Selldorf Architects have released a revised version of the plans to remodel the National Gallery and the Sainsbury Wing, both classified as Grade-I-listed monuments. Sainsbury Wing is also the recipient of the 2019 AIA Twenty-five Year Award. The plans for the Sainsbury Wing, designed by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and opened in 1991, have faced intense criticism, with former RIBA Journal editor Hugh Pearman calling the remodeling plans “unnecessarily destructive”. The plans to remodel were first revealed earlier this year as part of the NG200 Project to celebrate the National Gallery’s bicentennial in 2024. The project proposes the remodeling of the Sainsbury Wing’s front gates, ground-floor entrance sequence, lobby, and first-floor spaces.
The remodeling plans are based on the brief to redirect circulation routes and use the Sainsbury Wing as the main access area to the National Gallery, a role for which the wing was not designed. The new routes also include a connection at the lower level between the Sainsbury Wing and the Wilkins Building, so that visitors would no longer need to backtrack through the wing to exit. Many critics saw these interventions as “misconceived” as disrespectful to the original form of the Garde-I listed building and its carefully orchestrated entrance sequence.
On October 17th, the National Gallery submitted revised plans, after rounds of public consultation, and inputs from stakeholders and heritage groups. The updates aim to address some specific areas of concern and to retain more of the original fabric of the building while keeping the original brief of opening the spaces to accommodate the new circulation routes. The modifications include the relocation of the six ‘Egyptian style’ columns from the existing shop entrance to the new shop.
The internal screen walls within the Rotunda, connecting the Sainsbury Wing to the Wilkins Building, are to be retained according to the revised plans, while the previous plans proposed their removal. The two will-shaped columns in the central lobby are to be moved, as so is the curved curtain wall. The remaining structural columns will be re-clad in Pietra Serena stone to a reduced footprint, while non-structural columns are to be demolished. According to the original rendering, the columns were to be clad in pale wood. The studio also extended the use of limestone finish. On the outside of the buildings, the trees proposed to the south of the National Gallery are no longer part of the application.
Architecture critics such as Hugh Pearman are not convinced, however, as he stated in an Architectural Journal article. While appreciating that more parts of the original are kept, such as the screen walls within the rotunda, he considers the interventions to continue to be intrusive, as some of the stronger gestures are kept in the revision, like the partial dismantling of the first floor to create a double-height area on the ground floor. He also criticized the decision to relocate elements, as it demonstrates a lack of understanding of the intentions of the original spaces.
Last summer, Selldorf Architects was selected for the revamp from a shortlist including Caruso St John with muf architecture/art, David Chipperfield Architects, and David Kohn Architects. The planning application was submitted in August, and the team declared it expected the application to go before the City of Westminster’s planning committee before the end of the year.
