PHILADELPHIA, PENN. – The Philadelphia Museum of Art announces that Gluckman Mayner Architects will design the renovation of the Ruth and Raymond G. Perelman Building, which the museum acquired in 1999 to provide space for its expansion in the new century.

The landmark Art Deco building will house the museum’s large and fine collections of costumes and textiles, prints, drawings and photographs and Twentieth Century design, as well as the library and archives and several administrative functions.

It contains 100,000 square feet of space and occupies a block at Pennsylvania Avenue, across the Benjamin Franklin Parkway from the museum’s main building. The project, a major priority for the museum’s current capital campaign, the 2001 Fund, is expected to take several years.

Anne d’Harnoncourt, director and CEO of the museum, said, “With its long, light filled spaces, this remarkable building presents an extraordinary opportunity to welcome visitors with galleries and study centers receptive to works of art and work spaces responsive to the requirements of staff. Collaborating with the museum on a variety of projects over many years, Richard Gluckman has repeatedly demonstrated his expertise in developing architecture that makes sensitive use of light and provides elegant solutions to complex problems.”

Gail Harrity, chief operating officer of the museum and an active member of the Parkway Council that represents the numerous cultural destinations along the Benjamin Franklin Parkway, added: “The Perelman Building will add galleries and increase the public’s access to the museum’s impressive collections, as well as add vibrancy to the Parkway, which, within the stretch of a single mile, from the Free Library to the Waterworks, embraces many of Philadelphia’s greatest treasures.”

Gluckman Mayner Architects, based in New York City, is the successor firm to Richard Gluckman Architects, established in 1977. Notable projects include the Dia Center for the Arts in New York City (1987); The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh (1994); renovations and an expansion for the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City (1998); The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, N.M. (2000).