The new Glassell School of Art has 8,711.0-square-meter, is sited on two acres, adjoining the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden designed by Isamu Noguchi. The building replaces the school’s 1979 facility. The origins of an MFAH art school date to 1927.
The L-shaped building designed by Steven Holl Architects defines two edges of the plaza. Its sloped, walkable roofline, anchored by a stepped amphitheater, extends the plaza up and along the roof to a garden above. The exterior is constructed from 178 unique precast concrete panels that create a rhythm across the exterior surface as they alternate with 170 glass panes that provide natural light to all studios and classrooms. A three-story, broad-stepped forum activates the center of the school’s interior.
 

Description of project by Steven Holl Archiects

The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston redevelopment has the unique chance to expand the museum’s campus as an integral experience open to the community. Horizontal activity, transparency and porosity will unify the new MFAH, and provide inspiring and inviting public spaces. The lush Houston vegetation, refreshing sound, and reflections in water are all part of a new campus experience elevating the poetry of art.

The new ‘L’ shaped Glassell school shapes the Brown Foundation Plaza which extends the space of the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden by Isamu Noguchi.

The inclined plane of the roof shapes an amphitheater and a public path to a rooftop sculpture garden overlooking the whole MFAH campus.

There are 3 gallery spaces in the building:

1) At the ground level café space overlooking the plaza.
2) At the Education Court connecting to a sculptural tunnel to the future Nancy and Rich Kinder Building.
3) At the top of the forum on the second floor.

The main entry opens to a cascade of levels at the forum shaping an informal learning space directly opening to a 75 seat auditorium.

There are 23 studios shared between the core program and junior school and 8 core-fellow studios. All of these have been designed with flexibility, great light, and fine proportions.

We are very enthusiastic about the simple planar structural pieces of sandblasted concrete which begin with the angle of the inclined roof plane and give character to the inner spaces of the building in the spirit of simplicity and directness employed by Mies Van der Rohe’s original building. As an educational building it tells us how it is made. Winston Churchill said “First we shape our buildings, and then they shape us.”

We sincerely hope our new Glassell architecture contributes to the optimistic shaping of future education in the arts for Houston and beyond.

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Architects
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Steven Holl Architects. Steven Holl ( design architect, principal ). Chris McVoy ( senior partner in charge ). Olaf Schmidt ( project architect, senior associate ). Yiqing Zhao ( project architect - Glassell School of Art ). Rychiee Espinosa ( project architect - Glassell School of Art ). Filipe Taboada ( project architect - Kinder Building, associate ).
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Project team
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Xi Chen, Suk Lee, Maki Matsubayashi, Elise Riley, Christopher Rotman, Alfonso Simeo, Yasmin Vobis
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Associate Architect
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Kendall/Heaton Associates 

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Landscape design
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Deborah Nevins & Associates, Inc. in collaboration with Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C. 

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Construction
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McCarthy Building Companies, Inc. 

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Client
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Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
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Area
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Area.- 
93,765.0 sq ft. Size.- 80,000.0 sq ft

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Dates
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Project Year 
2018 

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Location
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Location 
5101 Montrose Blvd, Houston, TX 77006, United States 

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Collaborators
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Project manager.- Legends. Structural engineers.- Guy Nordenson and Associates; Cardno Haynes Whaley. MEP engineer.- ICOR Associates. Lighting consultant.- L'Observatoire International. Climate engineers.- Transsolar. Cost estimator.- Venue Cost Consultants. Facade consultant.- Knippers Helbig
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Steven Holl was born in 1947 in Bremerton, Washington. He graduated from the University of Washington and pursued architecture studies in Rome in 1970. In 1976 he attended the Architectural Association in London and established STEVEN HOLL ARCHITECTS in New York City. Considered one of America's most important architects.He has realized cultural, civic, academic and residential projects both in the United States and internationally. Most recently completed are the Cité de l'Océan et du Surf in Biarritz, France (2011).

Steven Holl is a tenured Professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and Planning. He has lectured and exhibited widely and has published numerous texts.

Recently the office has won a number of international design competitions including the new design for the Contemporary Art Institute at Virginia Commonwealth University (Richmond, USA) and he has been recognized with architecture's most prestigious awards and prizes. Recently, he received the RIBA 2010 Jencks Award, and the first ever Arts Award of the BBVA Foundation Frontiers of Knowledge Awards (2009). In 2006 Steven Holl received honorary degrees from Seattle University and Moholy-Nagy University in Budapest. In 2003 he was named Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).

Steven Holl is a member of the American National Council of Architectural Registration Boards (NCARB), the American Institute of Architects, the American Association of Museums, the Honorary Whitney Circle, the Whitney Museum of American Art; and the International Honorary Committee, Vilpuri Library, of the Alvar Aalto Foundation.

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Deborah Nevins & Associates. Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C. Unified landscape plan for the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus Founded in 1991, Deborah Nevins & Associates designs projects all over the world, from institutional projects, including the Pritzker Garden at the Art Institute of Chicago, to large private estates in the Northeast and Texas as well as in the Caribbean and United Kingdom. The firm is noted for exciting visual experiences and a sophisticated use of plants, and for expertise in green-roof technology and plantings. Deborah Nevins’s recent projects include the 40-acre Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center and Park in Athens, Greece, in collaboration with Renzo Piano Building Workshop, which has earned Platinum LEED certification and a 2018 RIBA Award for International Excellence. Mario Benito is responsible for all aspects of landscape design and construction for residential clients, as well as significant contributions to the firm’s institutional projects. Benito was cited by the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2014 as an emerging Latino American landscape architect. In 2017, Benito and Nevins formed Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C., which collaborated on the landscape for the MFAH campus redevelopment project.
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