The movement to construct a museum building on Auburn’s campus was gaining momentum. Dr. Charles D. Hudson ’50 of the Fuller E. Callaway Foundation donated $500,000 toward the museum’s construction.  Paul Rudolph, Auburn alumnus ’48, was approached to design the new museum, but his untimely death due to cancer led the newly formed committee to interview and appoint Gresham, Smith, and Partners from Nashville, TN and Birmingham, AL.