Thanks to a $300 million gift by philanthropist Richard Hedreen, Seattle University (SU) will soon boast a new art museum to complement its new art school, the Cornish College of the Arts. The future Seattle Museum of Art will be located near the campuss main entrance within a new building designed by Olson Kundig. To make way for the Seattle Museum of Art, a beloved theater, the Lee Center for the Arts, will be razed. Anniyah Fitzhugh, a SU communications and theater major, called the Lee Center critical space for students and community members to express themselves, collaborate, and celebrate the arts.The gallery spaces were designed with flexibility in mind. (Courtesy Seattle University)Renderings show the future museum occupying a prominent corner site clad in wooden slats. Both stories are expressed with different material elements; the ground floor has ample open space and the second floor is regulated by fins, which help control interior natural light. Its flexible gallery spaces will accommodate performance art, music, and select theater productions. Both Seattle University and Olson Kundig describe the future building as a teaching museum. The building will permanently house and display the Hedreen art collection, which includes more than 200 works.The Hedreen art collection has pieces from the 15th and 16th centuries through modernism with pieces from Jacopo da Pontormo, Thomas Gainsborough, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, among many others.The collection on view will include works all the way from the 15th century through modernism. (Courtesy Seattle University)In addition to showcasing a spectacular collection of art, the new museum serves a beacon to both the campus and the surrounding community, Tom Kundig said in a statement. It carries forward the agenda and ambition of the Chapel of St. Ignatius, framing a flexible gathering space between the two buildings that could be a future campus green.Both stories are expressed with different material elements. (Courtesy Seattle University)Past museum projects by Olson Kundig include the Burke Museum at the University of Washington, the Bo Bartlett Center at Columbus State University, and two wings of the Tacoma Art Museum.Groundbreaking on the Seattle University Museum of Art will commence August 2026.The museum will open in 2028.