Los Angeles-based architectural practice MILLIØNS has been selected to design a cafe at the I.M.Pei-designed Everson Museum of Art at Syracuse University in New York, United States. 

The firm, founded by John May and Zeina Koreitem, has been selected in an international competition held in October 2019, the winner was announced by the Everson Museum of Art. The competition was organized by Syracuse University School of Architecture Dean Michael Speaks and Assistant Professor Kyle Miller.

MILLIØNS’s design to renovate the Everson Museum of Art’s atrium and design additional space for daily public events. The new Everson Museum café will also serve as a venue to showcase the The Rosenfield Collection, a 3,000+ piece functional ceramic art collection gifted to the Everson Museum of Art by Dallas-based ceramic artist and collector Louise Rosenfield. 

Rosenfield, along with Kate Nutting, Principal and Managing Member of VIP Architectural Associates; Fouad Dietz, Everson Museum Chair of Buildings and Grounds Committee; and Karyn Korteling, owner of Pastabilities restaurant in Syracuse, NY, served as advisors to the jury.

MILLIØNS's design, through the informally arranged open shelving, will visually and architecturally merge the museum’s two floors—which are currently separate: an atrium and gallery on the lower level and the café on the upper level. 

The visuals show a series of inverted pyramids, evoking Pei’s geometric aesthetic, arranged in clusters throughout the atrium space—where visitors will eat and drink from the ceramic artworks.

Competition juror Oana Stănescu observes that, "MILLIØNS, through the incredible breadth of research and experimental design approach, pointed to unexpected ways in which this intervention can reverberate throughout the existing building. MILLIØNS' strategy is looking to give coherence to the museum experience by subtly inserting a contemporary design in the iconic building representative of very different times and attitudes towards art and life. This is an exciting new chapter for the Everson, a respectful nod to its past and a reassuring step towards the future."

"MILLIØNS brings a striking individuality to their work," said Dunbar. "Their approach to the café design within I.M. Pei’s iconic Everson design brings to mind Pei’s own daring intervention into the Louvre. MILLIØNS included prismatic glass towers in their design, brilliantly combining function with architectural flair and conceptual rigor." 

"They not only thoughtfully engage Pei’s style; they have highlighted its unique characteristics while simultaneously giving Louise’s collection the prominence and respect it deserves. We are all so very excited to work on this project with MILLIONS. Together we are creating a café space and experience unlike any other in the world." 

This project is part of a strategic initiative to restore and enhance the Everson’s building with the aim of positioning the historic structure as a source of civic pride, while simultaneously creating a dynamic and innovative museum for a 21st-century audience. 

Recently completed facility improvements include the Danial Family Education Center, a state-of-the-art auditorium renovation, and the Paul Phillips and Sharon Sullivan Ceramics Center.

Construction of the new café will begin in 2020 with an expected opening in late summer of the same year.

All images courtesy of MILLIØNS

> via Everson Museum of Art