamic array of sculptures serve as an extension of the Museum and its collections, inviting pedestrians to step inside, or to slow down and reflect on the art and natural beauty they encounter across Princeton’s campus.
