LONDON – The National Portrait Gallery has appointed Jamie Fobert Architects to lead its £35.5m transformation following an international selection process.
The London-based practice will deliver the National Portrait Gallery’s biggest ever development since the building opened in 1896. This includes creating around 20 percent more public and gallery spaces, all of which will be refurbished and rehung for the first time, enhancing its entrance and creating a state-of-the-art learning center.
Jamie Fobert Architects’ recent and forthcoming projects include the critically acclaimed extension to Tate St Ives in Cornwall, a new gallery building for Charleston in East Sussex and an extension and reconfiguration of Kettle’s Yard House and Gallery in Cambridge.
Building work on the project, Inspiring People: Transforming our National Portrait Gallery, is scheduled to start in 2020. For the first time in the gallery’s history, there will be a comprehensive redisplay of the collection across all the galleries accompanied by the gallery’s most extensive program of activities nationwide.
The gallery has already embarked on its fundraising and has now secured £21.2 million, 60 percent of its £35.5 million fundraising target.
Dr. Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery, London, says: “We are delighted to have chosen Jamie Fobert Architects to work with us on transforming the National Portrait Gallery. We were impressed by Jamie’s evident love of the Gallery, its collection and building, and the clear vision he had for how to make the most of these for our visitors, as well as his affinity with art and artists. Following his much-lauded work at Tate St Ives, and forthcoming projects such as Kettle’s Yard in Cambridge, this is the perfect time to work with Jamie as we take the National Portrait Gallery into one of the most exciting chapters in its history.”
Established in 1996, Jamie Fobert Architects’ role in arts projects has continuously evolved. Earlier projects included the Frieze Art Fair, Pace and the Garage Museum of Contemporary Culture in Moscow and most recently have completed a major extension to Tate St. Ives.
Residential projects have ranged from urban sites in central London to a farmhouse in rural Ireland and coastal residences in the South of France and Trinidad.
