American museum buildings: US architecture designs

American Museum Buildings Designs

post updated September 5, 2026

This page contains a selection of major American museum buildings, with links to individual project pages. Our focus is on interesting contemporary US museums designs.

American Museum Buildings : main page with key buildings + new designs

USA Museum Building Designs

US Museum Architecture – latest additions to this page, arranged chronologically:

August 1, 2025
The Woodson African American Museum of Florida, St. Petersburg
Design: STORYN Studio for Architecture

image : STORYN Studio for Architecture

June 20, 2025
National Medal of Honor Museum Arlington, Arlington, Texas
Design: Rafael Viñoly Architects

photo : Halkin Mason

April 24, 2025
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art design competition winner news, Kansas City, Missouri

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Key US Public Institution Developments – United States Built Environment Information & Images in 2024:

November 21, 2024
Nelson Atkins Museum of Art design competition shortlist, Kansas City, Missouri

photo © Malcolm Reading Consultants
From this shortlist, a winner will be chosen by the museum’s Architect Selection Committee (ASC) in Spring 2025 to transform the museum with a dynamic, open, and inviting design. The expansion’s goal is to attract new audiences by creating a vibrant space to host more art, and new creative, immersive and energizing experiences.

July 17, 2024
Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, Texas
Architects: Snøhetta

photo : Casey Dunn

May 9, 2024
Bruce Museum Building, Greenwich, Connecticut
Design: EskewDumezRipple

photo : Tim Hursley

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December 15, 2021
North Carolina Museum of Art Phil Freelon Exhibition, NC

photo © Mark Herboth Photography. Courtesy of Perkins & Will

Oct 26, 2021
Puller Gallery National Museum of Military Vehicles, Dubois, Wyoming
Design: Roto

photo : Jay Rosenblatt Photography
The new 40,000 sqft Puller Gallery at the recently opened National Museum of Military Vehicles reimagines the traditional military museum by immersing visitors in the stories of Vietnam and Korean War service members through dynamic, interactive experiences created by leading design-build firm Roto.

Feb 17, 2021
The Momentary in Bentonville, Bentonville, Arkansas
Design: Wheeler Kearns Architects

photograph : Tom Harris Architectural Photography
The Momentary is a new contemporary art space envisaged as a satellite to the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas. Led by Chicago-based Wheeler Kearns Architects, the adaptive reuse project saw the 63,000-square-foot decommissioned cheese factory into a multidisciplinary space for visual, performing, and culinary artists. The firm was
tasked with envisioning the Momentary’s aim of creating a space offering a unique experience unlike a traditional museum.

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Sep 7, 2018
Topaz Museum in Delta, Utah
Design: Sparano + Mooney Architecture

photography : Brian Buroker and Sparano + Mooney Architecture
The Topaz Museum building is an 8000 sqft cultural facility that provides information and interpretation regarding the internment of more than 11,000 Japanese Americans that occurred during WWII at the nearby Topaz Internment Camp site.

Jul 23, 2018
Glenstone Museum Pavilions, Potomac, Maryland
Design: Thomas Phifer of Thomas Phifer and Partners

photo: Iwan Baan ; Courtesy: Glenstone Museum
An installation surveying the breadth of its internationally renowned collection will be one of the inaugural presentations in its new building, the Pavilions, opening to the public on October 4, 2018.

Jun 30, 2018
Phillip and Patricia Frost Miami Museum of Science Building, Miami, Florida – Shortlisted at World Architecture Festival Awards 2018
Design: Grimshaw

photo courtesy of architects

Jun 16, 2018
Ann and Jim Goodnight Museum Park, North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC
Design: Civitas, Inc. Architects

photographer : Art Howard, courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art and Civitas, Inc.
What started as an exercise in reimagining the future of the museum has transformed a former Raleigh, NC, prison site into an engaging experiment in extroverting the art museum into something altogether new.

May 19, 2018
Museum of Westward Expansion in St. Louis, Missouri
Design: James Carpenter Design Associates (JCDA) with Trivers Associates

photo © Earthcam/Gateway Arch Park Foundation
Significant expansion and renovation of the Museum of Westward Expansion, directly below the iconic Gateway Arch, Eero Saarinen-designed by celebrated 20th Century US architect Eero Saarinen.

Apr 22, 2018
Grand Rapids Art Museum Building, Grand Rapids, Michigan
Architect: WHY Architecture

photograph © Steve Hall (at) Hedrich Blessing
GRAM is home to one of the oldest museums in the Mid-West, with high-level Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)certification.

Feb 19, 2018
SPYSCAPE Museum Building, 928 8th Avenue, New York City, NY
Architects: Adjaye Associates

photograph © Scott Frances for SPYSCAPE
A new global destination for espionage that combines educational programming with state-of-the-art interactive technology.

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Contemporary American Museum Buildings in 2017

American Museum Building Designs in 2017

Dec 6, 2017
Statue of Liberty Museum Building, New York City
Design: FXFOWLE Architects ; Exhibition Designer: ESI Design

image courtesy of FXFOWLE Architects
A new $70 million building on Liberty Island.

Sep 28, 2017
Studio Museum Harlem Building, Manhattan, NYC
Design: David Adjaye Architect

image from architects office

Aug 10, 2017
Louis Armstrong House Museum Visitor Center Building, Queens, NY
Design: Caples Jefferson Architects

image courtesy of Caples Jefferson Architects

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Contemporary American Museum Buildings Archive

Contemporary American Museum Buildings from 2010 to 2016:

Feb 5, 2016
New Norton Museum of Art Building, West Palm Beach, Miami, Florida
Design: Foster + Partners

image courtesy of Foster + Partners

Feb 5, 2016
Westmoreland Museum Building, Greensburg, Pennsylvania
Design: Ennead Architects

photo © Roy Engelbrecht
The new expansion and major renovation of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art has launched a new era for the Museum. The expansion is a striking counterpoint to the original neo-Georgian structure, marrying old and new.

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Jul 18, 2013
Westmoreland Museum of American Art, Pennsylvania – building news
Design: Susan T. Rodriguez of Ennead Architects

image from architects
The renovation and expansion of the Westmoreland Museum of American Art, located in Greensburg, Pennsylvania, designed by Susan T. Rodriguez of Ennead Architects. The design creates a new face and identity for the original neo-Georgian building, which enhances the Museum’s link to the City.

July 6, 2013
Saint Louis Art Museum, Missouri

Jan 29, 2013
Crystal Bridges Museum Arkansas Art – Store, Bentonville, Arkansas
Architect: Marlon Blackwell Architect

photograph : Timothy Hursley
Located in the heart of the new Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art designed by architect Moshe Safdie in 2011 the museum store is an insertion by Marlon Blackwell Architect into an existing 3,040 sqft curved concrete space.

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Nov 27, 2012
Parrish Art Museum, Water Mill, Long Island, NY
Design: Herzog & de Meuron

picture from Parrish Art Museum
This 34,400 sqft building contains more than 2,600 works ranging from early 19th-century landscape paintings through American Impressionism and into the 20th and 21st centuries.

Mar 26, 2012
History Colorado Center, Denver, CO
Design: Tryba Architects

picture from Weitzman
The History Colorado Center, the nearly 200,000-square-foot, $110.8 million museum, will open to the public April 28 2012. New History Museum to Debut Work of Art By Steven Weitzman on Ground Floor.

Mar 2, 2012
Miami Museum of Science Building, Miami, Florida
Design: Grimshaw
Miami Science Museum

Nov 14, 2012
Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, Michigan State University
Design: Zaha Hadid Architects

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Oct 1, 2011
Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, Raleigh, North Carolina
Design: Brooks + Scarpa
Located in Raleigh’s revitalizing Historic Depot District, an unlikely butterfly has emerged from its decades-long cocoon. The historic 1910 two-story brick structure built for Allen Forge & Welding Company and enlarged around 1927 for the Brogden Produce Company — and more recently home to longtime occupant Cal-Tone Paints — has emerged from its asbestos clad sheathing into a new incarnation as the home of Raleigh’s Contemporary Art Museum (CAM).

