The University of Michigan Museum of Art expansion and restoration in 2009 doubled the exhibition and program space for one of the nation’s oldest and largest university art collections. Originally constructed in 1909 as a Civil War memorial for students, faculty, and alumni, the renovated museum includes Alumni Memorial Hall and the new Maxine and Stuart Frankel Family Wing. The museum’s new addition adds a central atrium with three gallery halls to the last available plot on campus and constitutes a principal public facade for the University.

The Museum of Art is the university’s first structure dedicated to the Visual Arts, adding additional classrooms, a library, and an auditorium to the facility. The new envelope features stone and glass in a harmonious integration with the university’s historic structures. By adding ground level access to common areas and housing the art museum at the corner of a primary pedestrian route, the project creates greater connectivity and gathering space for the University. Not only does the expansion allow for the display of three times the amount of art, but by softening the envelope with strategically placed transparent facade panels, light and activity from the courtyards filter into the new galleries and corridors. Three limestone-clad, concrete cantilevers make up the gallery wings that pinwheel off the central atrium, while a glass and aluminum double-glazed curtain wall and skylight system enclose each arm. The curtain wall’s fritted glass further optimizes and diffuses the daylight. 

Heintges provided building envelope and curtain wall consulting services during all phases of design and construction.