Displaying items by tag: environmentally friendly

The iconic colorful metal buttons that have served at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s admission tickets since 1971 are no more. Due to the rising cost of the tin-plate pins, the museum will employ a new paper ticket system that will include detachable stickers, which will serve as proof of admission. The buttons will be discontinued on Monday, July 1, the same day that the Met will switch to a seven-day-a-week schedule. It was previously closed on Mondays.

The Met’s admission buttons have become a symbol of New York City culture and a popular souvenir for tourists. Their badge’s most recent iteration features an “M” appropriated from a 16^th century woodcut based on a Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) drawing. After the Met introduced their unique admission tokens over 40 years ago, a number of institutions followed suit and they are now commonplace in museums around the world.

In addition to bringing production costs down from 3 cents per button to 1 cent per paper ticket, the new system will also be more environmentally friendly.

The Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas announced on Friday, May 3, 2013 that they will open their new Renzo Piano-designed building on November 27, 2013. The structure, which cost $135 million to build, includes a parking garage, auditorium, galleries, offices, and an education wing. Renovations have been underway since 2010 and are expected to reach completion on schedule. However, The project did run over its original budget by $10 million.

Famed architect Louis Kahn designed the Kimbell’s original building in 1972. Piano, who was once Kahn’s assistant, designed the new structure so that it would be similar in size and made out of comparable materials as the older, accompanying building. Stretching 22 feet high, the new structure will include environmentally friendly features and will consume half of the energy needed to operate Kahn’s building.

The Kimbell’s collection, which ranges from international antiquities to contemporary art, will be split between the two buildings. The Kahn building will house the European works and the Pre-Columbian, African, and Asian art will be exhibited in the Piano pavilion.