Louis Kahn-designed art museum reopens after renovation

NEW HAVEN, Conn. – The Yale Center for British Art reopened Wednesday following a lengthy project to restore the building’s interior and bring it more in line with the vision of its famed architect, Louis Kahn.

The steel-and-glass Modernist landmark in downtown New Haven bills itself as the largest collection of British art outside of the United Kingdom. It was completed in 1977, three years after Kahn’s death.

The museum established a committee in 2002 to assess how the building had changed since its opening, and the $33 million of renovation work began in 2008. The work was completed in three phases.

Public galleries were reconfigured to exemplify Kahn’s original vision for “intimate esthetic spaces,” the museum said. Gallery walls were redesigned in accordance with a Kahn drawing from 1974. The project also included improvements related to safety and accessibility as well as mechanical and electrical upgrades.

The museum had been closed since January 2015. Free and open to the public year-round, Yale Center marked its reopening by focusing on “Britain in the World,” which presents a history of the development of British art from the time of the Protestant Reformation to the present.