Colonial Williamsburg museums expanded with new entry pavilion

Samuel Anderson Architects has completed a 65,000-square-foot addition to the DeWitt Wallace Decorative Arts Museum and the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Museum (AARFAM) complex located at Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia.  The updated art museum experience includes a new entrance for the complex that is situated across from the John Custis House and Garden. The addition is the first major expansion that the museums have received since they were joined under the same roof back in 2007. Previously, visitors entered the complex through a circuitous underground route running through the former Public Hospital of 1773. Inside the building, a new lobby and supplemental orientation spaces connect the two existing museums while a new cafe and museum store offer visitor amenities that are "significantly enlarged and bathed in natural light through expansive, new windows overlooking the picturesque Bicentennial Park," the architects write.  The new wing brings a 25% increase in gallery ...