Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston

Architect: Diller Scofidio + Renfro
Year: 1936
Style: Contemporary Modern
City: Boston, MA

The Institute of Contemporary Art was founded in 1936 as the Boston Museum of Modern Art, a self-styled "renegade offspring" of MoMA led by 26-year-old architect Nathaniel Saltonstall, and moved through rented and borrowed spaces more than a dozen times before settling into its current building. That home, completed in 2006 in the South Boston Seaport District, was designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

the building

Cantilevered waterfront volume. The museum's upper galleries cantilever out over the harborwalk toward the water, a structural move that turns the waterfront site into part of the design and gives the building a prominent facade visible from the harbor path.

the style

Contemporary Modern (c. 1990–present): Today's default architecture: floor-to-ceiling glass, crisp panel facades, bold cantilevers, and mixed materials.

the architect

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is an internationally recognized design firm; the ICA's Seaport building, completed in 2006, is among its notable museum commissions.

nearby

Congress Street Fire Station 0.3 mi · Romanesque Revival
Harbor Towers 0.5 mi · Brutalism · 1971
Richardson Block 0.6 mi · 1873
South Station Tower 0.6 mi · Utopian · 1899
United Shoe Machinery Corporation Building 0.7 mi · Art Deco
U.S. Custom House 0.7 mi · 1915

All 282 buildings in Boston