Spurlock Museum at University of Illinois
The museum annually hosts 12,000 school children and dozens of university classes.
Regional Museum of World Cultures
Cultural and Archeological Collections
The Spurlock Museum is a globally focused regional resource for school children, families, college students, and academics that explains the history of civilizations. It is also a preservation facility for cultural artifacts. The building’s pinwheel gallery plan is a nearly literal representation of a complex pedagogic program developed by a multidisciplinary committee of faculty members.
The museum’s campus edge location in a town-gown transition zone fosters positive relations with the surrounding community.
Humankind’s common experiences through time and place provide a reference point for the relativity of cultural history—one culture’s zenith is another’s nadir; isolated areas follow different development patterns. The Spurlock Museum’s plan begins with a central space that presents the oneness of humanity. It provides a theoretical and spatial reference for visitors to explore the history of world cultures divided into nine permanent exhibits.
Client
University of Illinois
Location
Urbana, IL
Square Footage
52,000 square feet