Owatonna Arts Center

Location: Owatonna, MN
Total Square Footage: 20,000 sq ft
Construction Cost: $1.5 Million
Design Completion Date: 2007

In order to house growing educational programs and an expanding permanent collection, the Owatonna Arts Center (OAC) plans to expand its gallery and instructional spaces plus reconstruct the deteriorated sculpture garden walls. The proposed design creates a new entry and lobby, museum gift shop for regional artists, new gallery space that may also be used for banquets and performances, an outdoor terrace, and a reconfigured sculpture garden with a new amphitheater for outdoor community theater and musical performances.

The project is a significant addition and renovation to an historic structure that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The new design is inspired by the rich architectural legacy in Owatonna seen in the National Farmer’s Bank by Louis Sullivan, the Federated Insurance Company Building by Jacobson and Jacobson, and the architecture of the existing West Hills Campus. The building addition proposes to wrap a minimal glass volume with a “veil” of cast metal panels. The pattern within the cast metal is a replica of the pattern in Louis Sullivan castings displayed in the sculpture garden. The veil filters light as it enters the gallery space during the day and interior light glows through the veil at night. The lower level arts classrooms are wrapped in clerestory glass offering a view inside and reinforcing the Art Center’s mission of relating the production of art to the display of art.