We want people to get lost!' Princeton's new museum survives scandal to deliver a mazey art ambush

"A cluster of serrated concrete bunkers has landed in the heart of Princeton University's leafy campus in New Jersey, sending tremors through this twee Oxbridge fantasyland of gothic turrets and twiddly spires. The new addition's brute, blank facade gives little away from the outside. Wrapped in rows of vertical grey ribs, contrasting with the arched windows of the surrounding stately stone halls, it has the look of a secure storage facility, keeping a beady eye out through a single cyclopean window."

"The vault-like quality is fitting. This bulky new bastion is a repository for the university's astonishing collection of art and antiquities a 117,000-strong haul spanning everything from Etruscan urns and medieval staircases to expressionist paintings and contemporary sculpture. Previously housed in a hodgepodge of extensions and additions accrued over decades, the collection can now shine in its own purpose-built castle. A Roman mosaic pavement, excavated in the 1930s, depicts a drinking contest that could be straight from the student bar"

"The Princeton University Art Museum is the first major project by the Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye to open since 2023, when three women accused him of sexual assault and harassment. Adjaye has denied the allegations and no charges were brought against him, but the scandal saw his meteoric rise swiftly turn into a dramatic fall from grace. Numerous projects around the world were cancelled. But Princeton pressed on."

Princeton University has added a serrated, bunker-like concrete building on its campus to house the Princeton University Art Museum's collection. The building's ribbed, vault-like exterior contrasts with surrounding Gothic architecture and suggests secure storage with a single cyclopean window. The museum now centralizes a 117,000-strong collection including Etruscan urns, medieval staircases, expressionist paintings, contemporary sculpture and a Roman mosaic excavated in the 1930s. The project is the first major opening by Ghanaian-British architect David Adjaye since 2023, when allegations of sexual assault and harassment emerged; Adjaye denied the claims and no charges were filed. Princeton distanced itself from Adjaye Associates and handed coordination to Cooper Robertson while completing the build.

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