About the Project

Aerial view of the museum's campus, including a rendering of the new Gundlach Building, Great Lawn, and indoor Town Square covered by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann's Common Sky. Photo: Blake Dawson for Buffalo AKG Art Museum | Rendering courtesy of OMA

Driven to radically expand its accessibility and engagement with its local and global community and inspired by the world-class caliber of its collection, in November 2019, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery broke ground on the most significant campus expansion and development project in the museum’s 160-year history. The museum reopened as the Buffalo AKG Art Museum in June 2023.

Designed by OMA/Shohei Shigematsu and Executive Architect Cooper Robertson with substantial input from communities throughout Western New York and the museum’s leadership steered by Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director Dr. Janne Sirén, the new Buffalo AKG comprises more than 50,000 square feet of state-of-the art exhibition space, five studios, an interior community gathering space, and more than half an acre of new public green space.

View of the new Gundlach Building from the Wilmers Building

View of the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building from Elmwood Avenue

View from Iroquois Drive of the new John J. Albright Bridge connecting the Wilmers Building (left) to the new Gundlach Building (right)

Common Sky, 2019, by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces, will cover the museum's new indoor Town Square in the Seymour H. Knox Building. © Studio Other Spaces

Sculpture Terrace and main staircase in the new Gundlach Building

View inside the new John J. Albright Bridge, which will connect the new Gundlach Building to the Wilmers Building

View of the Robert and Elisabeth Wilmers Building with restored historic staircase from Elmwood Avenue

The Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building is a new work of signature architecture that adds more than 30,000 square feet of space for the display of special exhibitions and the museum’s world-renowned collection of modern and contemporary art. The courtyard of the museum’s existing Seymour H. Knox Building, designed by Gordon Bunshaft and completed in 1962, is now covered with a new artwork by Olafur Eliasson and Sebastian Behmann of Studio Other Spaces. This new Town Square serves as the hub of the museum's community engagement activities and is adjacent to the museum shop, the cafe, and five state-of-the-art studios. The entire Knox Building is free of admission charges.

The new underground parking garage is covered by the Great Lawn, more than half an acre of public parkland that abuts the Gundlach Building and the Robert and Elisabeth Wilmers Building, designed by E. B. Green and completed in 1905. The capital campaign to fund the construction of the Buffalo AKG was the largest such campaign for a cultural institution in the history of Western New York. The lead patron of the Buffalo AKG is financier Jeffrey Gundlach, who gave a total of $65 million to the capital campaign through a series of matching challenges.

  • Project Partners

    Learn more about our architectural partner, OMA, and the project's construction manager, Gilbane.

  • Project History

    Trace the evolution of the museum's campus development project from 2012 to the present.