Oct 2011
Contemporary Art Museum Raleigh, NC
Design: Brooks + Scarpa

picture from architects

Sep 21, 2011
Miami Pier Museum of Latin American Immigrants, South Beach, Miami, Florida
Design: Maciej Jakub Zawadzki

picture from architect
Built to symbolize the turbulent trials of immigration and the furies of the sea that brought the immigrants to Florida, the building is symbolic and artful in its reflection of the struggles of Miami’s immigrants. The exterior’s twists symbolize the complicated emotions involved with leaving a motherland and coming to a land of opportunity.

Aug 12, 2011
Utah Museum of Natural History, Utah

Jun 15, 2011
Museum of Fine Arts Houston Building Expansion, Texas
Design: Steven Holl Architects

photograph © MFAH
This museum expansion will enlarge the presentation of its collections, exhibitions, and myriad educational programs. The project will involve the construction of a new museum building intended mostly for art after 1900 to complement the Audrey Jones Beck and Caroline Wiess Law Buildings.

March 21, 2011
Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami Building, Miami, Florida
Design: Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects
MOCA has built its reputation on its innovative exhibitions, world-renowned permanent collection, education programs, and special events that maximize the use of space in its current building and surrounding plaza. The 27,000 square-foot expansion will triple the museum’s current exhibition space.

March 8, 2011
Pier Migrant Mangrove Museum, Lummus Park, Florida
Design: Paul Cremoux W. / Manuel Angel Bugallo O.

Jan 14, 2011
North Carolina Museum of Art Building
Design: Thomas Phifer and Partners
This is a 127,000-sqft, single-story project. The West Building, which opened to the public in 2010, is the central component of the Museum’s recently completed three-year expansion. It dramatically transformed the visitor experience of both the Museum itself and the 164-acre park in which it is sited, and with which West Building is visually and experientially integrated.

Jan 10, 2011
Salvador Dali Museum, Florida

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May 20, 2010
Anchorage Museum Expansion, Alaska
The new building offers windows through which the activity of the museum is observed. The visitor, from within, is re-oriented to the city context and its extraordinary natural setting beyond.

May 10, 2010
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Extension, Richmond, Virginia
Design: Rick Mather Architects
$150m site wide masterplan and expansion
The new 15,330m2 (165,000 sq.ft) McGlothlin Wing opens VMFA up to the city and provides extensive new space for the museum’s collections and study centre. The museum reports that this expansion makes them one of the ten largest encyclopaedic museums in the United States and was described by the Director Alex Nyerges as “nothing short of spectacular.”

2010
North Carolina Museum of Art Building, NC
Design: Thomas Phifer and Partners

picture © Scott Frances. Courtesy NCMA

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May 27, 2009
Museum of Fine Arts Boston, MA
Design: Foster + Partners
This is a major redevelopment and a new wing designed by Foster + Partners. The masterplan reinstates the original formal axis of the Museum and opens it up to the Back Bay Fens and the linear park designed by Frederick Law Olmsted in 1877.

March 3, 2009
NMAAHC, Washington DC
Located on Constitution Avenue, adjacent to the National Museum of American History and the Washington Monument, the museum will house exhibit galleries, administrative spaces, theatre space and collections storage space for the NMAAHC. The design rests on three cornerstones: the “corona” shape and form of the building; the extension of the building out into the landscape – the porch; and the bronze filigree envelope.

March 3, 2009
Contemporary Jewish Museum, SF

March 3, 2009
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art

Feb 24, 2009
Getty Center Building, Los Angeles, California
The Getty Center, in Los Angeles, California, is a campus of the Getty Museum and other programs of the Getty Trust. The $1.3 billion Center opened in 1997 and is well known for its architecture, gardens, and views overlooking Los Angeles.

