The new Speed design features dramatic cantilevered volumes facing a public plaza. (Courtesy wHY Architecture)

Louisville’s Speed Art Museum has unveiled plans for a new addition designed by Culver City, CA-based wHY Architecture with Reed Hilderbrand landscape architects. Located on the campus of the University of Louisville, the museum hopes to increase connections with the city and the university along with increasing gallery and educational space. The scope of wHY’s work includes 200,000 square feet of new and renovated space in three phases valued at $79 million. The first phase including the new north structure will begin construction this year.

A fly-through (after the jump) offers a peak at the design, which calls for a simple monumental form next to the 1920s-era Beaux-Arts main building that cantilevers over a stand of trees forming an outdoor room and cafe on the campus facing side. A large garage-like door opens out to the garden. The street facing side features an outdoor amphitheatre-like seating set in the ground and a large reflecting pool. A cantilever staircase will be visible through the street facing facade.

Pools of water wind through the proposed addition. (Courtesy wHY Architecture)

While the designers said they were seeking to practice “architectural acupuncture” on the site, it appears that earlier additions will be cleared away entirely. The contrast between the original neoclassical building, which is largely windowless, and the highly transparent new wing is fairly stark, though the integration of landscape elements and water features makes the building seem rooted in the campus site.

Glass covers the new north building to create a sense of transparency. (Courtesy wHY Architecture)

A model of the Speed Museum expansion on the University of Louisville campus. (Sarah Lyon)

The Speed Art Museum's addition sits to the north of the original 1920s Beaux-Arts building (Courtesy wHY Architecture)

The expansion's light-filled atrium features a dramatic stairway. (Courtesy wHY Architecture)