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22 WINTER 2025
Courtesy: Newark Museum/LMXD
Slated for full completion in 2027, Museum Parc will include two new residential buildings on Central
Avenue between University Avenue and Washington Street.
and includes 6,000 square feet of
reimagined public interior spaces.
KSS Architects, headquartered
in Princeton, with offi ces in New
York and Philadelphia, conducted
extensive research and worked
with museum leadership to ensure
that it understood the scope of
Graves’ work and honored his 1990
post-modernist designs. The group
carefully removed physical barriers
and revitalized the space to meet the
institution’s current needs for a large
open area to accommodate more
interactive learning and engagement
programming.
The renovation includes a fresh
auditorium lobby in the lower level
and revamped main and mezzanine
levels. Many of the 1990s partitions
that once dotted the main level of the
museum for administrative offi ces,
along with portions of walls and
stairwells, have been eliminated.
Now, more natural light can stream
into the building, offering a greater
sense of openness.
“As architects, especially with our
offi ce being founded in Princeton, we
also have a tremendous amount of
respect for Michael Graves and the
work that was done there, so we were
very careful in the renovation that we
undertook to
honor that,” said
Jason Chmura,
a partner with
KSS, based in
the fi rm’s New
York offi ce.
“Some of the
things that we
Jason Chmura
changed or
otherwise renovated brought it back
to maybe some of what was a more
pure version of Graves’ design.”
The Newark Museum of Art, also
referred to as NMOA, showcases
the state’s most comprehensive
art collection. It boasts more than
300,000 objects of artistic, cultural
and scientifi c importance
from Asia, Africa and the
Americas and offers the 12th-
most extensive collection in
the U.S.
“There’s certainly a general
inspiration that this space
need not compete with
any of the work that is on
display within the larger
Newark Museum,” Chmura
said. “There was a conscious
effort to create really a
canvas that the museum
could curate.”
The Learning & Engagement
Center now has an improved
elevator to the museum’s
main level and allows for
more seamless connections
to previously hidden and
hard-to-reach educational
spaces such as classrooms,
the auditorium, gallery and multi-
use event spaces located upstairs
that had limited access views.
Development organizers said they
view the improved Learning &
Engagement Center as the gateway
to the city’s arts campus, which will
strengthen the connection between
The Newark Museum of Art and the
city of Newark, cementing its place
as a cultural anchor to complement
NJPAC and other important cultural
and academic institutions.
“Our museum has always been a
champion of powerful art and stories,
and now we’ve added a bold, vibrant
space where our visitors can come
together, whether to experience
the art, learn something new or just
connect with one another,” said Ward,
the NMOA deputy director.
The Newark Museum of Art is a
not-for-profi t and receives fi nancial
support from the city, the state and
numerous corporations, foundations
and individual donors. In addition
to the Ballantine House mansion, it
also incorporates other historically
signifi cant structures. They include
the Ward Carriage House and the
Old Stone School House built in 1860
and 1784, respectively, as well as the
Garden State’s fi rst planetarium and
the Newark Fire Museum. What’s
more, the museum hosts the nation’s
longest-running Black fi lm festival
and Newark Arts festival.
UP NEXT
During the next phase of
development, the existing Horizon
Plaza owned by LMXD at the corner
of Central Avenue and Washington
Street will be connected to the
museum’s existing sculpture garden
and introduce several new works
from artists such as Tony Smith,
Holly Wilson, Yinka Shonibare
and Sanford Biggers. That area
will blend into a new green and
public courtyard, converting
existing parking lots to communal
public spaces that the Learning &
Engagement Center will overlook.
One of the overarching project goals
is to draw people in from Horizon
Plaza into the public sculpture
garden, Chmura said.
To top it off, when the larger Museum
Parc redevelopment project is
completed, even more exterior art
will be infused to the area with a
massive colorful mural by Kelley
Prevard. Selected by the museum, the
artist is commissioned to create two
murals. One will cover the eastern
façade of one of the new residential
buildings along with a complementary
mural on the museum’s Learning &
Engagement Center. RE
Rosa Cirianni is a contributor to
Real Estate NJ
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