The newest addition to Notre Dame’s campus, the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art, hosted a panel Wednesday about “the design process and the artistic choice that created the museum,” according to a notice on the museum's website.
Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP, which is headquartered in New York City, designed the museum building. Many Notre Dame architecture students intern and spend careers with the internationally-known firm. In fact, at least half of the architects who designed the museum were Notre Dame graduates.
The panel included Notre Dame alumni Melissa DelVecchio ‘94, Tony McConnell ‘06 and Kasey Tilove ‘12. Each detailed their personal contributions and experiences with the project.
The alumni said their firm won the competition to design the museum partly because there were so many domers who worked at the New York-based entity.
“One of the first things that we did — even before we were awarded the project — to start generating some ideas, we took 37 Notre Dame graduates in our office and gathered them into one room and said, ‘This is what the competition is for. We want to hear what your thoughts are,’” McConnell said. “So we really had the opportunity to get some really unique and different ideas out very quickly from people who are invested. These people care about this University and they care about what's going to happen on that property.”
The architects said one goal of the building's design was making sure the space felt welcoming to all who entered. While the building may seem simple in its layout and design, there was an intentional decision to allow the building to flow, they added.
“I love that the (floor) plan is simple — has a sort of a nine-square diagram and that was protected throughout," Tilove said. "You walk in and you know how to get around without ever being in the building. I think that's key to being something that's supposed to be publicly accessible and welcoming to people who have never been to the university before.”
DelVecchio pointed out the main entrance was to be the entrance every person would experience, whether that's a college student, community member or a students on a field trip. The large open-concept lobby that gives way to an expansive atrium above, allowing glimpses of the second and third floors, greets all new and returning visitors to the museum. A “wow moment” was exactly what the architects hoped to create when entering the building.
“The idea that the central space brings all the floors together, whether they be the educational facilities on the top level or the galleries down below — that everything feels like it participates in the central space,” DelVecchio said. “For me, the symbolism is more about how the building brings both art and people together … it was felt that it was really important that everyone had the same experience when entering the building.”
The completed Raclin Murphy Museum of Art is only the first phase of a multi-stage project to expand the fine arts on campus. The University already has plans to expand the newly built museum, nearly doubling its current size, to create more space for classrooms, offices, exhibits and a print room for closely studying artwork.
“It's really important to think of this as the first phase of what will ultimately get them the full space that (the University needs) to function as not only a gallery that shows off the work that they have, but the true educational facility which is what makes university museums so unique and so different from just a public museum that's not on a college campus,” DelVecchio said.
Notre Dame specifically designed arts buildings such as the DeBartolo Performing Arts Center, the Walsh Family Hall of Architecture and now the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art to become a new entryway to the University, signifying the University’s dedication to presenting itself as a liberal arts institution.
“I applaud the University for thinking of the idea … to really bring arts to the forefront and show how important it is to a liberal arts education and to make it something that both the community and the campus could share,” DelVecchio said.
DelVecchio is a partner with Robert A.M. Stern Architects, LLP and a fellow of the American Institute of Architects. She served on the design jury of architects for Notre Dame for a time, but now teaches at the Catholic University of America.
McConnell is a senior associate at the firm and was the project manager for the design of the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art building. He began working for the firm in 2006 and has since helped design more than two dozen projects across the country.
Tilove works with the firm as an associate partner and filled the role of project architect for the new museum. While a fifth-year architecture student at Notre Dame, Tilove received the Ralph Thomas Sollitt Award for submitting “the best design as a solution to the thesis architecture problem." Currently, she teaches a variety of workshops and classes in New York City at the Institute of Classical Art and Architecture.
