MASS MoCA’s rambling campus in the former factory town of North Adams, Massachusetts, has been 25 years in the making, and is now entering its third phase of development, starting with the rehabilitation of Building Six, a 120,000-square-foot space that’s able to be flexibly programmed to create “Museums within the Museum.”

A collection of long-term exhibitions, featuring the work of James Turrell, Laurie Anderson, Jenny Holzer, Robert Rauschenberg, and Louise Bourgeois, is driving Bruner/Cott’s renovation of the 19th century structure, which will also include rehearsal space and instrument gallery for Gunnar Schonbeck’s Bang on a Can as well as a green room, event space, and art storage.

The impressive scale of the three-story addition, with its one-acre floor plate, provides ample space to house these micro museums. The floor plans reveal that seven of Turrell’s “works in light” will be presented in different nooks on the ground floor, the remaining two will be found on the second level, along with Bourgeois’ sculptures and a rotating selection of works by Rauschenberg, which will also occupy space on the third floor, and include his 52-panel, The ¼ mile or 2 Furlong Piece. Dedicated areas for Bang on a Can, Jenny Holzer exhibition space, and Laurie Anderson’s studio, gallery, and living archive will all be located on the third floor as well.

The renovation will also allow the firm to develop better wayfinding throughout the campus and connectivity to the North Adams downtown business district. Building 6 is slated to be open to the public by 2017. Next up on the agenda is the repurposing of buildings 12 and 26/34 which will be used to exhibit other independent collections. When phase three is complete, MASS MoCA will take the title of largest contemporary art museum in the U.S.