Jan 12, 2009
Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Design: Randall Stout Architects, Inc.
To accommodate rapid growth in its collections and programs, the Taubman Museum of Art commissioned Los Angeles based architect Randall Stout, principal of the firm of Randall Stout Architects, Inc., to design a new 81,000 sqft building commensurate with its ambition to become a gateway arts institution in western Virginia and its area of the United States. Located at one of Roanoke’s most visible and historic downtown intersections, the Taubman Museum of Art is the first major purpose-built museum ever constructed in the city.

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2008

Aug 9, 2008
Smithsonian Institute Redevelopment

Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, Missouri
For the art world, the addition, known as the Bloch Building, should reaffirm that art and architecture can happily coexist. He has created a building that sensitizes visitors to the world around them.

Newseum, Washington, D.C.
The Newseum was an interactive museum that promoted free expression and the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, while tracing the evolution of communication. The seven-level, 250,000-sqft (23,000 sqm) museum was located in Washington, D.C., and featured fifteen theaters and fifteen galleries.

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2007

MoMA Extension, New York City, NY
NY City Planning Department’s decision on Wednesday 9 Sep 2009 to chop off 200 feet from the top of a proposed tower. Amanda Burden, the city planning commissioner, said the tower’s top, which culminates in three uneven peaks, did not meet the aesthetic standards of a building that would compete in height with the city’s most famous towers.

Museum of Contemporary Art, New York City, NY
The building, designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa/SANAA with Gensler, New York, serving as executive Architect, is expressed as a series of six asymmetrically stacked aluminum-clad rectilinear boxes shifted off-axis around a central steel core. Sejima + Nishizawa’s inspiration came from the traditional set-backs exhibited by some of the city’s earlier skyscrapers.

Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY
KPF was selected by The Museum of Modern Art to serve as Executive Architect for a 630,000 square-foot renovation, rebuilding and expansion project in collaboration with the Japanese architecture firm Taniguchi and Associates.The carefully considered design responds to the complex site and program demands of the Museum’s role as the preeminent international center for modern art.

Brooklyn Children’s Museum, New York

Derfner Judaica Museum, New York

Nevada Museum of Art Building, Nevada

Wing Luke Asian Museum, Washington

de Young Museum, San Francisco, California

Guggenheim New York building, East Harlem, New York City

Whitney Museum New York, Upper East Side, New York City

More modern American Museum Buildings online soon

Modern American public institution developments. Contemporary United States built environment design images.

Key American Museum Buildings, no images / links:

Akron Art Museum, Akron, Ohio
Date built: 2007
Design: Coop Himmelb(l)au

Allen Art Museum Addition, Oberlin, Ohio
Date built: 1976
Design: Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates

Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
–
Design: Philip Johnson Architect

Arkell Museum, Canajoharie, New York State
Date built: 2007
Design: designLAB architects

Arthur M. Sackler Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts
Date built: 1984
JSMWA with Perry Dean Rogers and Partners

Bellevue Art Museum, Bellevue, Washington
Date built: 1997
Design: Steven Holl Architects

Cleveland Museum of Art – Renovation + Extension, Cleveland, Ohio
Date built: 2009
Design: Rafael Vinoly Architects

image from architect

Cleveland Museum Extension, Cleveland, Ohio
1971
Design: Marcel Breuer Architect

Clyfford Still Museum, Denver, Colorado
2008-10
Design: Allied Works Architecture

Contemporary Jewish Museum, Yerba Buena, San Francisco, California
–
Design: Eric Owen Moss

The Currier Museum of Art – Extension, Manchester, New Hampshire
2008
Design: Ann Beha Architects, Boston

Davis Museum, Wellesley College, Wellesley, Massachusetts
1993
Rafael Moneo Architects

De Young Museum, San Francisco, California
2005
Herzog & de Meuron Architects

Denver Art Museum – Extension, Denver, Colorado
2006
Studio Libeskind

Figge Art Museum – New Museum of Art, Davenport, Iowa
2006
David Chipperfield Architects

Frederick R. Weisman Art Museum, Minneapolis, Minnesota
–
Gehry Partners

The Getty Center, Los Angeles, California
1997
Richard Meier Architects

Gettysburg Museum & Visitor Center, Pennsylvania
2008
LSC Design Inc.

