From the 6/4/06 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: Feb. 23: The glass museum under construction.  ( THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH )

 

MULTIMEDIA

• Take a photo tour of the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion.

• Watch the building of the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion.

 

Polishing the Glass Pavilion

Toledo Museum of Art's newest work of art is taking shape

By TAHREE LANE

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Six years after conception, construction of the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion is in the home stretch.  Set among mature oaks and maples on Monroe Street, its protective chrysalis is gradually being shed as panels are removed to reveal ultra-clear glass walls.  Emerging is a low-slung, transparent building, compact and graceful.  But there's still plenty to do.

 

Between now and the grand opening in August, glass doors will be hung; interior climate, so critical to works of art, will be monitored; light fixtures and security and fire systems will be installed.  The 18th and final shipment of glass panels that were made in Germany and shipped to China to be sized, laminated, and curved, arrived two weeks ago and will be installed in the coming weeks.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060604/ART01/606030307/-1/RSS05

 

From the 7/14/06 Toledo Blade:

 

Pair from Louvre to tour Glass Pavilion

 

The head of the Louvre Museum in Paris will visit the Toledo Museum of Art Monday to learn about the soon-to-open $30 million Glass Pavilion.  Henri Loyrette, president-director of the Louvre, and Olivier Meslay, curator of paintings, will tour the glass-walled building on Monroe Street set to open Aug. 27.  The Louvre has hired the same architects to construct a satellite museum northwest of Paris, said Sara Stacy, a spokesman for the Toledo museum.

 

The Glass Pavilion was the first U.S. commission designed by SANAA, a Japanese architectural firm that has become a superstar in recent years, designing three museums in Japan, onein Valencia, Spain, and the New Museum of Contemporary Art, under construction in New York City.  "Sejima and Nishizawa's architectural renown has grown tremendously since TMA chose them to design the Glass Pavilion in 2000," said Carol Bintz, the museum's assistant director and chief operating officer.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060714/ART01/607140344/-1/RSS05

 

From the 8/12/06 Toledo Blade:

 

CAMPIELLO DEL REMER #2

Chihuly sculpture a glittery greeting to Glass Pavilion

Art Museum site opens August 27

By TAHREE LANE

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

Inside the lobby of the curvilinear Glass Pavilion — an architectural sculpture itself — a large and glamorous piece of art was assembled this week.  Two installers from the Seattle studio of artist Dale Chihuly spent three days hanging 243 unique crystal vessels, forming a nine-foot-long chandelier-type sculpture called Campiello del Remer #2 in the Monroe Street entry of the $30 million museum/teaching space of the Toledo Museum of Art slated to open Aug. 27.

 

Individual pieces of the sculpture are 8 to 30 inches long, 4 to 6 inches wide, and each is exquisitely carved. Altogether, they look rather like a flock of large, long-beaked birds diving headfirst into the world from a central source.  Thomas Gray, lead installer on the project, estimated its total weight at 1,300 pounds, making it just slightly smaller than the 1,461-pound, 13½-by-8-foot glass panels that comprise the pavilion’s walls.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060812/NEWS15/60812002/-1/RSS

 

From the 8/20/06 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: The pavilion houses the museum’s renowned glass collection as well as classrooms. It opens to the public next Sunday.  ( THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY )

 

PHOTO: Glassblowing instructor Robin Schultes works with molten glass at the new Glass Pavilion.  ( THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY )

 

* * * Toledo Blade SPECIAL SECTION * * *

 

GLASS PAVILION PREPARES FOR OPENING

Toledo Museum of Art polishes newest gem

By TAHREE LANE

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

The glass is gleaming, cement is cured, trees are planted, the floors are scrubbed.  Six years of intense planning culminates in this week’s celebrations of the Toledo Museum of Art’s latest masterpiece: the Glass Pavilion, which opens to the public next Sunday and for a series of invitation-only previews and festivities beginning Tuesday.

 

A sleek whisper of a building, the pavilion is nestled in a grove of mature maples and oaks at the edge of the gracious Old West End neighborhood, across Monroe Street from the main museum.  It showcases and stores one of the world’s finest collections of glass — 5,000 pieces spanning 4,000 years of glassmaking — painstakingly packed, moved, and unpacked from the vaults across the street.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060820/NEWS15/60820004/-1/RSS

 

From the 8/24/06 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: The Toledo Museum of Art’s Glass Pavilion, under construction for 28 months, will officially open Sunday. Also, view the Glass Pavilion special section.  ( THE BLADE/DAVE ZAPOTOSKY )

 

UNVEILING A SHOWPIECE

Toledo Museum of Art celebrates grand opening of its Glass Pavilion

By TAHREE LANE, BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

With 472 giant rectangular glass panels (13.5-by-8-feet) but no right angles in the building, the Glass Pavilion was six years in the making and under construction for 28 months.  An estimated 425 people worked on the project, and about $20 million of its $30 million cost was spent locally.  It was designed by SANAA Ltd., a Japanese architectural firm; Rudolph/Libbe Inc. of Walbridge was general contractor.

