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