Neutel­ings won their first project over­seas today. No pic­tures yet, the office informed us that they’ve been chosen due to “a cre­ative pro­posal for the selec­tion com­mit­tee. We were selected because of this pro­posal and making a design is the next step in the process.”

The Cincin­nati Art Museum’s press release:

CINCIN­NATI (Sept. 27, 2007)–The Board of the Cincin­nati Art Museum today announced the selec­tion of Neutel­ings Riedijk Archi­tects as the archi­tec­ture firm that will redesign the Museum’s multi-​phase campus ren­o­va­tion and expan­sion in the city’s Eden Park. Neutel­ings Riedijk is inter­na­tion­ally known for its archi­tec­tural design projects; the Cincin­nati Art Museum project is the firm’s first project in the United States.

Based in Rot­ter­dam, Neutel­ings Riedijk is rec­og­nized for its demon­strated abil­ity to respond with excep­tional sen­si­tiv­ity and inge­nu­ity to his­toric build­ings, their sur­round­ings, and com­plex exist­ing lay­outs. Their recent projects include the Nether­lands Insti­tute for Sound and Vision (2006), the STUK Per­form­ing Arts Center in Bel­gium (2002), and sev­eral dis­tin­guished social hous­ing and campus build­ings around the world.

The Cincin­nati Art Museum was founded in 1881, and during its 126-year-history has grown from a single build­ing to a com­plex of seven indi­vid­ual, inter­con­nected struc­tures. These var­i­ous wings were designed by a series of archi­tects in a vari­ety of styles. Neutel­ings Riedijk will work with the Cincin­nati Art Museum to develop a master archi­tec­tural design for the insti­tu­tion that will inte­grate the dis­parate struc­tures into a uni­fied, cohe­sive whole and will com­bine a thought­ful and lib­er­at­ing reuse of the Museum’s exist­ing spaces with an inno­v­a­tive expansion.

“We were impressed with Neutel­ings Riedijk’s inven­tive ideas, which will allow us to intel­li­gently reuse space and spec­tac­u­larly reimag­ine our facil­ity,” said Aaron Betsky, direc­tor of the Cincin­nati Art Museum. “The project will enable the Museum to present more of the extra­or­di­nary works in our col­lec­tion, ful­fill our edu­ca­tional mis­sion, and better serve our com­mu­nity and trav­el­ers to the region.”

When com­pleted, the new Cincin­nati Art Museum will pro­vide vis­i­tors with a more intu­itive, wel­com­ing, and engag­ing expe­ri­ence and path through the Museum and will allow for sig­nif­i­cantly more effi­cient oper­a­tional sys­tems. The Museum will be able to present more of its out­stand­ing col­lec­tion, and will fea­ture increased space for spe­cial exhi­bi­tions, and enhanced facil­i­ties for public pro­gram­ming and edu­ca­tion activities.

Although the master design is in its early stages with Neutel­ings Riedijk, and will con­tinue to progress over the coming months, the Art Museum antic­i­pates the project will add a min­i­mum of 50,000 square feet of new con­struc­tion, and remodel nearly all of the exist­ing build­ings, except those that have been recently ren­o­vated. The project budget, which will include funds both to com­plete ren­o­va­tion and con­struc­tion and to increase the Museum’s endow­ment, will be devel­oped as plan­ning progresses.

The project will be com­pleted in phases, with the first phase focused on the ren­o­va­tion of the Art Acad­emy Build­ing and inno­v­a­tive re-​use of the Museum’s exist­ing spaces. This will include restor­ing former galleries–now hous­ing admin­is­tra­tive functions–to exhi­bi­tion spaces and spaces for public and edu­ca­tional pro­gram­ming. Sub­se­quent phases of the project will include new con­struc­tion. The new design will be unveiled in early 2008, when work on the ren­o­va­tion and re-​use phase of the project is sched­uled to begin.

“Milestones such as the ren­o­va­tion of the Asian gal­leries and the soon to be ren­o­vated antiq­ui­ties gallery, as well as free admis­sion, have already demon­strated the Art Museum’s com­mit­ment to ful­fill­ing our community’s needs and desires,” said Larry Sheak­ley, pres­i­dent of the board of trustees of the Cincin­nati Art Museum. “Now, Neutel­ings Riedijk will help us con­tinue to progress, and the entire board is excited to be part of a project that will con­tribute so much to the advance­ment of Cincinnati’s arts com­mu­nity nation­ally and internationally.”

Neutel­ings Riedijk’s other projects include The City Museum of Antwerp in Bel­gium fea­tur­ing a design that leads vis­i­tors to the top of the build­ing in a jour­ney through the his­tory of Antwerp and panoramic views of the city. The firm is also in the midst of com­plet­ing a strong icon for the North­ern gate to Paris, the Périphérique at Porte de la Vil­lette, which will fea­ture a land­mark hotel and shop­ping center. Among Neutel­ings Riedijk’s other recent projects are the opera house Kolizej Centre in Ljubl­jana (Slove­nia), the Eemhuis Cul­ture Centre in Amers­foort (Nether­lands), and the Hol­land Casino in Utrecht (Netherlands).