When Snøhetta worked on Omaha's Joslyn Art Museum, the architects faced a very particular challenge. Their project was the complex's third addition, so its task was to shine without blinding its predecessors. The museum already consisted of an excellent 1931 Egyptianate deco building by John and Alan McDonald and an unusually deferential 1994 addition by Norman Foster (his first in the US). Snøhetta accomplished this task exceptionally well in grafting on a kinetic 42,000 sq ft addition that provides voluminous common spaces that show off their predecessors to great effect. That's the right manner for a third wheel to spin.
