Stanford University's board of trustees has approved plans for a US$30.5m (€23m, £20m) arts museum which will house the university's Anderson Collection.

New York-based Ennead Architects have been appointed to design the 30,000sq ft building, which will be one of two new arts buildings at the institution.

It will house dedicated museum spaces and a public lobby, as well as offices, a conference room, a library/study area and space for storing art.

Together with another new building - McMurtry Building, the future home of the Department of Art & Art History - the new museum will form the cornerstone of the university's new arts district, the Stanford Arts Initiative.

The core of the Anderson Collection, 121 works by 86 artists, is being donated to Stanford by Harry W. and Mary Margaret Anderson, and Mary Patricia Anderson Pence, the Bay Area family that collected the art over nearly 50 years.

Construction work on the new museum, will begin in late 2012 and is scheduled to open in 2014.

Leslie Hume, chair of the Board of Trustees, said: "The museum and the McMurtry Building are magnificent, much-needed additions to this campus."