MERIT

ARCHITECTURE  

Entry Name: Kent Bellows Studio & Center for Visual Arts
Firm: Randy Brown Architects
Owner: Kent Bellows Foundation    
Photographer: Assassi Productions

The Kent Bellows foundation requested a renovation to the deceased artist’s work/live existing 1910 two story brick building studio located in the South Omaha downtown district, to transform it into a center for art and student mentoring that included a new storefront, ADA bathrooms, gallery space, library, office space, multi-purpose workspaces and preservation areas of the artists studio and backdrop installations. The artist had worked in the building for twenty years and had built out much of the space with his own hands. Architects intention was to identify the artifacts the artist left that had meaning. The architect identified and preserved 9 artifacts (gallery floor, Kent’s parka, glass block transoms, moving backdrop wall, books, collages, light fixture pulley, wall mural, and wall installation). 

Jury Comments: Celebrating an artist requires deference. This project is admirable for its sophisticated yet understated entry and circulation sequence that ties together outside and inside, up and down, all with elegance and a light touch.