Zaha Hadid won the international competition for a museum that would stand out from the traditional brick Collegiate Gothic campus and symbolize Michigan State University's movement into the future. It is the second Hadid design in the United States, after the Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (2003) in Cincinnati. The low-slung angular and horizontal building and sculpture garden respects its tiny site. It is an iconic creation of steel and concrete with a pleated-metal and glass exterior, comprising forty-six thousand square feet in three levels including a basement. Louvers control amounts of natural light admitted to gallery, education, shop and cafe spaces. LEED certification is anticipated. A gift from the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation launched the museum and art acquisition.