The new building has been designed by Machado and Silvetti Associates and is located adjacent to the current building designed by Harry Weese. The two buildings will be connected via a gallery bridge on the third floor. The new building will add nearly 22,500 square feet of gallery space including two distinct galleries for temporary exhibitions.
The new building sports a limestone exterior and copper roof and trim that resemble the aesthetics and materials of the existing building’s façade. The building also features a two-story, glass walled entrance lobby with a limestone carpet, a 160-seat auditorium, increased object storage space, two glass-box galleries, copper clad north facing light monitors, a new basement classroom with natural light from above, a new museum store, new outdoor courtyard spaces connecting to a pedestrian mall on the north-south corridor of the campus and a floor to ceiling glass mezzanine at the north side of the bridge that will provide a dramatic view of the region extending from the new Museum Plaza to the Lake Mendota.
The addition is being constructed at a cost of $43 million. The external construction of the building has been completed. Official opening of the expansion is scheduled for October 2011.
