Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum

If you drive through the historic campus of Michigan State University today, you’ll see a unique structure that looks like it could have been designed by NASA. And even though students have nicknamed it The Spaceship, it’s actually the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, a 44,000-square-foot contemporary facility that opened in November 2012 and combined the design strengths of world famous architect, Zaha Hadid, and local architecture and engineering design firm, Integrated Design Solutions.

This project started as a renovation to the MSU Kresge Art Center but when alumnus benefactor, Eli Broad, gave $28-million to the endeavor, the landscape of this land-grant University was changed dramatically. London-based Zaha Hadid won the design competition that was initiated by Broad to procure the $45-million project and a new international contemporary center was born.

The building is a universe of trapezoidal stainless steel pleats and patches. Equal to the stunning sculptural design elements were the complex construction challenges. The IDS team managed the relationship between the University and Hadid, while navigating the unique challenges of this futuristic design including:

– a fade that sloped 55 degrees
– a glazing/curtain wall system that is an integral part of the building’s structural system
– significant and expansive use of architectural concrete that ultimately required 70 test panels and 24 different mixes over a three-month period