On March 16, 2010, construction began on the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University with a groundbreaking attended by Eli Broad and architect Zaha Hadid. The event moved a high-profile museum commission from design competition into construction: Hadid's angular building would later open in November 2012 as a contemporary art museum with pleated stainless steel and glass facades, nontraditional gallery spaces, and a public role linking the campus to East Lansing. The museum also absorbed the legacy of MSU's earlier Kresge Art Museum collection while emphasizing contemporary art and emerging to mid-career artists. The groundbreaking matters as a date when one of Hadid's comparatively rare U.S. museum projects became physically committed.
The museum became a prominent Zaha Hadid landmark and reshaped MSU's art-museum identity.