Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

UMMA architect to speak Sunday

8. September 2004 • Murph
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Brad Cloepfil of Allied Works Architecture, the architect for the University of Michigan Museum of Art’s planned expansion, will be speaking at Angell Hall on Sunday, 12 September, at 3pm. From the UMMA Programs webpage,

Angell Hall, Auditorium B, followed by a reception at UMMA. Alumni Memorial Hall, the Museum of Art’s home since its founding in 1946, is about to change, with a dramatic expansion and renovation planned for the coming years. Developed by Allied Works Architecture (AWA) of Portland, Oregon under the leadership of principal architect Brad Cloepfil, the design answers a number of urgent programmatic needs while responding to significant site and urban planning challenges—although within a distinctly contemporary visual vocabulary that moves the Museum facility into the twenty-first century.

Architect Brad Cloepfil will present the design, place it in a broader architectural context, and discuss the process through which the design was developed. Doug Kelbaugh, Dean of the Taubman College of Architecture and Urban Planning, will offer a response, and UMMA Director James Steward will moderate discussion, including fielding questions from the audience. Following the program, to be held next door to the Museum in Angell Hall, guests are invited to UMMA for refreshments and conversation.

Cloepfil’s design has some critics, including at least one letter to the Ann Arbor News criticizing the blockiness of the design. Another recent Allied Works project, the New York Museum of Arts and Design seems to show that Cloepfil likes blocky museums.

Cloepfil will also be speaking at the Art & Architecture Building on North Campus at 6pm Monday.



  1. Is there a worse possible architectural/aesthetic idea than sitting a brick cube between the UMMA and Angel Hall? And then actually physically appending this monstrosity to one of the most stately buildings on campus?

    The effort to make the UM campus look like an office park triumphs again.
       —Jay    Sep. 10 '04 - 05:18PM    #