MEDIA CONTACT: Lisa Freed

561-297-3022, lfreed@fau.edu

FAU Professor Designs Entrance to King Tut Exhibit

BOCA RATON, FL (February 6, 2006) –Margi Glavovic Nothard, assistant professor of urban design at Florida Atlantic University,  played a key role in designing and overseeing the construction of the “Bridge-Stair” at the entranceway to the “Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs” exhibit at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale.

According to the designer, the stair is a celebration of the future of the museum, and its location at the western edge of East Las Olas Boulevard in Fort Lauderdale creates an important urban edge and scale.  The project for the bridge-stair arose out of the immediate program necessity for an entrance stair to the second level terrace for the King Tut exhibit.  The overall urban design and theme for the stair was to reinforce the primary role of the museum in downtown, and to create a vibrant public plaza supporting the existing building entry sequence.

“I started the conceptual design in September.  Then, with the assistance of structural engineer Murray Bryntesen, an adjunct professor in FAU’s school of architecture, we developed the architecture and engineering design in October and November.  The permitting and construction was completed in the first few weeks of December,” Nothard said. “In reality, the whole project really had only six weeks.  It was intense, with 24-hours a day construction and supervision at times.”

Irvin Lippman, the director of the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, approached Glavovic Nothard for the design, after she previously renovated the interior lobby entrance of the museum prior to the Princess Diana exhibit last year.

The Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs" exhibit runs until April 23, 2006 at the Museum of Art/Fort Lauderdale, 1 E. Las Olas Blvd. in Fort Lauderdale.

For more information on the “Bridge-Stair” entranceway, contact Margi Glavovic Nothard at 954-762-5303 or mnothard@fau.edu.

 -FAU-