Ringling Museum Opens New Wing
By Tovah Pentelovitch | From Preservation | Feb. 13, 2007
Traditional becomes radical with the poured-concrete-and-pink-coquina-shell design of an $11.5 million new wing at the John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art.
The Ulla R. and Arthur F. Searing Wing, which officially opened on Feb. 3, suits the original 1920s structure, a Venetian gothic mansion called Cà d'Zan, says Dr. John Wetenhall, the museum's executive director.
"The new building is utterly compatible with the old," Wetenhall says. "It's so traditionalist, it is really a radical approach, given today's alternatives."
The completion of the Searing Wing is the last phase of the Ringling's $76 million, five-year master plan, which has doubled the size of the institution, located in Sarasota, Fla.
"The expansion was required to make up for the stagnation of past decades," Wetenhall says.
When the Ringling opened in 1927, John Ringling hoped that it would be as grand as the great American circus.
After 54 years of ownership, the state of Florida passed oversight of the Ringling to Florida State University in 2000. Without that change, the museum may not have been able to survive, Wetenhall says.
Before the university took over, "the museum was in poor condition," Wetenhall says. "The Cà d'Zan [John Ringling's mansion] was closed for extended renovation. The Asolo Theater was condemned. The art museum roof leaked water … the museum was in a death spiral, and there was never enough funding, so it kept getting worse."
Aside from structural problems, the museum did not have facilities such as a library and safe storage for art.
The project began in 2002 with the restoration of the Cà d'Zan ("House of John" in Venetian dialect) and the Asolo Theater. The university established an endowment of more than $50 million and constructed the Tibbals Learning Center, a visitors pavilion, an education-conservation building, an expansion of the Circus Museum, and the Searing Wing.
Designed by Yann Weymouth of the Tampa-based firm HOK, the Searing Wing, with 20,000 square feet of gallery space, will display previously neglected art from the museum's permanent collection of more than 10,000 objects.
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