Organization Aspects of Bloch Bldg

The organization of the Bloch addition to the Nelson-Atkins Museum is similar to that of any museum. It is a series of halls with galleries branching off all the way down through the five linked buildings. Just looking at the Bloch addition is deceiving as far as scale goes though. The five buildings are set up in a manner that is supposed to represent lenses. These five lenses are all connected underground. They appear as one main building and four smaller offshoots... but really they are one large space that exists as much underground as it does above. This smaller appearance in above-ground size was to achieve a sense of balance with the grand original Nelson building. This way the two parts, new and old, of the Nelson can appear proportional while still giving more needed space underground.