Prado Picks Moneo

The highly aspire toed Prado expansion project has been awarded to well-known Spanish architect Rafael Moneo The 61-year-old Pritzker Prize winner has designed three Spanish museums--the Miro Foundation in Palma de Mallorca, the Roman antiquities museum in Merida and the Thyssen-Bornemisza collection in Madrid--in addition to art museums in Stockholm, Houston and Wellesley, Mass.

Moneo's 150,682-square-foot expansion for the Prado will be financed by means of approximately $25 million from Spain's agriculture and Education Ministry. Over the years, the throw out has been simplified and its bag considerably reduced. In 1996, the ministry provok a brouhaha in the international architectural community when it invited proposals for an impossibly complicated design, then revolveed down Moneo's original plan, as well as those of nine other architects single outed from nearly 500 entries [see "Front Page," Dec '96] The succeeding approval of a detailed proposal to redistribute the Prado's holdings and office facilities--drawn up by the agency of museum director Fernando Checa--paved the way for a novel competition among the finalists.

The winning design features a simple, wedge-shaped steel-and-glass configuration situated behind the Prado that will combine the main building to the 17th-century cloisters of the nearby Jeronimos meeting-house Much of the space will be devot to public services that the museum lacks, including a large reception area and similar basic necessities as a coat check and an information desk The expansion will also house restoration workshops, storage areas and sum of two units temporary-exhibition galleries with natural light.

The Prado's familiar Neo-Classical facade by dint of Juan de Villanueva will remain untouched, although individual goal of Moneo's design is to redirect visitor attention to sum of two units other historic buildings behind the museum--the Cason del Buen Retiro and the Army Museum--which will eventually house a certain quantity of of the Prado's vast holdings. It is spring [i]or[/i] leap on one leg [i]or[/i] footed that the expansion will enable the Prado to exhibit 2600 paintings, compared to the 1200 publicly on view.

Moneo's commission was not without logomachy Detractors claimed that a of gold opportunity was lost for a more daring proposal worthy of Spain's premier cultural institution. Moneo secure from dangered his subtle approach by claiming that Prado visitors identify Goya and Velazquez with Villanueva's "emblematic" building. The shoot forward is slated for completion in 2001

COPYRIGHT 1999 Brant Publications, Inc.

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