The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will unveil a $450 million project today that envisions its campus as the cultural heart of the city.
The plan, named the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, includes two new buildings designed to complement the existing structures in a way that will enhance the experience of looking at art.
Steven Holl has re-imagined the campus’ north side as a pedestrian-friendly cultural hub with a lively landscape, two distinctive new buildings, ample underground parking and smooth circulation patterns for vehicles and people.
“It’s all about shaping space,” said the architect, who sees himself as a conductor inserting a movement into a symphony. “The collection of buildings there is already outstanding. It’s very delicate, not a site that calls for over-exuberance.”
The most prominent new structure will be the 164,000-square-foot Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, on what’s now the museum’s parking lot. The three-story structure is shaped like a jigsaw-puzzle piece with a “luminous canopy” roof full of concave curves. Holl imagines clouds resting on top.
The building also will glow closer to the earth, with glass walls on the ground floor and a sheath of energy-saving translucent glass tubes, lit from behind, around the rest of the exterior, which is concrete. A leafy plaza will open views to a new, more prominent Glassell School of Art.
The building will bracket a new plaza that extends the existing sculpture garden. The long side of the school’s L-shaped exterior slopes up from the ground, forming a stepped amphitheater and leading to a trellised rooftop garden. Via Chron.com