A new museum wing ... in a giant bubble

How do you make a great public space inside a not-so-great building? Liz Diller shares the story of creating a welcoming, lighthearted (even, dare we say it, sexy) addition to the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, DC.

We conventionally divide space

into private and public realms,

and we know these legal distinctions very well

because we've become experts

at protecting our private property and private space.

But we're less attuned

to the nuances of the public.

What translates generic public space into qualitative space?

I mean, this is something

that our studio has been working on

for the past decade.

And we're doing this through some case studies.

A large chunk of our work

has been put into tranforming

this neglected industrial ruin

into a viable post-industrial space

that looks forwards and backwards

at the same time.

And another huge chunk of our work

has gone into making relevant

a site that's grown out of sync with its time.

We've been working on democratizing Lincoln Center

for a public that doesn't usually have $300

to spend on an opera ticket.

So we've been eating, drinking,

thinking, living public space

for quite a long time.

And it's taught us really one thing,

and that is to truly make good public space,

you have to erase the distinctions

between architecture, urbanism,

landscape, media design

and so on.

It really goes beyond distinction.

Now we're moving onto Washington D.C.

and we're working on another transformation,

and that is for the existing Hirschhorn Museum

that's sited

on the most revered public space in America,

the National Mall.

The Mall is a symbol

of American democracy.

And what's fantastic is that this symbol

is not a thing, it's not an image,

it's not an artifact,

actually it's a space,

and it's kind of just defined by a line of buildings

on either side.

It's a space where citizens can voice their discontent

and show their power.

It's a place where pivotal moments in American history

have taken place.

And they're inscribed in there forever --

like the march on Washington for jobs and freedom

and the great speech that Martin Luther King gave there.

The Vietnam protests, the commemoration of all that died

in the pandemic of AIDS,

the march for women's reproductive rights,

right up until almost the present.

The Mall is the greatest civic stage

in this country for dissent.

And it's synonymous with free speech,

even if you're not sure what you have to say.

It may just be a place for civic commiseration.

There is a huge disconnect, we believe,

between communicative and discursive space of the Mall

and the museums that line it to either side.

And that is that those museums are usually passive,

they have passive relationships with the museum

as the presenter and the audience,

as the receiver of information.

And so you can see dinosaurs

and insects and collections of locomotives

and all of that,

but you're really not involved;

you're being talked to.

When Richard Koshalek took over as director of the Hirschhorn

in 2009,

he was determined to take advantage

of the fact that this museum was cited

as the most unique place

of the seat of power in the U.S.

And while art and politics

are inherently and implicitly together always and all the time,

there could be some very special relationship

that could be forged here in its uniqueness.

The question is, is it possible ultimately

for art to insert itself

into the dialogue of national and world affairs?

And could the museum be an agent of cultural diplomacy?

There are over 180 embassies in Washington D.C.

There are over 500 think tanks.

There should be a way

of harnessing all of that intellectual and global energy

into, and somehow through, the museum.

There should be some kind of brain trust.

So the Hirschhorn, as we began to think abotu it,

and as we evolved the mission,

with Richard and his team --

it's really his life blood --

But beyond exhibiting contemporary art,

the Hirschhorn will become a public forum,

a place of discourse

for issues around arts,

culture, politics and policy.