Matte steel and reflective glass clad the Yale Center for British Art at the corner of York and Chapel Streets. This building houses the largest and most comprehensive collection of British art outside the United Kingdom. Inside you'll find paintings, sculpture, drawings, prints, rare books, and manuscripts that reflect the development of British art and culture from the Elizabethan period onward.
The center is directed by Martina Droth. The collection arrived as a gift from Paul Mellon, Yale College Class of 1929, who in 1966 gave his British art collection to Yale along with an endowment and funds for a building. The structure before you was designed by Louis I. Kahn and set at the corner of York and Chapel Streets, directly across from one of Kahn's earliest buildings, the Yale University Art Gallery, built in 1953.
Kahn did not live to see its completion; the center was finished after his death in 1974 and opened to the public on April 15, 1977. Note the building's exterior of matte steel and reflective glass and its interior finishes of travertine marble, white oak, and Belgian linen—Kahn succeeded in creating intimate galleries where one can view objects. Notice the matte steel and reflective glass exterior facing Kahn's earlier Art Gallery, built in 1953, just across the street.