The Clark Art Institute is known for its bucolic setting in northwestern Massachusetts. Pritzker Prize-winning architect Tadao Ando has made a strong yet deferential addition to its campus. (Carolina A. Miranda / Los Angeles Times)

The art press these days is rife with stories about splashy museum building projects: from the controversial expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York (which has devoured a relatively new building by Tod Williams Billie Tsien architects) to the behemoth cinder blob proposed by Swiss architect Peter Zumthorfor the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.

Which is why the expansion at the Clark Art Institute in Williamstown, Mass., unveiled this last summer, is so remarkable. Low-key and restrained, it avoids showy asymmetric geometry or structures that resemble bathtubs. With the assistance of prominent architects, including Pritzker Prize-winner Tadao Ando, the museum has added a number of earth-hugging structures and conducted thoughtful expansions, adding more than 75,000 square feet of space (galleries, a cafe, a gift shop, conservation studios, education areas and more) without doing anything that comes off as brash.....Continue Reading 

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