Spurlock Museum at University of Illinois
![Image](https://woolpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Spurlock-Museum-at-University-of-Illinois-SNHA-Project-Main.jpg)
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.
![Image](https://woolpert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Spurlock-Museum-at-University-of-Illinois-Carousel-Mobile.jpg)
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