After Big Fund-Raising Success, U. of Michigan Reopens Expanded Art Museum

The U. of Michigan at Ann Arbor has renovated Alumni Memorial Hall, lower right, and constructed a big new addition. (Allied Works Architecture image)

The University of Michigan at Ann Arbor will reopen its Museum of Art this weekend after a three-year makeover that rehabilitated the 41,000-square-foot original building — Alumni Memorial Hall, which dates to 1907 — and expanded it with a 53,000-square-foot steel-and-limestone addition intended to engage the university’s students and open the museum to the community around the campus. The museum will mark the reopening with a 24-hour-long celebration.

The event comes not long after Brandeis University’s president announced — and then backed away from — a plan to close its art museum, and when some other universities are cutting museum budgets. Construction on the Michigan project cost $41.9-million, and furnishings and other costs added another $6-million to the bottom line. But that wasn’t a problem, because the museum — which began raising money for the project long before the current economic downturn — overshot its $35-million goal by $27-million, bringing in a total of $62-million even after some corporate sponsors backed off, according to The Toledo Blade.

Allied Works Architecture designed the project, which significantly increases the museum’s gallery space in addition to creating a cafe that will be open till midnight, a 225-seat auditorium, classrooms, research facilities for curators, and conservation and storage facilities. The museum, which moved to temporary quarters during the construction project, says that wood from 26 trees that were cut down to make room for the expansion is being turned into nearly 1,000 objects — including tables, bowls, and pens — that will be for sale in the museum gift shop.