Date: Fri 29-May-1998

Publication: Ant

Author: JUDYC

Quick Words:

MFATex

Full Text:

Museum Of Fine Arts, Houston Expansion

EWM

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HOUSTON, TEX. -- With the topping out of the Audrey Jones Beck Building on

April 21, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is nearing the final phase of a

15-year period of planned expansion.

The Beck Building of galleries is designed by the Spanish architect Rafael

Moneo and will more than double the museum's exhibition space, catapulting the

MFAH from 30th to sixth largest in the nation. There will be 158,150 square

feet of museum exhibition space.

Construction of the building will be completed in 1999, and the public opening

will be in March 2000, the centennial anniversary of the institution.

Also under construction is a three-story parking garage and museum service

building.

These new facilities are sited on two city blocks adjacent to the existing

museum campus, which consist of a museum building, an administration building,

the building housing the Glassell School of Art, and a sculpture garden. The

capital campaign for the expansion project has raised more than $109 million

of the $115 million goal.

The new building has been named in honor of Audrey Jones Beck, a life trustee

of the MFAH and donor of the John A. and Audrey Jones Beck collection of

Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art. The collection has been on view in

the museum's galleries since 1974.

In addition to the Beck Building, the expansion has included the installation

of the Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi; the

purchase and renovation of the Rosine Building, a storage and conservation

facility; and the construction of the Montrose Building for the Glassell

Junior School and the administrative offices of the MFAH.

The expansion projects also have included major renovation of the two house

museums, Bayou Bend and Rienzi, that hold the American and European decorative

arts collections of the MFAH. Funds provided by the US Department of Housing

and Urban Development through the City of Houston Housing Department and the

Eleanor and Frank Freed Foundation enabled the renovation of the Freed

Auditorium at the Glassell School of Art.

The Audrey Jones Beck Building will be the central repository for the museum's

collections of art from antiquity to 1920, including Renaissance and Baroque

art from the collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation and the John

A. and Audrey Jones Beck collection of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist

art. Several collection areas now shown selectively -- American art to 1920,

prints, drawings, and photography -- will have permanent galleries for the

first time. Additional galleries will be dedicated to special exhibitions,

enabling the MFAH to attract large traveling exhibitions previously

prohibitive because of space limitations.

Sited on slightly more than an acre and a half, and bounded by Main, Binz,

Fannin, and Ewing Streets, the Beck Building will be a four-level facility

measuring a total of 192,447 square feet, 85,400 of it in gallery space. Moneo

has created a visual relationship with the other museum structures by using

Indiana limestone, used throughout the campus, on the exterior and inside of

the Beck Building.

The 38 galleries for European art on the second level and the sculpture

gallery on the ground level are bathed in natural light originating from

rooftop lanterns that provide even washes of natural light on the walls of the

galleries. State-of-the-art artificial lighting systems complement the skylit

lanterns to provide automated response to the changing natural light

conditions.

The lobby opens into a soaring, light-filled atrium, from which the lower

level, first level, mezzanine, and second level galleries and support spaces

are accessed by stairs, escalator, or elevator.

The ground level houses prints, drawings, photography, and American art. A

limestone sculpture court reaches more than 79 feet to its skylit roof. The

recent gift of Nadelman's "Tango" (circa 1918-24), and a major window by Louis

Comfort Tiffany titled "A Wooded Landscape in Three Panels" (circa 1905), a

1996 acquisition, will be among the centerpieces of the American galleries.

The ground level also features an exhibition gallery totaling 8,500 square

feet.

The galleries for the European collection are arranged in a chronological

progression on the second level, and incorporate the Beck collection, as well

as the collection of the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation. This collection

consists of Renaissance and Baroque works from Italy, The Netherlands, France,

and England. The European galleries range in size from 19'4" square to 65'7"

by 48'11 inches. A recent major addition to the European painting collection

is the Dutch painter Jan van Huysum's "Still Life of Flowers and Fruit" (circa

1710-15).

The lower level has gallery space dedicated to temporary exhibitions requiring

4,000 square feet or less. A 4,900-square-foot restaurant looks into a sunken

garden accented with a waterfall. The mezzanine level houses curatorial

offices, meeting rooms, and a print and photography study storage facility.

A tunnel connects the Beck Building to the parking garage and ticketing

service center. An underground gallery passage containing a light installation

by the sculptor James Turrell connects the Beck Building to the existing

museum building.

The Fannin Service Center, totalling 221,383 square feet, contains 45,000

square feet of museum support space, with an art loading dock, exhibition

design studios, an exhibition production shop, and a full-service ticketing

and information center.