Glass Pavilion, Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio
2006
SANAA

GRAM – Art Museum, Grand Rapids, Michigan
2007
Design: wHY architecture

Guggenheim New York building, East Harlem, New York City
1959
Frank Lloyd Wright Architects

Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell campus, Ithaca, New York State
1973
I M Pei & Partners, Architects

High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia
1983
Richard Meier Architects

High Museum of Art Expansion, Atlanta, Georgia
2006
Renzo Piano Architects

Holocaust Museum, Washington DC
–
Ralph Applebaum

Jewish History Museum, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
2007-
Polskek Partnership Architects

Joslyn Art Museum – new wing, Omaha, Nebraska
1994
Sir Norman Foster & Partners

Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, Texas
1972
Louis Kahn
international art collection

Marcia and John Price Museum Building, Salt Lake City, Utah
2001
Machado and Silvetti Associates, USA
Utah Museum of Fine Arts

Milwaukee Art Museum – Quadracci Pavilion, Milwaukee
2001
Santiago Calatrava Architects

Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas
2002
Tadao Ando Architect & Associates

Museum of African Art, 5th Avenue, New York City
2007-09
Robert A.M. Stern Architects

Museum of Arts and Design, Columbus Circus, New York City
–
Allied Works

Museum of the City of New York, Fifth Avenue between 103rd and 104th Streets, New York City
1932
Joseph H. Freedlander

Museum of the City of New York – Extension : James G. Dinan and Elizabeth R. Miller Gallery, New York City
2008
Polshek Partnership

Museum of Contemporary Arts, Denver, Colorado
2007
Adjaye/Associates

Audrey Jones Beck Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas
2000
Rafael Moneo Architects

Museum of Folk Art, New York City
–
Tod Williams + Billie Tsien

The Museum Residences, Denver, Colorado
2006
Studio Libeskind

Museum of Science, Miami, Florida
2007-
Grimshaw

New Art Museum, Shenandoah Valley, Western Virginia
2008
Randall Stout

New York Museum of Natural History, New York City
–
Ralph Applebaum

Noah’s Ark, Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles, California
2007
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

image : Grant Mudford

Peabody Essex Museum, Salem, Massachusetts
–
Moshe Safdie Architects

The Philadelphia Museum of Art new galleries, Pennsylvania
2007
Gluckman Mayner Architects

Queens Museum of Art, Queens, New York City
–
Eric Owen Moss

The Queens Museum expansion
2007-10
Grimshaw with Ammann & Whitney
National competition 2001 winner: Eric Owen Moss (did not progress)
The Queens Museum in 2005 appointed Grimshaw Architects with Ammann & Whitney

Seattle Art Museum, Washington
–
Venturi, Scott Brown & Associates

Skirball Museum & Cultural Centre, Los Angeles, California
–
Moshe Safdie Architects

Telfair Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia
–
Moshe Safdie Architects

Whatcom Museum, Bellingham, Washington
–
Olson Sundberg Kundig Allen Architects

image from architect

Whitney Museum, Upper East Side, New York City
1966
Marcel Breuer Architect
New York Museum Building

Whitney Museum of American Art building, Gansevoort St, Meatpacking District, Downtown Manhattan, New York City
2008-
Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW)

More modern American Museum Buildings online soon.

New York Museum Buildings

Green Air, Contemporary Art Museum of Saint Louis

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Location: USA

Museum building designs

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