A glass building for glass

The encyclopedic glass collections at the Toledo Museum of Art are known around the world, but for the last three years nearly all of the more than seven thousand glass objects--encompassing everything from tablewares and serving pieces to lighting devices and snuffboxes made from ancient times to the present--have been in storage awaiting reinstallation in a new building specifically designed for the display of glass. Appropriately called the Glass Pavilion, the new building opened on August 27, across the street from the main museum. Designed by Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa of the firm SANAA (Sejima and Nishizawa and Associates) of Tokyo, this highly innovative 76,000-square-foot building cost $27 million. Nearly all the walls are glass and none were designed to intersect at a 90-degree angle. The intricate process used to fashion the curved exterior and interior walls involved making the glass and shipping it to China where it was shaped to the exact dimensions specified by the architects. The segments were then returned to Toledo and installed by setting them into channels in the ceiling and floor. In addition to exhibition space, the building contains two hot shops where glassmaking techniques are taught, studios, a cafe, and a multipurpose room for lectures and other special events.

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Edward Drummond Libbey, a partner in the New England Glass Company, was instrumental in moving the company from East Cambridge, Massachusetts, to Toledo in 1888, where it was eventually renamed the Libbey Glass Company. Libbey was not only one of the leading glass manufacturers in the United States at the end of the nineteenth century; he was also a strong supporter of cultural endeavors, and in 1901 he was one of the founders and first president of the Toledo Museum. As a center for the study of the history of glass and a place where avant-garde glass artists might be trained and nurtured, the museum's new glass building looks forward and backward in equal measure.

The museum has issued a catalogue of its glass collection entitled The Art of Glass, Toledo Museum of Art. It is written by Jutta-Annette Page and contains essays by other scholars. It may be obtained by telephoning the museum shop at 419-254-5766.

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