Beyond the Box: Will Bruder Builds Nevada Museum of Art

Born in Milwaukee in 1946, Will Bruder earned a BFA in sculpture from the University of Wisconsin/Milwaukee in 1969. Will was a full time apprentice in the studio of William Wenzler, noted architect, while studying at UWM. His educational focus was always on being an architect as he pursued courses in structural engineering, philosophy, art/architectural history and urban planning. Subsequent apprenticeships with Paolo Soleri and Gunnar Birkets added immeasurably to his development as an architect as did mentorships and friendships with Bruce Goff and Paul Schweikher. In 1974, Will became a licensed architect and opened his Phoenix Arizona studio. In 2013, he was inducted into the Fellowship of the AIA (design category).

Bruder's work ranges from modest homes to estates, mixed use housing, as well as, planning, places of worship, art museums, libraries and corporate headquarters. Notable projects include Burton Barr Phoenix Central Library, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Temple Kol Ami, Deer Valley Rock Art Center, Henkel US Headquarters, and Nevada Museum of Art.

Steven High became the Museum’s director in 1996 and led the campaign to fund and design a new building on the site of the previous structure. Through a design competition, Will Bruder was chosen to design the building, which opened in May 2003.

The building is 60,000 square feet of which 15,000 square feet is gallery space, a 180-seat multimedia theater, a library, a museum shop, collection storage, sculpture garden, museum school, and a café. The 820 foot west-facing facade curves and tilts to between 5 and 12 degrees from vertical. Charcoal-gray zinc panels ribbed to various widths clad the structural steel frame, expressing the three main gallery levels as loosely stacked layers, with bands of windows in-between. The zinc absorbs the intense Nevada sun, and the building is engineered to shed this heat.

In addition to national and international press coverage, Bruder received honor awards for the design from the American Institute of Architects western regional division in 2003, and the Arizona Chapter in 2004 for the building. While the Black Rock formation that gives the Black Rock Desert its name is often cited as a source of inspiration for the design, Bruder himself says it was only after he completed the initial design concept that he and others remarked on the relationship between the natural and man-made forms.

The materials in the archive consist of slides of previous Bruder designed buildings, two renderings, and many images of the architectural model. Also included are fourteen perspective, site plan, section, and elevation drawings that were part of the exhibition titled Beyond the Box: The Architecture of Will Bruder, which exhibited at Nevada Museum of Art from its opening on May 18, 2003 until January 4, 2004.