I have viewed the uninviting façade image of the proposed new Art Museum with concern.

In the image, dark metal panels completely hide the interior. On the other hand, the preceding, recent museum entrance offered a welcoming invitation continuing from the outdoor sculpture plaza into the transparent interior.

Equally successful was the departure experience from the upper landing through the glass façade, with the University campus paths visible. An inviting way to connect the Art Museum to University life!

The new design, with its dark impenetrable metal panels, emphasizes separation and adds gloom to gray winter days.

The Morgan Library Museum in New York also carries a metal panel façade, but with some reason, to reduce the Madison Avenue highway noise, and to keep out the afternoon sun. The Princeton Museum entry faces north, so the sun is not a concern. 

An invitation to pedestrian traffic should be encouraged as part of a teaching museum’s mission.

Janko Rasic ’59 *61
New York, N.Y.