DIGSAU Principal Jamie Unkefer will lead a tour of the Frances M. Maguire Art Museum, housed in the Barnes Foundation’s former building in Lower Merion. He will highlight the renovations made to Paul Cret’s famous structure to modernize it and to increase accessibility and flow, including a ramp at the entrance and an intriguing joining of a barrel-vaulted and a groin-vaulted ceiling.

Learning Objectives:

1. Understand how the former Barnes Museum was modified to meet the requirements of contemporary audiences and to fulfill the pedagogical mission of an academic art museum.
2. Discover subtle but impactful adjustments to the Museum’s original configuration to transform the gallery into a modern, flexible art gallery.
3. See how light, view, acoustics, and air quality influence the museum experience.
4. Explore the strategies used to provide full accessibility to the museum.

Credits: 1 AIA LU

Speaker Information:

Jamie Unkefer, AIA
Principal, DIGSAU

M.Arch.: Yale University
B.A., English: Earlham College

Jamie Unkefer is a designer, community advocate, and founding partner of DIGSAU. As a member of a family of builders with a diverse background in English literature and pottery, Jamie combines a maker’s interest in craft with the inspiration of poetry. His work with arts, civic, higher education, urban developers, and private clients has garnered recognition from the American Institute of Architects, Urban Land Institute, the Brick Industry Association, among other organizations. Jamie serves on the Board of Trustees of the Smith Memorial Playground and Foulkeways at Gwennyd, and is a member of the Arch Street Meeting Preservation Trust Property Committee and the Carpenter’s Company of the City and County of Philadelphia.