Westerly Museum of American Impressionism

Centerbrook was commissioned by private collectors to transform a former rehabilitation facility on Rhode Island’s Pawcatuck River into a public museum for their American Impressionist art collection. The project reimagines both the building and its site, creating a cultural destination that reconnects with the Pawcatuck River.

Where asphalt parking once dominated, native meadow grasses now evoke the landscapes beloved by Impressionist painters. The redesigned exterior—featuring vertical battens, nautical blue siding, and soft gray roofs—moves beyond an institutional feel toward a simpler shape, one that reflects both the collection and the surrounding landscape through its deep cobalt color and rhythmic batten design.