Today five designs were unveiled for the new $26 million dollar Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum. The museum will be built at the current location of the Paolucci building near Grand River and Collingwood.

I really can't make sense of the one by Hadid, the third one. It just doesn't look like a building, more like a decorative sidewalk. On the left side of the picture, you can see some height, but besides that it just doesn't look like a building from this angle.

Here is a link with a video at WILX where the architects personally explain their projects:

MSU Art Museum Designs Unveiled

It gives a bit more context to the discussion, and I do understand Hadid's design, now.

I'm leaning toward #5 or #2. I dig the slightly sub-ground-level entrance (or at least the appearance of), and the glassy whale shape of #2.

For any of them, they'll definitely stand out against that part of campus! In fact it's almost hard to picture them there, or how they'll be oriented.

I can't watch the video at work, so I'll check it out when I get home.

I really like #2. They say that at night, #2 will glow, so that could be really cool while walking down Grand River.

Is it just me, or is #4 a Gehry rip off? #3 is incomprehensible and unintelligible. I don't mind #1 or #5, but I like #2, especially if the lighting bit is true...

Yeah, I think I'd be ok with 1, 2, or 5. I join the consensus against #3 :)

#4 seems too much like things I've seen before. Though I can't recall a specific building, it looks very familiar.

I use to be a proponent of the idea that everything should "fit" with its surroundings, until I realized we shouldn't be trying to be a proverbial museum of shorts. What it encourages is increasingly safer and more bland designs. This is not to mention that if you don't do Post Modernism/Historicism correctly, you can get some horrible pieces in their own right.

This prominent site will add refreashing and needed contrast to this part of the historic north campus without destroying it. The Circle Drives are excellent in that they allow each building to be showcased, as opposed to a tightly gridded district where I might agree that something like this museum may not fit. My only criticism is the lack of color. I'm not sure how they could do this, but it perhaps incorporating in some green and red-brick color somewhere would have been nice, but I'm generally pleased with how different this will be with the structures around them. This is a showpiece.

Here are some more pictures:

#1:


#2:


#3:


#4:


#5:


These photos are from the State News article about the competition. Photos are hosted at Flickr

It's still hard to tell what #3 is with the architectural model. As much as they say this is going to front Grand River, I hope it doesn't only front Grand River facing west. As the East Village moves forward, this should be approachable from the east or the west.