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Built in 1962, Musashino Art University’s combined gallery-library is one of the school’s treasured original buildings. Designed by architect Yoshinobu Ashihara, the Modernist concrete edifice occupies a prominent position amid the school’s 27-acre campus, a checkerboard of solids and voids 25 miles west of central Tokyo. But even treasured architectural gems have a shelf life. And after 40-plus years, the building had become cramped and outdated.