The Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum--Designed by Zaha Hadid--Opens in East Lansing

Image via dezeenThe Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum, the latest building from starchitect-of-the-hour Zaha Hadid, opened at Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, over the weekend. The $45 million building opened about seven months later than originally scheduled due—delays reportedly caused by problems with the complex glass shapes on the building’s façade. So far, however, the 46,000-square-foot stainless steel and glass building appears worth the wait.

The building’s opening garnered a lot of coverage from mainstream and design industry media outlets. Designboom has a fairly comprehensive run down of the design components of the building, in addition to a photo set of the new building. For another great slideshow of images, also see dezeen. The Wall Street Journal explored an anticipated “mini-Balbao” effect for East Lansing given the museum’s iconic aspirations. The LA Times coverage of the building’s opening focuses on Eli Broad’s role in funding the museum—Broad delivered the lead gift of $28 million to help build the museum on the campus of his alma mater. The name Broad should be very familiar to observers of the Los Angeles art and architecture scene. The Broad, a new museum designed by Diller Scofidio + Renfro, is planned for Downtown Los Angeles next to Frank Gehry’s Disney Music Hall. If it’s still going to be awhile before you have a chance to visit East Lansing to see the new museum, there is still a virtual tour of the museum available online, as detailed by FORM back in April.

The Virtual Broad Art Museum's Doors Are Open

The FLICKR GETTR component of the Virtual Broad Art Museum (image courtesy of Michigan State University)In case you missed it (how time flies!), Michigan State recently opened the doors of the Virtual Broad Art Museum—a virtual space that, according to a MSU press release, “mirrors the architecture of the Zaha Hadid-designed museum, and provides an innovative and globally accessible venue.” When completed (construction setbacks have already delayed the opening date from April until fall of this year), the 46,000-square-foot museum will serve as teaching institution and cultural hub, housing a collection containing 7,500 objects from the Greek and Roman periods through the Renaissance and the Modern era. Eli and Edythe Broad provided the lead gift of $28 million.

Intermedia artists IDIA Lab Director John Fillwalk at Ball State University and associate professor of electronic art and intermedia Adam Brown at MSU created the virtual space in anticipation of a fall opening for the (the museum was originally scheduled to open in April 2012, but construction setbacks have pushed back the opening).

The VBAM includes several component installations, described by MSU as follows:

Proxy
"In this interactive digital installation, visitors shape the construction of a sculptural and sonic composition as they move through the virtual museum. The work progresses to
Screenshot from Flickr Gettr, John Fillwalk, 2012 construct in relation to the museum itself, eventually integrating into structural support for the building and becoming one with the virtual museum environment. When multiple users are in the environment, their avatars interact with one another to create a collaborative work."

Flickr Gettr
"Flickr Gettr connects the social image web service Flickr to the virtual museum environment, allowing visitors to “curate” a spatial and dynamic cloud of imagery by entering a search term of their choice, which will bring related images from Flickr into the museum space.:

Survey
"An immersive landscape simulation, Survey uses real time weather data from the physical location of the Broad Art Museum in East Lansing, Michigan. Representations of surveyor's tape, flags, and clouds are superimposed onto the virtual landscape in accordance with the real-life data, which informs wind speed and direction, time of day, and cloud density in the digital environment."

con|FLUENCE
"Participants in con|FLUENCE may create pathways based on reactions to both social and spatial relationships. There is a virtual response and persistence to interactions, as the routes are drawn and sculpted in the three-dimensional environment, forming nodes that are created via visitors’ proximity."

Steven Song's View on the World Architecture Festival: Winning Projects and Final Thoughts

While the interesting series of lectures and panel discussions were held at the main seminar room, in the smaller meeting rooms were presentations of shortlisted projects. Each project was presented to, and then critiqued by a group of juries in twenty minute intervals. On the third day, category winning schemes were presented in the main seminar room.

Click after the jump for the list of winning schemes.

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