A neo-baroque building in the center of Riga, on the edge of the Esplanade Park, has been waiting for restoration for a long time. The museum, designed by Wilhelm Neumann in 1905, is a significant architectural monument and demanded special attention. It was necessary not only to carry out a complete restoration, but also to significantly increase the exhibition area, create a modern infrastructure, and open a closed volume for the city.
The international competition held in 2010 was won by the Lithuanian bureau Processoffice, which decided to abandon any extensions in order to preserve the independent sculpturality of the whimsical volume. The project (from the Latvian side the Andrius Skiezgelas Architecture Bureau also participated in it) took two and a half years and was completed in December 2015. It took another six months to assemble the new exposition, and only in May 20016 the museum was reopened to the public. The large-scale reconstruction cost the city 34 million euros.
Before the start of the work, which increased the area of the museum to 8,249 m2, only the second and third floors were used for the exhibition. The historical interiors preserved there, the main of which is the pompous central vestibule, have been restored and formed the nucleus of the new museum. Upstairs, white stairs lead to the cleared attic floor and the under-dome space. Old wooden structures here have been restored and painted white, creating light, neutral showrooms. A viewing terrace was set up on the roof, almost invisible from the street.
A mirrored brass staircase leads down from the main lobby, reminiscent of Riga's Art Deco. Instead of utility rooms, a cafe, a children's center, a shop, and an administrative area with a conference hall were placed on the basement floor. Even lower, already underground, there are an open depository, restoration workshops, all technical areas and three more exhibition halls. In the deliberately restrained decoration of these spaces, only concrete and wood were used.
But the underground premises nevertheless break out into the park: the skylight of the exhibition halls finds itself in the very center of a small square arranged on the side of the park façade. The public space, located at the intersection of important walking routes, reanimates the links of the renovated historic building with the urban environment.