herzog & de meuron-designed memphis art museum takes shape ahead of 2026 opening

By thomai tsimpou – designboom

January 22, 2026

The Memphis Art Museum has released updated renderings, construction images, and the first details of its curatorial approach for its new Downtown campus, scheduled to open in December 2026.

Designed by Herzog & de Meuron in collaboration with architect of record archimania and landscape studio OLIN, the 11,475-square-meter building will reposition the institution along the Mississippi River, expanding both its gallery space and its role as a civic destination. The museum is envisioned as an active participant in how art, history, and community are experienced.

The building’s glass façade and street-level galleries will allow passersby to see inside, while a public plaza shared with the historic Cossitt Library will create a new cultural commons along the bluff. At its center, a shaded courtyard will serve as a social hub, surrounded by a continuous loop of flexible gallery spaces.

Five galleries will feature large windows overlooking either the Mississippi River or the courtyard. Light-filled classrooms with northern exposure will connect the experience of viewing art with making it.

Atop the building, a 4,645-square-meter rooftop sculpture garden — described as an “art park in the sky” — will extend the museum into the skyline. The space will include sculptures, native plants, an event pavilion, and panoramic views of Downtown Memphis and the Mississippi floodplain.

The building is among the first major U.S. museums to use laminated timber as a primary structural element. Wood beams, warm-toned surfaces, and materials inspired by the Mississippi’s clay banks will tie the structure to its regional context.

“Already, the civic nature of the building is tangible, and one can sense the positive impact it will have on Memphis,” said Herzog & de Meuron senior partner Ascan Mergenthaler.

A curatorial shift grounded in lived experience

Founded in 1916, the Memphis Art Museum is the largest and oldest world art museum in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas. Its collection includes nearly 10,000 works spanning 5,000 years of global history, from Old Master paintings to American art and photography.

The move Downtown will allow the museum to rethink how its collection is presented — shifting from traditional chronological displays to a framework centered on lived experience.

When the museum opens, its galleries will be organized into 18 distinct exhibitions designed to highlight connections across time, geography, and artistic medium.

“The construction of a new museum has given us a rare opportunity to not simply display more art, but to reimagine how we think about history, power, creativity, and connection,” said chief curator Dr. Patricia Lee Daigle. “We’re able to present the collection in ways that reflect the lived realities of the city that we serve.”

One key theme across the museum will be liberation. A featured exhibition will include Henry Sharp Studio’s Warren Black Gospel Window, depicting Christ and three biblical women as Black figures. This gallery will connect visually and conceptually with another space exploring jazz as a liberating force for Black American abstract artists, including Sam Gilliam’s Azure (1977).

The building’s layout intentionally supports these connections, using sightlines and spatial relationships to reinforce storytelling.

Archives, artists, and collective memory

Through the Blackmon Perry Initiative, the museum has acquired 80 works by contemporary Black artists, including Sanford Biggers, Jordan Casteel, Torkwase Dyson, and Ebony Patterson. The initiative is supported by an endowment that funds exhibitions, acquisitions, and a dedicated curator of African American art and the African diaspora.

Another major addition is the Hooks Brothers Studio archive — more than 75,000 photographs documenting Black life in the American South between 1900 and 1984 — pledged as a gift from Andrea Herenton and Rodney Herenton.

Opening alongside other major cultural expansions across Memphis, including projects at the National Civil Rights Museum and the National Ornamental Metal Museum, the new Memphis Art Museum is positioned as part of a broader cultural ecosystem.

“The depth of a community’s belief in the arts is reflected in its willingness to invest boldly in spaces that invite imagination, dialogue, and connection,” said executive director Zoe Kahr.