Estimated Completion
x Square Feet

At the turn of the 20th century, the Florence Griswold Museum's 12-acre property in Old Lyme, CT was home to the Lyme Art Colony, a nexus of American Impressionism. Featuring an extensive rolling landscape along the picturesque Lieutenant River, the property was sold off in pieces throughout much of the first half of the 20th century; pieces that were subsequently re-acquired over a 40-year period to form the museum we see today. The current museum property includes the original c. 1817 Georgian-style Griswold house, two former residences and two service barns – all used for various museum functions – the Krieble Gallery, a purpose-built museum building completed in 2003, as well as various gardens and walking trails. In 2024, the museum hired OEA to conduct a master plan aimed at re-envisioning the visitor experience from arrival to departure, examining opportunities to reinforce connections between buildings and the landscape, and studying expansion of program space including galleries, meeting space, and visitor services. The master plan started with a complete rethinking of the way visitors approach the museum, reconciling vehicular and pedestrian traffic patterns and choreographing visitor engagement within the museum and grounds.

OEA is currently in the process of designing phase 1 of the Master Plan, which features the renovation and expansion of the Krieble Gallery. The proposed building design includes a new, multi-purpose entry/events porch, various visitor services spaces, flexible multi-purpose program / event space, additional gallery space and several life safety and building systems upgrades. Phase 1 also includes a relocated vehicular entry drive and visitor drop-off, both of which serve to expand visitor access to a larger portion of the museum's grounds.