New MOCAD Design Grabs Award, Teases Us With Renderings

Here's the award-winning redesign for the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (MOCAD), giving us some idea of what architects are aiming to achieve with upcoming renovations. The redesign has two major aims: create a brand new outdoor venue to host events, while perfecting the museum's interior to better accomodate exhibits. Despite the ruckus that came with last year's selection of Rice+Lipka/ James Corner Field Operations to lead the project, MOCAD has got to feel good about the choice: The design has already won the Architectural Review's 2013 Future Project award in the "Old and New" category.

The plans are pretty wishy-washy (these are just concept renderings), but that's fine when you're James Corner Field Operations and can simply name-drop having worked on NYC's High Line, the disused section of elevated railway that was successfully refurbished into a public park/greenway. The High Line's design is used in reference to MOCAD's future outdoor event space, but how an elevated railway is connected with a lot in Detroit isn't elaborated on. MOCAD's innards will also see a sprucing up. Potential use of "surgical" windows/skylights are suggested to increase lighting, while exhibition space and the cafe will be expanded. That's all we know for now, though we'll be keeping watch for more detailed plans later this year.