Michael C. Carlos Museum, Emory University

A start-up institution when Michael Graves and the firm designed the first of several projects, the success of this museum of art and archaeology led to its increasingly prominence within the campus and the community. The initial assignment involved adaptive re-use and renovation of a nationally registered historic building by Henry Hornbostel, the architect of Emory’s central quadrangle. The project created galleries related in design to the cultural artifacts being displayed. Ancient Egyptian galleries featured canted monolithic walls and the floors of the Greek galleries were stenciled with the plans of ancient buildings, a reference to Hornbostel’s School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon.