Tod Williams and Billie Tsien formed their collaborative practice in New York in 1986. The studio, which totals around 35 people, is known for successfully combining theory and practice, architecture and the fine arts. The firm’s work emphasizes the importance of place and explores the nature of materials. Completed buildings include: Feinberg Hall at Princeton University (1986) The Neurosciences Institute, in La Jolla, California (1995), the Phoenix Art Museum, Phase I completed in 1996 and Phase II recently completed, the Cranbrook Natatorium (1999), and the Mattin Art Center, at Johns Hopkins University (2001). Williams and Tsien also have recently completed a bio-engineering building at the University of Pennsylvania and the East Asia Library at the University of California at Berkeley.

Olin, recipient of the 2008 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, is internationally recognized for excellence in landscape architecture, urban design and planning. The studio has demonstrated a commitment to Philadelphia’s urban realm, creating timeless spaces that promote environmental, economic and social sustainability. Olin recently completed the design of a new underground parking facility for Philadelphia Museum of Art which they transformed into a vibrant outdoor sculpture garden. Other projects include the design of Comcast Center Plaza and Commerce Square, and a master plan and design guidelines for Independence National Historical Park. Olin also has been selected to design public landscape improvements around the Rodin Museum on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway.

The Barnes Foundation was established by Albert C. Barnes in 1922 to “promote the advancement of education and the appreciation of the fine arts and horticulture.” Currently located in a 12-acre arboretum, the Paul Cret-designed Gallery houses one of the world’s largest collections of Impressionist, Post-Impressionist and early Modern paintings, with extensive holdings by Renoir, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Rousseau, Modigliani, Soutine and de Chirico, as well as Old Master paintings, important examples of African sculpture and Native American ceramics, American paintings and decorative arts, and antiquities from the Mediterranean region and Asia.

For more information on the Barnes Foundation please visit www.barnesfoundation.org

“When I joined the Board in 1999, the Foundation’s finances were in shambles. This didn’t begin in the 1990’s, since the deficits went back a decade earlier. In addition, I inherited an expensive legal battle from the previous administration.

The final decade of the 20th Century found the Barnes Foundation incurring annual deficits and depleted of financial resources, resulting, in large part, from an endless series of expensive and acrimonious lawsuits, going back as early as 1958.

Over the decades since the death of Dr Barnes, the situation had been made worse by his insistence on fixed income investments and prohibition on fund-raising events.

The Foundation’s ability to prosper, or indeed survive, in its Merion location was particularly handicapped by local regulations limiting visitation to the galleries.

In 2000, the Board commissioned Deloitte Touche to do a long range plan, which would enable us to restore the Foundation to financial health within its Merion setting.

The Deloitte plan assumed, as did the Board, that the Collection would stay in Merion and that the Foundation would be able to achieve its goals by further fundraising efforts.

By late 2001, it was becoming increasingly clear to the Board, however, that these efforts were not succeeding. We had achieved targeted funding for specific projects from the Mellon, Luce, Getty and Pew Foundations, but not long-term operating support.

Philanthropists and foundations weren’t giving money to organizations that didn’t have a credible business plan and a governance structure that would make implementation of that plan possible. Moreover, the Foundation’s prior history of involvement in expensive and distracting litigation had a chilling effect on potential donors.

None of the people raising their voices now in anger reached into their pockets to support us in any meaningful way in Merion.

Responding to these painful realities, we sought out assistance from associates developed over my many years in the foundation community. These discussions were a necessity.

I informally approached the Pew, Lenfest and Annenberg Foundations, all distinguished Philadelphia area institutions, regarding a possible plan to move the Collection to Philadelphia.

Indeed, such a plan was, in fact, anticipated by Section 11 of the Barnes Foundation Indenture. Section 11 is never raised or addressed by opponents of the move to the Parkway since it is easier to assert a conspiracy than to comprehend a complex reality. The section reads on relevant part as follows:

“should the said collection ever ... become impossible to administer the trust hereby created concerning said collection of pictures, then the property and funds ... shall be applied to an object as nearly within the scope herein indicated ... such application to be in connection with an existing and organized institution then in being and functioning in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, or its suburbs.”

The heads of these three foundations—Rebecca Rimel, Gerry Lenfest and Leonore Annenberg—agreed with me that the Foundation could not accomplish its mission and fulfill the vision of Dr. Barnes by remaining in its Merion location.

When informed in early 2002 that financial support from these three foundations was predicated on us being in a situation where we could prosper without restrictions, the Board of Trustees suspended discussion with them for a period of five months while it considered how to move forward.

The Board carefully considered whether there were any alternatives that were less dramatic and still consistent with their fiduciary obligations to pursue a course in the best interest of the Foundation.

The Board again drew on the expertise of Deloitte, to explain why the 2000 plan had not been realized. It concluded in the late summer of 2002 that the restrictions placed on the Barnes Foundation’s besieged suburban setting had simply become an insurmountable obstacle to fundraising.

The Board was determined to succeed independently—not as a part of another institution, or in partnership with one. Maintaining control of the mission, its manner of fulfillment, and Dr Barnes’s legacy was a primary and appropriate responsibility of the Board.

I had already been approached by a number of institutions offering to take over the running of the Barnes, with the Board being reduced to an advisory role only.

In contrast, these foundations acted in the public interest, not only to save the Barnes from financial collapse, but also to put it on a sound, long-term footing as an independent institution, as Albert Barnes wished.

None of the three foundations had any interest in controlling the Board or the Barnes Foundation. There was a consensus that for the Barnes to have a viable future it needed larger, more predictable sources of revenue.

These would result from greater access by the public, all of which could not be provided at its existing location, but was available on the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia.

No workable alternative to the Philadelphia plan was available.

The Board decided of its own volition to request the Montgomery County Orphan’s Court to move the Collection and accept the most generous offer of funding from these Foundations.

Negotiations with the foundations were resumed and completed.

Board members saw it as consistent with the intentions of Albert Barnes—to foster “education and the appreciation of the fine arts.” Their primary interest was the preservation and protection of the Collection, and the mission.

I should like to thank the Pew Board, Gerry Lenfest and the late Lee Annenberg for their vision in investing in the Barnes Foundation’s future.

The Montgomery County Orphan’s Court granted two requests in 2004.

The first was to expand the number of Board members from five to fifteen, so that we could act as a much more effective non-profit board in the areas of fundraising and management. This meant that the Board was able to nominate its own trustees in addition to the five nominated by Lincoln.

Our current Board is small compared to other prestigious institutions, and only five members live in the Philadelphia area. No one from the Pew, Lenfest or Annenberg serves on our Board.

The second decision by the Court was to allow the Collection to move to Philadelphia.

Since then, because of the very conservative investment policy for the funds raised for the project, the corpus has actually grown during the recent economic crisis.

The Barnes relationship with Lincoln University has never been better, and we look forward to a superb joint Lincoln/Barnes program in the fine arts.

We are delighted to have our colleagues from Lincoln with us today, at this milestone event.

As Chairman of the Board, I want to thank the many supporters of this great project. Our distinguished Vice-Chairman, Joe Neubauer, who also chairs the Development Committee, is going talk about our benefactors in more detail, but I offer my most sincere thanks, not only to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the City of Philadelphia, but also to all the foundations, corporations and private individuals who have supported us. There have been 30 seven figure gifts to the campaign, representing the philanthropic community across the Commonwealth and beyond.”

The Barnes is a unique educational institution dedicated to its founder’s educational mission . Key to this experience is the Barnes Foundation’s art collection, which is legendary for its exceptional depth and quality. Included in the more than 2,500 works are over 800 paintings featuring some of the finest examples of the greatest masters of Post-Impressionist and early Modern art, from Renoir to Picasso, along with African sculpture, Pennsylvania Dutch decorative arts, and more. In addition to the collection’s new home on Philadelphia’s Benjamin Franklin Parkway, the Foundation also encompasses a 12-acre Arboretum in Merion featuring more than 2,000 species of plants and a study center in Chester County.

