Short Takes

May/June 2009

On Display

The University of Michigan expands and renovates its campus museum

By H.L. Hild

A recent addition to the University of Michigan Museum of Art (UMMA) in Ann Arbor has more than doubled its size and allows the museum to display more pieces of its extensive collection.

(Photo courtesy of UMMA)

Work began in November 2006 and included both the restoration of the original home of the art museum in the campus’ Alumni Memorial Hall as well as a 53,000-sq-ft addition, designed by Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, Portland, Ore. The total cost of the project is $41.9 million.

Skanska USA Building Inc., a member of several AGC chapters, was in charge of the historic renovation to the building, which was opened in 1910, as well as building the museum’s new wing, which includes galleries for collections and temporary exhibitions, additional storage facilities, a 225-seat auditorium and classrooms, an expanded art conservation lab and improved visitor amenities.

The $32.8-million construction contract called for Skanska to renovate, modernize and add on to the museum’s existing 41,000 sq ft of space, the art collection’s home since 1946. The addition has three distinct wings, one of which connects to the main circulation spine at Alumni Memorial Hall. The three wings include structural concrete cantilevered walls—60 ft at the longest spans—with limestone cladding and an opposite wall of tightly spaced vertical steel in-filled with a custom glass curtain wall.

The three cantilevered walls allow for visual transparency at the ground floor, and the three wings come together to create a triple-height interior vertical gallery that allows visitors to orient themselves with views into and across the gallery spaces on all levels.

The addition has three distinct wings, one of which connects to the main circulation spine at Michigan’s Alumni Memorial Hall. The wings are structural concrete walls with limestone cladding. (Photo courtesy of UMMA)

Each wing contains one wall of tightly spaced vertical steel infilled with a custom glass curtain wall. It allows for visual transparency on the lower floors and blocks some daylight in the upper-floor galleries. (Photo courtesy of UMMA)

The addition also has a distinctly regional flair. “We performed an exhaustive search for regional stone cladding materials that would both complement the existing building and allow the addition to have its own distinct quality,” says Chelsea Grassinger, principal at Allied Works Architecture. “The curtain wall’s glass material and makeup is designed to block a specific amount of daylight in the upper-floor galleries while allowing for increased transparency at the lower floors.”

“Everything from the materials to the furniture was from a local source, although we did have to go to Wisconsin for the limestone,” says UMMA Director James Steward.

The renovation focused on restoring original skylights and cove ceilings and updating the building’s mechanical, electrical and plumbing systems, including security, ventilation and temperature controls. As with most renovations, the Skanska team encountered some surprises. “They had a different way of building things 100 years ago,” says John Biaglow, senior project manager for Skanska’s Michigan office.

(Photo courtesy of UMMA)

When crews tried to take out the north stair tower to build the connection between the two buildings, they found the roof was being supported only by the stair itself. “We had to open up some walls in the basement and put in supporting columns and footings. There was actually a massive wall that they must have used as a building support,” Biaglow says.

The museum officially reopened at the end of March with the striking new steel, glass and limestone addition that “honors both our neighbors in statue and structure, and at the same time complements the beaux arts architectural style of the original building,” Steward says. “The glass of the new wing speaks more to the building of our time. The original is very inward-looking.”

UMMA was formally established in the 1850s and is one of the oldest university art collections in the U.S. The museum’s 18,000 works includes paintings by Monet, Picasso and pieces from the Tiffany Collection. Before the addition, approximately 3% of the entire collection was on view. That has increased to 10% since the project’s completion, with other pieces rotating into galleries as needed.