Detail View: Archivision Base to Module 9: Ara Pacis Museum

Preferred Title: 
Ara Pacis Museum
Image View: 
West facade, glass doors into temporary exhibits gallery, block on left; glass curtain wall surrounding altar to right
Creator: 
Richard Meier (American architect, born 1934)
Location: 
site: Rome, Lazio, Italy
Location Note: 
altar originally Campus Martius; reconstructed near the Mausoleum of Augustus (Lungotevere in August)
GPS: 
+41.906389+12.475556
Date: 
1995-2006 (creation)
Cultural Context: 
Italian
Style Period: 
Twenty-first century
Work Type 1: 
art museum
Work Type 2: 
historic site
Work Type 3: 
auditorium
Classification: 
architecture
Material: 
steel; glass; travertine; white marble
Relation Work: 
relatedTo Ara Pacis Augustae
Description: 
In 1938 Benito Mussolini built a protective building for the Altar, as it had been reconstructed by Vittorio Ballio Morpurgo, near the Mausoleum of Augustus (moving the Altar in the process) as part of his attempt to glorify Fascist Italy. A new cover building, designed by American architect Richard Meier, now stands on the same site as Mussolini's. The new building opened in 2006 to controversy. Modifications are planned to reroute a busy road so that the large travertine wall is no longer needed to block the noise of the traffic; a a wide pedestrian area will be built along the river and the road (Lungotevere in August) will run underneath it. A predominating feature of the new building is a glass curtain wall measuring 150 feet long and 40 feet high. There is space for other exhibits, an auditorium and a rooftop terrace with cafe. (Source: ArchDaily; http://www.archdaily.com/)
Collection: 
Archivision Addition Module Seven
Identifier: 
1A1-MR-APM-B3
Rights: 
© Scott Gilchrist, Archivision, Inc.