This building for the city university will be located on the territory of the new University Cultural Center, which borders on the main campus of the university. The museum will be erected on the main alley of the ensemble: it, like a bridge, will connect the library buildings and the main auditorium, placed on its sides.
In order not to interfere with the movement along the alley, the volume of the building will be made permeable: a series of courtyards will make it easy to cross the building without entering it. These curved courtyards should simultaneously resemble traditional patios and deep ponds and gorges in the Mexican state of Jalisco (of which Guadalajara is the capital): this is how the project combines elements of the cultural and natural landscape.
Trees will be planted in the courtyards and around the building, and the roof will become an additional recreational area. The low height and permeability of the museum building, as well as the compactness of its volume, will preserve visual connections between different parts of the ensemble.
Construction is scheduled to begin in the first months of 2011; the project budget will amount to $ 35 million.
Among the finalists of the competition were Shigeru Ban and Diller Scofidio + Renfro.