 

The inauguration of the Glass Pavilion will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, after which the building will open for tours and demonstrations. The event is free and open to the public.  Thereafter, the new building will be open the same hours as the Toledo Museum of Art: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday and Saturday; 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.  Closed Mondays and major holidays.  There is no admission fee. Parking is available behind the Glass Pavilion, north of Monroe Street at Parkwood and Woodruff avenues. Information: 419-255-8000 and www.toledomuseum.org.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060824/ART01/608240331/-1/RSS05

 

From the 8/28/06 Toledo Blade:

 

PHOTO: Qi Wong of Holland, Ohio, and her daughter, Tiffany, take photos of glassware.  ( THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH )

 

PHOTO: Visitors wander through the Glass Pavilion. Its 472 glass panels were made with low iron content to increase transparency.  ( THE BLADE/JEREMY WADSWORTH )

 

TOLEDO MUSEUM OF ART

Glass Pavilion's beauty is transparent to clear-eyed visitors on opening day

$30 million museum welcomes guests

By JC REINDL

BLADE STAFF WRITER

 

A glimpse inside the world-class glass art museum on Monroe Street once involved cupping hands over foreheads and squashing noses against 15-foot-tall panels of glass.  But those days are now memories.  Yesterday the Toledo Museum of Art officially opened its $30 million Glass Pavilion to the general public, welcoming hundreds of curious visitors to the other side of the curvy structure's 472 glass panels.

 

"It's just absolutely amazing," said Dottie Pienta of Lambertville as she gazed out a rounded corner from a room flooded with sky and sunlight.  For extra transparency, the building's panels were specially made with low iron content.  "I feel like I could just walk through to the outside," she said incredulously.

 

Full story at http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060828/NEWS15/608280339/-1/NEWS

 

The Times did a fun architectural review on the museum today, the writer seems to be taken with it overall.

 

To quote his last line, "There are few higher compliments you could pay a building."

The Glass Pavilion got some positive press in January in a wire story from the AP.  I know that I saw this in the Cincinnati Post, as well as in the Dispatch.

 

MUSEUM

Crystal pavilion lets ‘Glass City’ reflect on beauty

Toledo facility filled with blowers’ furnaces, pieces as fragile as ice

Sunday, January 14, 2007

John Seewer ASSOCIATED PRESS

 

TOLEDO — Leonard Marty pulled a glowing glass bulb out of the fiery furnace and spun it on a pole.  Within seconds, the glob began taking the shape of a red Christmastree ornament.  An assortment of green and red ornaments were neatly stacked in a box.  For Marty, a glassmaking instructor at the Toledo Museum of Art, and his students, inspiration is only steps away.

 

The museum’s new Glass Pavilion houses an impressive assortment of ancient and contemporary glass art along with the glass-blowing studio that brings a deeper appreciation of the collection.  While the studio and its flaming furnaces are at the heart of the building, the $30 million pavilion manages not to overwhelm the collection.  It enhances and invites.

 

Full story at http://www.dispatch.com/features-story.php?story=dispatch/2007/01/14/20070114-D8-00.html

 

Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion architects capture prestigious prize

Toledo project among several cited by panel

Article published March 29, 2010

BLADE STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

 

LOS ANGELES - The architects who designed the Toledo Museum of Art's see-through Glass Pavilion won the 2010 Pritzker Architecture Prize, the prize's jury announced Sunday.

 

Japanese architects Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa were praised for using everyday materials to create ethereal structures that shelter flowing, dreamlike spaces.  Ms. Sejima, 54, and Mr. Nishizawa, 44, will receive a $100,000 grant and a pair of bronze medallions for winning the top honor in the field.

 

FULL ARTICLE: http://www.toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100329/ART01/3290339/0/FRONTPAGE

 

Came across this very detailed pictorial review of the Glass Pavilion over at ArchDaily.  The link for the review that was posted last year at that website is below:

 

Glass Pavilion at the Toledo Museum of Art / SANAA