Like finding a prefect frame for a masterpiece, Joyce Ice, the director of the Art Museum at West Virginia University, wants a distinctive look for the yet-to-be-built facility.

The site for the new building is next to the old Erickson Alumni Center, behind the Creative Arts Center on Evansdale campus. The cost, which includes transforming the old alumni center into a Museum Education Center, is $10.6 million. The development joins a just-announced $159.5 million, multi-year building plan for Evansdale approved by the West Virginia University Board of Governors. The plan includes new space for the College of Physical Activity and Sports Science, a new advanced engineering research building and a new Agricultural Sciences building and greenhouse.

“The creative challenge is to fit in with WVU’s Master Plan for the Evansdale campus,” Ice said, “and still convey the message that this is an art museum showing contemporary art – not a classroom building or a residence hall.”

To help achieve an aesthetic look, WVU has hired Atlanta-based Stanley, Beaman & Sears as the architects for the Museum. Stanley, Beaman & Sears had a role in designing the expansion of an art museum at the University of Georgia and were lead architects for the Byrd Biomedical Research Center on WVU’s Health Sciences campus.

Nina Murrell, Stanley, Beaman & Sears’ project manager for the museum, said the goal is to create a “destination building.”

“We want to create a unique building that will attract visitors from the region as well as the campus and town,” she said. “The museum will be a cultural resource for West Virginia, a place people will want to come to Morgantown to see.”

Bernie Schultz, dean of the College of Creative Arts, is impressed with the creativity of Stanley, Beaman, and Sears, and that of Murrell.

“Their proposal engaged our selection committee on many levels, and a preliminary discussion with Ms. Murrell, Dr. Ice, and myself was most positive,” he said. “We’re looking forward to this partnership which will help to make our enormous dream of the WVU Art Museum a reality for the University and the Morgantown community.”

The Stanley Beaman & Sears design team will visit campus soon to discuss concepts with Ice, Schultz, and other representatives from the college and WVU.

The museum is scheduled to open in the summer of 2013.

-WVU-

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