The 1969 landmark Brutalist museum and 7.7 acre site, originally designed by Kevin Roche John Dinkeloo and Associates and landscape architect Dan Kiley, is both museum and urban park. The concrete structure has three main levels with multiple roof decks spread over five city blocks. The renovation encompassed the main entry, exterior visitor circulation, 280-seat auditorium, 94,000 sq. ft. of existing galleries, and two new galleries.

Apeiro Design (formerly Auerbach Glasow) respected the building’s powerful exposed concrete structure with elegant lighting details that juxtapose light and airy elements against the building’s massive proportions. The result is beautifully integrated illumination that creates a previously unknown intimacy for the Museum visitor’s experience. The lighting supports the renovation design goals to clarify entrances, bring shelter to exterior circulation while keeping a sense of openness, meet new code requirements, create drama in previously dull galleries and define modern new additions.

Apeiro Design also worked with Mark Cavagnero Associates to expand the café and renovate the 10th street entry to give better visibility to the café and enhance the popular OMCA Friday Night events.