ANN ARBOR, Mich.—The University of Michigan has unveiled the design for a transformative expansion and renovation of the University of Michigan Museum of Art, a $35 million building project, designed by architect Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture.

The project will include a 57,000 square-foot addition, as well as the complete restoration and renovation of Alumni Memorial Hall, the elegant Beaux-Arts style building that has been the Museum?s home since its foundation in 1946. The design is slated for formal approval by the U-M Board of Regents June 17. The addition will more than double the Museum?s existing space?from 40,572 square feet to 97,346 square feet?and will house substantial new gallery space; state-of-the-art collections storage, conservation, and study areas; an auditorium; classrooms and hands-on art-making facilities; an expanded museum shop; and public gathering spaces and improved visitor amenities. The Allied Works-designed addition extends the Museum to the north in the form of a modified T-shape, connecting with the existing building through a central axis with two radiating arms that project toward the street, on one side, and toward the heart of the University campus on the other. These arms reach symbolically toward the community and University constituencies engaged and served by the Museum, and respond to the challenges of a historically critical site on the University?s original campus. The addition creates a sequence of exterior landscape spaces creating dynamic opportunities for outdoor art, while reinforcing the southwest corner of the campus as a public gateway to the University. “I am delighted to see a design that is so respectful of the landmark status of the Museum of Art and so effective in ensuring that the Museum will preserve that character well into the future,? said U-M President Mary Sue Coleman. ?The architect’s choices embody our commitment to art, to education and to building bridges to the community.? One of the last new structures to be built on the University?s original 40-acre campus, the Museum addition is sited directly north of the Museum?s current facility, Alumni Memorial Hall, erected in 1907?10. The addition extends the Museum?s fa