 NOVEMBER 28 • 2019 | 41

The families’
 foundations 
together have pledged $5 mil-
lion in matching funds toward 
a goal of achieving $15 million 
in the MOCAD Future Fund. 
As renovations progress, the 
museum will be designated 
as MOCAD at the Julie Reyes 
Taubman Building.
“The best Julie gave to the 
museum was her ongoing curi-
osity and creativity,
” says cam-
paign chair Elyse Foltyn, who 
brings experience from leader-
ship in the Jewish Federation of 
Metropolitan Detroit. “Julie saw 
beauty in many things and chal-
lenged us to think about differ-
ent ways of seeing beauty.
“She wanted more MOCAD 
capabilities to keep people in 
the museum longer and make it 
more of a social meeting place. 
She wanted it to be an intersec-
tion for community activities 
as well as concerts, movies and 
performances. 
“Julie wasn’
t part of our entire 
plan as we have it now, but we 
talked about changes. After her 
passing, we decided to move 
our dreams forward.
”

INCREASING CONNECTIVITY
MOCAD, located on 
Woodward and Garfield in 
Detroit, occupies a building of 
22,000 square feet designed by 
Albert Kahn Associates in the 
early 1900s and used as an auto 
dealership. 
Craig Borum, an archi-
tect and principal at PLY+ 

Architecture and Design and a 
professor of architecture at the 
A. Alfred Taubman College of 
Design and Urban Planning 
at the University of Michigan, 
has worked on changes, which 
include bringing a plaza setting 
to the parking lot, establishing a 
modern heating-cooling system 
and allowing more space flexi-
bility for exhibits and programs.
“When the museum opened, 
there wasn’
t a whole lot of 

activity in the neighborhood, 
and the museum was kind of 
internal in its organization and 
appearance,
” Borum explains. 
“In the years since, so much 
has happened in the transfor-
mation of the city that we felt it 
was important to try to connect 
the museum to the neighbor-
hood in a bigger way.
”
One of the first outdoor proj-
ects will be opening the grounds 
so the separate elements can 

be joined for a cohesive walk-
through and availability for 
events. Indoors, a rearrange-
ment of structural elements will 
allow more display and pro-
gramming space.
“Everything we’
re doing is 
to add another layer and not 
conceal the character and qual-
ity the building has,
” Borum 
explains, referring to the steel 
trusses and wood ceiling he 
believes give a sense of the 
industrial nature of Detroit. 
“We’
re trying to enhance 
what’
s there and bring more vis-
ibility to the structure. The orig-
inal façade was done with glass 
so those driving by could see 
new cars. We’
re trying to bring 
the spirit of that back with a 
quarter of the façade full of glass 
to give transparency, enhance 
the street experience and invite 
people in.
”
As Borum developed plans, 
he understood the building also 
would be available for commu-
nity use.

JULIE’
S IMPRINT
“I met Julie when we were 
working on the Mike Kelley 
Mobile Homestead installa-
tion and saw her at a couple of 
events,
” Borum says. “She was 
an amazing force.
”
Marsha Miro, former Free 
Press art critic and MOCAD 
founder with the late subur-
ban gallery owner Susanne 
Hilberry, is board president 

“Julie was a visionary. She wanted 
MOCAD to be ambitious and 
at the edge of contemporary art 
while creating dialogue.”

— ELYSIA BOROWY-REEDER

Artists Nancy Mitchnick and 
Julie Reyes Taubman

COURTESY MOCAD

details

To learn more about MOCAD 
and current programming, 
go to mocadetroit.org. 
For information on fund-
raising opportunities, go to 
mocadetroit.org/future-fund. 
(313) 832-6622.

continued on page 42

