The Kimball Art Center has been searching for an architecture firm to design a new facility in Kimball Junction.
The nonprofit is currently next to Boneyard Saloon on Kearns Boulevard. But it owns 1.92 acres of property next to the PEAK Center, formally the Skullcandy Building. It plans to nearly double in size with the move.
Executive Director Aldy Milliken announced Thursday the nonprofit plans to work with world-renowned Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron.
“We basically started a year ago with making a building brief, which is sort of helping us define what we wanted to achieve, and that was separate from a piece of property,” Milliken said on KPCW’s “Local News Hour” Nov. 5. “It was, what is the Kimball Art Center really good at?”
Milliken said the nonprofit started with 30 options and gradually narrowed it down after reviewing proposals, visiting completed projects around the country and having firms visit Park City.
Herzog was excited about the center’s ideas for a new facility, but Milliken said the team was hesitant at first. That’s because the firm has worked on large projects, like the Tate Modern in London and the Pérez Art Museum Miami.
“We were actually concerned that we wouldn't get the attention that we deserved. We're a smaller project,” Milliken said. “But they convinced us that they actually loved what we were doing.”
He said the firm liked Kimball’s emphasis on education and how the nonprofit connects people with art and the artistic process.
“What we were doing represents a new phase of engagement for art museums in this conversation of what's happening around the country about how art spaces and how art museums can serve the public,” he said.
Milliken said the organizations will now start collaborating on designs. The total cost is still to be determined.
Milliken said the team plans to fundraise for about two years before construction begins. Kimball will remain at its current location for at least the next four years.
The Kimball Art Center is a financial supporter of KPCW.
