Mercer Times

The Princeton University Art Museum announced its new building will open on October 31, 2025. The museum's new 146,000-square-foot facility will double the space for displaying art and offer improved visitor amenities. It will also host four inaugural special exhibitions. One notable exhibition, "Princeton Collects," will feature significant paintings by Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, and Gerhard Richter, among others. The exhibition is part of a dedication to the new building designed by Adjaye Associates with Cooper Robertson.

Michael Jacobs, the museum's senior gallery designer and manager of exhibition services, describes the building process as one that involved artworks being integrated into the architecture. Jacobs noted, “We saw plenty of opportunities in the newly designed spaces to bring back a lot of these objects to enable easy visual access to them.”

The involvement of specialists like Kelly Caldwell of EverGreene Architectural Arts and Adam Jenkins of Adam Jenkins Conservation Services was crucial. Caldwell and Jenkins emphasized the importance of their early participation in the project, which began with the deinstallation phase.

The installation process required coordination from several museum staff, including Alexia Hughes, who oversaw the safe transport of fragile works. Jacobs and museum director James Steward worked alongside consultants and architects to match artworks with the building’s design.

One of the key reconstructed pieces, a sixteenth-century Mallorcan stairway, is set to be prominently displayed. Jacobs expressed anticipation for the piece’s impact, stating, “The staircase’s composition, nested within the environs of the Museum’s Grand Stair in a dramatic double-height space, will have a lasting impression on visitors.”

Another important piece is a fifteenth-century stone window from the Vaucluse region in France, which was integrated with a new frame to maintain its architectural and historical integrity. Caldwell commented on the new installation: “The window is completely independent from the surrounding walls; the steel for this piece was custom designed.”

Additionally, the museum will feature ancient Roman mosaic pavements that were excavated in the early 20th century. Adam Jenkins emphasized the reversible installation approach: “Everything we install can be reversed.” James Steward noted the design inspiration was drawn from the Musée du Louvre in Paris.

The process was extensively documented by museum photographers Jeffrey Evans and Joseph Hu as the completion of embedded objects neared. Hughes expressed satisfaction with the reunion of the museum’s pieces, saying, “The building is so different from what it used to be ... we’ve been disconnected from the old building for four years now, and with the return of these amazing pieces it’s starting to feel like the Princeton University Art Museum once again.”