Budget Woes Delay Announcement of Michigan State U. Contest Winner

Michigan State University has delayed announcing the winner of a competition to design its new art museum because estimates of the building’s cost put it “seriously over budget,” according to City Pulse, an alternative newspaper in the university’s hometown of Lansing. The paper says the museum — to be named for the philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad, who have pledged $26-million toward it — was originally slated to be built for $30-million.

The competition winner was to have been announced last fall, but worries about the cost have postponed the announcement until later this month, at the earliest. The five finalists were Coop Himmelb(l)au, of Vienna; Zaha Hadid, of London; Morphosis, of Los Angeles; Kohn Pedersen Fox, of New York; and Randall Stout Architects, of Los Angeles.

The university is debating whether to cut elements from the design or try to raise more money for the project, City Pulse reports.