UMMA wins 2011 AIA Honor Award
Jan 27, 2011
The University of Michigan Museum of Art has received a 2011 Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects. The AIA Jury noted “the prominence of the site and juxtaposition of the older bold with new bold is a strong symbol for the university protecting their past and looking towards the future.”
UMMA is one of the largest teaching museums in the United States. The renovation and addition project was a long-held (over 50 year) dream and the first purpose-built facility for the visual arts on the University of Michigan campus. The addition occupies one of the last buildable sites on the historic campus, completing the primary public facade of the university.
As a teaching museum with broad, near universal collections, the institution serves as a forum for the various academic disciplines of the University as well as a cultural portal for the community of Ann Arbor. While the existing building provides an atmosphere of seclusion, the new architecture achieves an immediacy with the surrounding campus - inviting and even provoking engagement with the building and its programs. Spaces within include a three story ‘vertical gallery’, open storage areas, a conservation lab, curatorial library, a café, and a 185-seat auditorium.
The AIA Honor Awards program seeks to "establish a standard of excellent against which all architects can measure performance, and inform the public of the breadth and value of architecture practice."
“2011 Recipient | AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture
The University of Michigan Museum of Art has received a 2011 Honor Award for Architecture from the American Institute of Architects. The AIA Jury noted “the prominence of the site and juxtaposition of the older bold with new bold is a strong symbol for the university protecting their past and looking towards the future.”
UMMA is one of the largest teaching museums in the United States. The renovation and addition project was a long-held (over 50 year) dream and the first purpose-built facility for the visual arts on the University of Michigan campus. The addition occupies one of the last buildable sites on the historic campus, completing the primary public facade of the university.
As a teaching museum with broad, near universal collections, the institution serves as a forum for the various academic disciplines of the University as well as a cultural portal for the community of Ann Arbor. While the existing building provides an atmosphere of seclusion, the new architecture achieves an immediacy with the surrounding campus - inviting and even provoking engagement with the building and its programs. Spaces within include a three story ‘vertical gallery’, open storage areas, a conservation lab, curatorial library, a café, and a 185-seat auditorium.
The AIA Honor Awards program seeks to "establish a standard of excellent against which all architects can measure performance, and inform the public of the breadth and value of architecture practice."
“2011 Recipient | AIA Institute Honor Awards for Architecture