The Statue of Liberty Museum

From the outset, the museum was conceived as an
extension of the park. The design harmonizes and adds to
the experience of all visitors to the island, preserving
spectacular views to Manhattan, and engaging the park’s
axial formality. The design merges landscape and building.
The park is lifted, creating a new, naturalized habitat above.
Below, the museum forms a new geology, revealing a
sparkling vitrine for its showpiece: the statue’s original
torch. Steps engage and activate the large, circular plaza.
They provide sitting, climbing, and viewing spaces. The roof
terrace echoes the promenade atop Fort Wood, affording
spectacular panoramas of the island, the harbor, and the
city. The project’s angular plan and spaces are shaped by
view corridors and the irregularity of the water’s edge. The
fort turns inward: it is defensive, dark, and solid. The
museum is its opposite and its axial bookend; it radiates
outward, celebrating Liberty.