By Rob South, WKAR News
http://stream.publicbroadcasting.net/production/mp3/wkar/local-wkar-942655.mp3
East Lansing, MI – Michigan State University's Eli and Edythe Broad Art museum is nicely taking shape. About a third of the way through construction of the $40 million project, its modern design is starting to become more evident. The university also announced this month that it's hired a director for the art museum. WKAR's Rob South recently sat down with MSU Associate Provost Linda Stanford about the museum and its progress.
AUDIO:
LINDA STANFORD: The building project...we're making very good progress. It's an interesting project because the ground level, the lower level is done. And what you're seeing now are interior walls being erected. And then in the later part of the project, starting in 2011 you'll see the walls being constructed which will be glass and stainless steel.
ROB SOUTH: This is modern architecture and sometimes that can be complicated to build. Have there been any problems with its construction?
STANFORD: It's always the balance of the known with cost and all of the compliance issues with code and also aesthetics. We wanted it to be something that when someone saw it they would recognize it from the original concept.
SOUTH: And to go along with that, there was the intention to have it as a focal piece of the community?
STANFORD: People are very excited about the design. They know that Zaha Hadid is one of the most prominent architects in the world. It was an exciting and public competition, the public could follow its progress and people are waiting to see what's going to happen. They know it's transformative. The president, the provost, the whole campus community believes that this is going to be a move to something we've never experienced before.
The decision early on was that you were going to walk down the street or drive past it and you were going to know that this was an exceptional building. And you would probably figure 'this looks like it might be the art museum.'
SOUTH: Tell me about some of the challenges you've had in getting this from concept to reality.
STANFORD: The early part, as you have with any innovative design that is different from what you've done before, is can we build it? And can we build it so that it is workable, so that it is easy to maintain. So we did a cost benefit analysis, we benchmarked a lot of other institutions and also had to meet the challenge of the gift agreement and the competition brief which calls for a very high percentage of space devoted to the actual exhibition of art which will be around 70 percent of the square footage.
SOUTH: How is that comparable to other museums?
STANFORD: Many museums are as low as 40, 50 or maybe 60 percent. A museum is as complicated as a high-end scientific lab in terms of its functional needs. And so the compromise we made was to have a very modest administrative area and some of the staff will be located in a building across the street.
SOUTH: You announced the new director. Tell me about him and what your hopes are there.
STANFORD: Well, it's not only the director of an art museum, it's the founding director. It's almost as though...we've used the term 'start-up company." Although we do already have a university art collection and a university art museum. But is someone who has to take all these pieces and all these hypothetical's and make it a vision that's going to work for Michigan State for the showing of the art work of our time. And Michael Rush has a proven track record. He's energized by the unknown, by the uncertain and has enough vision and creative ideas to actually put this together and work with all of us.
The art museum has a history of serving the community; K-12, for example. And that will continue and actually will broaden. So everything is going to change, the hours the museum is open, the kinds of shows that are shown and there will be an opportunity for the community to provide their voice and input in helping the director make his decisions as to how to move forward.