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Work began in 1995 when the Spanish architect presented the first drawings for the creation of space. Since then, the direction of the museum and the community held a national campaign to raise donations for the hundred million dollars required for the work. The new space expands by 30% to the exhibition area and allowed the display of much of its collection, containing works of Gaudi, Picasso and Andy Warhol.
To achieve a contrast with the existing building and the landscape of Lake Michigan, Calatrava has designed a building lightweight, transparent, curvilinear, establishing a dialogue with the compact and straight old building.The most interesting architectural element of the project is the large wing mounted on the building, which helps control the incidence of light and heat on the lobby of the building. Mobile, supported by thin steel cables, the piece measures about 60 m in length in its highest point and weighs about ninety tons, the curious, is that the wings move in accordance with the wind, both upward and down.
The "sculpture" result became the logo of the museum and one of the main icons of the city itself. Santiago Calatrava has the power to build and think of something sumptuous without making this work turn into something exaggerated, or even luxury apotheotic. The presence of the Calatrava design is also easily noticeable in the pedestrian walkway that connects the museum entrance to the track that borders the lake. With about ninety feet long, the structure is supported by struts attached to a mast tilted, with seventy meters.
The project included an elongated structure, where is the space of views and a reading room. Although their projects destoarem of where they are built, Santiago makes them to be incorporated into the environment, he kept this part of the building low so that the view of Lake Michigan was not obstructed.
