The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus is located in the villa and former studio wing of the painter Franz von Lenbach (1836–1904) as well as in neighbouring buildings on both sides of the villa that were later acquired and renovated. It is noteworthy that Franz von Lenbach had his studio built first (1887–88) before the residential wing could be completed in 1890. In an early sketch of the idea in his own hand (ca. 1886–87) Lenbach emphasized that his new home should be a “museum.” With Gabriel von Seidl (1848–1913) as his architect, the painter had thus begun work on a studio building that was intended to confer prestige.

The site that Franz von Lenbach chose for the building was significant to his self-image as an artist. Topographically, it was located in the immediate vicinity of the great state art collections, especially the Glyptothek and the exhibition building on Königsplatz which now houses the Antikensammlung, but it was also very near the Alte Pinakothek and Neue Pinakothek. Moreover, his plot was located outside the municipal limits, marked at the time by Königsplatz and the Propylaea city gate. It was there, in a rather prestigious neighbourhood just beyond the outskirts of Munich, that he was able to plan his villa complex. Count Schack, his biggest patron, had his villa next door, while Richard Wagner’s house was on the opposite side of the street. Located on Brienner Strasse, which leads from the royal Residenz to Nymphenburg Palace, Lenbach thus made his home on the second most important road traffic axis in the modern Munich of the nineteenth century. In contrast to densely built Ludwigstrasse, which was designed without trees or gardens, the royal route to Nymphenburg Palace was lined by trees and flanked by buildings with small front gardens. In keeping with the highly exclusive nature of the area, the studio wing presented an imposing public face with its order of columns on the side facing the street, while the facade towards the garden was merely given pilasters.

Franz von Lenbach had the residential wing, which is now the middle section of the old building, built in the style of a Tuscan villa. The open flight of stairs with a fountain facing the garden cites an architectural motif from the Villa Medici in Rome. The stone pedestal of tuff boulders is another Roman architectural element – best known from the Trevi Fountain – which the Asam brothers had introduced to Munich when they built their church on Sendlinger Strasse. Originally, the two sections of the building – villa and studio – were connected only by blind architectural features.

The historical garden designed by Max Kolb (1829–1915) was supplemented by a two-storey wing by Hans Grässel (1860–1939) on the north side; its exterior was modelled on Gabriel von Seidl’s architecture, resulting in today’s three-wing layout. This extension – a classic example of successful architectural adaptation – was built from 1924 onwards, after the City of Munich had acquired Lenbach’s villa from his widow, Lolo von Lenbach, and transformed it into a municipal art museum. In return, Lolo von Lenbach had donated to the city a large portion of Lenbach’s art collection and a number of his paintings. Before the museum opened in 1929 the entire ensemble was painted ochre as a way of making the various architectural elements seem more visually homogenous.

When, in 1957, Gabriele Münter donated her valuable art collection, containing not only works by Wassily Kandinsky and herself but also those by other ‘Blue Rider’ artists, and then Elly Koehler and Bernhard Koehler, Jr, presented their paintings by Franz Marc and August Macke to the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in 1965, a suitable place to house these collections had to be found. An extension by Heinrich Volbehr and Rudolf Thönessen to the south of the historical site was completed within three years, in time for the Olympic Games in .

The Lenbachhaus had been conceived as a private villa accessible to only a few visitors. The issue of providing general access for museum visitors did not arise until the building was opened as the Städtische Galerie in 1929. At the time, it was assumed there would be just over ten thousand visitors annually. However, as a broader audience became increasingly interested in modern art, and thanks to an extensive, international exhibition programme at the Lenbachhaus from the 1970s onwards, attendance has steadily risen, recently exceeding two hundred thousand visitors annually. The large subterranean exhibition space of the Kunstbau, designed by Uwe Kiessler in a hollow space between Königsplatz underground station and street level, has contributed significantly to that growth. Since first opening in 1994 it has staged large exhibitions which embrace all areas of special interest represented in the museum’s holdings. In the final year before our institution closed for renovation in 2009, 450,000 visitors were counted. For the major Kandinsky exhibition in 2008, which presented his paintings in the Kunstbau and his graphic works in the Lenbachhaus itself, special means of access had to be created to cope with the stream of visitors. The normal entrance to the villa via the beautiful open flight of stairs in the garden would not have been sufficient.

A variety of architectural shortcomings had long since been evident, due not only to the growing number of visitors but also to the severe damage inflicted on the building by a 1944 air raid, and the subsequent hasty and shoddy repairs after the war. Moreover, the Lenbachhaus no longer conformed to contemporary safety regulations and lacked many of the necessities for modern museum operation, which created an urgent need for complete refurbishment. The city council thus approved the necessary measures for an architectural study.

