The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston announced Thursday that the award-winning American firm Steven Holl Architects has been selected to partner with the museum to develop an architectural project on a two-acre site adjacent to the Cullen Sculpture Garden. At the center of the expansion effort will be a new museum building set to house the MFAH's galleries for art after 1900 as well as traveling exhibition space, educational facilities, a library and resource center, lecture halls, a theater and a restaurant.
Winner of the American Institute of Architect's Gold Medal for 2012, and named by Time Magazine as America’s Best Architect, Steven Holl is best recognized in the US for 2003's Simmons Hall at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology as well as for his innovative 2007 addition for Nelson-Atkins Museum in Kansas City, Mo., which New Yorker magazine heralded as “one of the best buildings of the last generation.” The building (and parking structure) will occupy the two-acre parking lot across the street from the Mies Van Der Rohe building, adjacent to the sculpture garden and the Glassell School. The expansion will allow the museum to enlarge presentations of its collections, exhibitions and myriad educational programs. The project will entail the construction of a new museum building intended primarily for art after 1900 to complement the Audrey Jones Beck and Caroline Wiess Law Buildings. The decision follows a comprehensive international search that resulted in three firms—Steven Holl Architects, Snøhetta and Morphosis—developing site-specific concepts for the planned expansion. Following presentations by each firm, the long-range planning committee of the board of trustees selected Steven Holl Architects. “After extensive consideration of the three finalists, there was a strong consensus that Steven Holl Architects could provide an outstanding building that would integrate itself beautifully into the MFAH campus,” said Richard D. Kinder, chair of the museum’s long-range planning committee.
“This is a proud moment not only for the MFAH, but for the city of Houston,” said Cornelia Long, chair of the Board of Trustees.
BBI congratulates Steven Holl and his incredible team!
