Project Profile: Akron Art Museum

Established in 1922, today the Akron Art Museum showcases regional, national, and international art in a spectacular facility designed by Coop Himmelb(l)au that includes over 5,000 works, with a strong focus on contemporary painting, sculpture, and photography. Dedicated to enriching lives through art, the museum presents nearly a dozen exhibitions each year in various media and offers programs that include film and video, lectures, workshops, tours, and concerts.

Coop Himmelb(l)au’s design integrated additional gallery space, an auditorium, and a café with the museum’s original building. The Crystal, a three-story glass lobby, provides connection between the old and new parts of the building with access to public resources such as the lecture hall, classroom, library, café, and bookstore. The Gallery Box accommodates the museum’s collection and temporary exhibits, and the Roof Cloud, a cantilevered steel and aluminum armature, extends over the old and new structures and creates a striking landmark in downtown Akron. The design minimizes energy use with strategic positioning of thermal mass in conjunction with extensive daylighting.

Authorized Dealer Control Concepts of Ohio retrofitted the Akron Art Museum with a Reliable Controls building automation system in 2017.

The museum facilitates several use types, including exhibits, training, an auditorium, and corporate gatherings. Maintaining critical temperature and humidity control while bringing the new building automation system online presented challenges for installation, as did working with restrictive sensor and device locations and converting the old pneumatic actuators to direct digital controls.

Networked hardware includes a MACH-ProWeb controller as a front-end device with MACH-Pro1 and MACH-Pro2 controllers serving the air-handling units. Control Concepts installed SMART-Sensor LCD devices for all zone temperature and humidity sensors. MACH-ProAir controllers serve critical art storage areas, and MACH-ProZone controllers serve radiant floor loops and snow melt areas.

The mechanical equipment in the facility includes two chillers, two boilers, 12 air-handling units, and variable frequency drives.

Control Concepts and Reliable Controls were proud to help the Akron Art Museum safeguard its collections with critical environment control and provide a comfortable space for visitors and employees.

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