Based on the results of that study and the requirements of a modern museum, the architects Foster + Partners, who were selected after the project was put out to tender in 2002, developed their core concept for the new Lenbach - haus. The first task was the straightforward refurbishment of the building, which for various reasons that had become clear in a number of studies was expanded to include partial demolition and new construction. Accordingly, the Munich city council passed a resolution in 2006 that the Lenbachhaus should undergo “general refurbishment with partial new construction” in accordance with the expanded design by Foster + Partners, and a budget of 56.4 million euros was set. Now that work has been completed, it is clear that the construction has met the established guidelines in terms of both schedule and budget. The Förderverein Lenbachhaus e. V. (Friends of the Lenbachhaus) provided 2.5 million euros for this project, which helped with the acquisition of a magnificent sculpture by Olafur Eliasson for the new atrium, the installation of artificial LED lighting, and improved fittings in bronze. The German Federal Ministry of Education and Research provided a grant of two million euros that was of crucial importance to the implementation of the LED lighting project.

The architectural design followed a number of key stipulations. First, nothing about the historical three-wing external layout was to be changed. The garden, which is listed as a historical landmark, could not be altered either, and the authentic Lenbach rooms could not be touched. But it was equally clear that access to the villa via a small garden gate and open flight of stairs no longer met contemporary needs. Among other things, this route was not wheelchair accessible. One longstanding and all too familiar drawback to be remedied by the architects concerned the previous layout of the museum; the promising outward appearance of the villa opened into a confusing spatial structure, especially on the south side. That was due not least to the fact that Franz von Lenbach had placed the central structure of the villa between two existing neighbouring buildings. Hans Grässel had found a suitable architectural solution for the north side in the 1920s, whereas a connection to the adjacent building to the south had only been achieved on the first floor. In other respects, the structures and the stairwell of the earlier building had been retained, though stripped of their function, and the new building of 1972 was added to the south side without being linked to the internal logic of the existing structures.

Architects Foster + Partners developed a twofold approach. First, they freed up the historical villa and emphasized its core structure with an atrium that guides one around Lenbach’s villa like a hall – locating it “sculpturally” within the museum, so to speak. The second major idea was to lead visitors into the house through a new entrance via the square in front of the Propylaea. This makes sense, given that most visitors arrive at the Lenbachhaus either from the east, in other words from the city centre and other museums in the arts district, or from the south, from the main train station or the underground. This new access route to the museum passes through a foyer that offers an initial view of the garden and the old grounds, then takes visitors into the atrium, where the unusual sequence of rooms comes as a real surprise.

By locating the new entrance in what was once merely an architectural connector between the villa and the studio wing, the tall, arched opening once more really comes into its own. Moreover, orienting the Lenbachhaus towards the square in front of the Propylaea opens up the historical view onto the studio building. At the same time, in the opposite direction it creates a new, unobstructed view of the Propylaea and Königsplatz, including a prospect of Leo von Klenze’s neoclassical architecture that has not been possible in some time.

This new entrance connects the old Lenbachhaus with the new structure by Foster + Partners. The dimensions, colours, and features of the cubic building to the south were inspired by Gabriel von Seidl. The facade design in brass-coloured metal speaks its own language, with slender, graceful elements alluding to the diverse architectural forms of the studio building. The colour of the material chosen for the facade establishes an association to the old building without abandoning the character of a contemporary structure. The facade of the new extension is articulated on the first and second storeys by brass-coloured tubes that are ten centimetres in diameter and approximately four metres tall; they are backed in turn by concave sections of yellow sheet metal. The idea of using the metal facade to articulate the building is particularly evident on the rear facade, along Richard Wagner Strasse. The parts of the building that have been newly constructed from the ground up are distinguished by the round tubes. The section built above the historical basic structure has a series of concave panels, while the new sections on the old building fabric are sheathed in flat sheet metal – yet the material remains the same throughout. Thus from the west it is possible to see that a third level has been added. At the same time, it was imperative that there be no detrimental changes to the original villa complex on the garden side. Not only did this mean the new structural elements could not rise above the level of the villa’s existing flanking buildings, but it also ensured the preservation of the sloping roofs and clerestory and provided sufficient height to house the extra floor. The first and second storeys, which exclusively house rooms for the permanent collection, were built on the same level across all the parts of the building. Universal access to all exhibition spaces has now been achieved, something that would have been impossible in the old Lenbachhaus with its many half-landings.

Whereas numerous windows in Lenbach’s original villa complex provide the exhibition spaces with a great deal of natural light, the new building by Foster + Partners mainly features an enclosed external skin. The exception is the ground floor of the south wing, where the café and restaurant “push” outwards by extending onto the patio and through the light radiating out of the dining area.

Because lighting is one of the central concerns of any museum, much attention has been paid to both natural and artificial light. Above the upper edge of the new building by Foster + Partners, light-grey quarter circles are visible; these are the narrow sides of light sheds that protrude into the sky like little sails. The northern light that falls through these sheds into the exhibition spaces on the second floor allows the collection of ‘Blue Rider’ paintings to be presented in a wonderful natural light.