Currently housed in the former residence and gallery of Dr. Albert Barnes, who established the Foundation in 1922, the renowned Barnes art collection will relocate in 2012, moving from suburban Merion to the Benjamin Franklin Parkway at 20th Street in Center City, Philadelphia. Here, the Barnes Foundation and its renowned art collection will become a vital part of Philadelphia’s cultural corridor, joining such beloved landmarks as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Franklin Institute, the Rodin Museum, The Academy of Natural Sciences, The Free Library of Philadelphia, and the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. More than just adding to the group, the Barnes Foundation represents a synthesis of the area’s two main themes as reflected in its original core mission: art and learning. Honoring its founder’s democratic ideals and collector’s eye, the Barnes looks to its future in Philadelphia as an intimate and entirely unique cultural experience that welcomes visitors from around the corner and across the globe to experience the collection, special exhibitions, and public programs for all.

The Barnes Foundation Arboretum and Arboretum School in Merion will continue to operate as a vital component of the Foundation’s educational initiatives with a wider range of horticultural and aesthetic courses, building on the aesthetic and scientific achievements of Laura Barnes. Combined with the rural Ker-Feal study center in Chester County, which is currently open for scholarly visits by appointment only, the three campuses exemplify distinctive characteristics of learning through art and horticulture, fulfilling Dr. Barnes’s unique vision for this magnificent, highly personal learning experience.

The Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia will be the first addition to the Parkway’s cultural corridor in many generations, and will provide an enhanced and full-service visitor experience to one of the world’s greatest assemblages of art, fostering new opportunities for engagement, learning and discovery—for all audiences.

On the Parkway in Philadelphia, the Barnes will welcome about a quarter-of-a-million visitors and students each year, while maintaining the intimacy of the existing experience. The collection will be arranged as planned by Albert Barnes himself, within rooms of the same size and proportion as in Merion. Reflecting the exceptional importance of the painting collection, the new complex will house a large conservation laboratory, as well as additional amenities for visitors: a restaurant, store, and gathering spaces.

Linking the entry foyer and the special exhibition gallery to the permanent collection galleries will be the light-filled court, serving as a gathering place before and after experiencing the collection, as a program venue for lectures and events, and as a walkway connecting the entrance to the other parts of the building. The court opens to a covered outdoor terrace with views to the Rodin Museum and Fairmount Park.

One of the most significant new features is a 5,000 square foot special exhibition gallery that will host a variety of exhibitions throughout the year, including regular exhibitions of contemporary and non-Western art, reflecting the original focus of the Barnes collection.

To help visitors experience the art to its best advantage and gain a better appreciation for subtleties of color, texture and form, a state-of-the-art lighting system will be utilized throughout the galleries. Additionally, there will be a rooftop “light box” through which sunlight will first pass into the court and then into the north gallery windows after harmful UV light has been filtered out, permitting visitors to enjoy the collection under more natural conditions. The light box will also be illuminated in the evening, becoming a familiar beacon on the Parkway.

Maintaining the intimate character of the original, distinctive layout of the galleries and installation of the Barnes collection in the new building in Philadelphia has been the foremost priority for Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, who in their past and current projects, have shown a remarkable sensitivity to the particular needs of museums and learning centers.

As before, the educational programs will draw from the wide range of art in the galleries, with a special focus on comparing cultures through works of art . The traditional Barnes program will be continued, and there will be additional courses for adults and families, using new classrooms, a seminar room and the 150-seat auditorium.

The Barnes Foundation is seeking LEED Platinum Certification, the recognized standard for ensuring “green” construction and continued sustainability. The project will feature a high-performance envelope and efficient energy conservation practices will be used throughout the design. A green roof and abundant permeable surfaces will allow for rain and grey water re-use, and the incorporation of reclaimed Pennsylvania wood and local materials during construction will enhance the sustainability of the building. If achieved, this would be the first project in the Delaware Valley to achieve such certification.

The design of the landscape by the design firm Olin also helps achieve sustainability goals. There will be approximately one hundred more trees on the site than exist now, as well as gardens and plantings surrounding the building. All irrigation will be provided by the capture and storage of rainwater. Impermeable surfaces have been reduced to a minimum and underground storm water retention basins will be installed.

The building’s operations have also been considered as part of our sustainable goals which include mandatory recycling, promotion of on-line and video information to reduce paper consumption, use of bio degradable products and the use of products that conform to LEED standards.

Construction for this important expansion begins in November 2009, with a planned completion in 2011.