The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Breaks Ground on the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus

Glassell School of Art, designed by Steven Holl Architects, launches first phase of construction for a transformational campus plan; Deborah Nevins & Associates announced as landscape architect

80 percent of funding in place for the $450-million capital and endowment project

Houston—October 15, 2015—Today, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, formally broke ground for the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, and also announced Deborah Nevins & Associates as the project's landscape architect. Featuring the new Glassell School of Art and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for modern and contemporary art, both designed by Steven Holl Architects, as well as the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation, designed by Lake|Flato Architects, the Sarofim Campus plan will transform the 14 acres of the MFAH property into a pedestrian-friendly cultural zone. Completion is slated for 2020.

Richard D. Kinder, chairman of the MFAH, commented, “We have broken ground not only on a new building for the Glassell School of Art, but also on a reimagined campus that will transform the visitor’s experience of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and create an urban oasis here in the heart of the Museum District.”

Gary Tinterow, director of the MFAH, said, “The Glassell School has been central to Houston’s art community for nearly three decades, and its origins date to 1927, when a Museum School was established shortly after the MFAH opened. Steven Holl Architects’ design for its new home, with its open circulation, generous outdoor spaces for performances, and varied gathering places for students of all ages, will allow the school to become a welcoming public gateway to the Museum campus.”

“To break ground beginning with these inspiring spaces for art education is a great honor,” remarked Steven Holl. “The first phase of this important, unified urban campus for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, will create architecture that provides vital service for the arts and Houston’s expanding cultural community. Welcoming students of diverse ages and experience, the Glassell School of Art will also provide exceptional public spaces to be enjoyed by visitors from Houston and beyond.”

Artist Joseph Havel, director of the Glassell School of Art, said, “The Glassell School of Art is best known outside of Houston for its prestigious Core Residency Program and its influential alumni, who include Trenton Doyle Hancock, Julie Mehretu, and Shahzia Sikander. But the local impact of the junior and adult schools—which combined serve some 7,000 students each year—has also been profound, helping to create an audience for art in Houston and building a community for people of all ages who are committed to making art a more significant part of their lives.”

Commenting on the selection of Deborah Nevins following an international search, Tinterow said, “The goal of the landscape plan for the Sarofim Campus is to create pedestrian connections among the Museum’s five principal buildings, and a series of outdoor spaces that will animate the public’s experience of these 14 urban acres. Deborah Nevins comes to the project with a human-centered perspective on the challenges and opportunities inherent to the brief, which is to skillfully knit together our various buildings, respecting their place, and to manage the garden and public areas as transitions between them.”

Steven Holl Architects’ New Glassell School of Art: A Gateway to the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus
The 80,000-square-foot Glassell School of Art will be built on the two-acre former site of the school’s 1979 building and adjacent parking lot. The new, L-shaped structure will define two edges of the new Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza. With an entrance fronting onto the plaza, the school’s roofline will extend downward to a stepped amphitheater with outdoor space for programs and performances, and upward to the walkable, trellised BBVA Compass Roof Garden, which will provide dramatic views of the campus. The garden is named in honor of BBVA Compass, the leading corporate donor of the campaign.

“The BBVA Compass Roof Garden is a stunning addition to Houston’s landscape,” said BBVA Compass Chairman and CEO Manolo Sánchez. “There is a reason we made this donation to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, and it has as much to do with the Museum’s commitment to bringing the power of the arts to young people than anything else. This is a cosmopolitan city that must nurture the creativity of its next generation so it can push even further into the future.”

The original walls of the 1986 Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi, will anchor the southern end of the landscaped plaza.

Constructed from precast concrete panels in a rhythm of verticals and slight angles, the structure’s design allows for natural light in all 35 studios; an open, broad-stepped central staircase; and multiple exhibition spaces. In addition, the school will house offices for faculty and Museum staff; corridor galleries for the informal display of art; outdoor sculpture and ceramic spaces; a 75-seat auditorium; an education court for orientation, assembly, and dedicated drop-off for schoolchildren; and a street-level café for students and the public. A dedicated tunnel, for pedestrians, will connect school groups and the public to the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building for modern and contemporary art when that building opens in 2019. A second tunnel, for cars, will connect the 285-space underground parking facility below the school to the 115-space underground facility in the Kinder Building. Completion of the Glassell School is expected in spring 2018.

Deborah Nevins & Associates and the Landscape Plan for the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus
Encompassing 14 acres in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the Fayez S. Sarofim Campus will be a major contribution to the city’s efforts to improve the pedestrian experience of Houston. With an array of public plazas, reflecting pools, and gardens, as well as improved sidewalks, street lighting, and way-finding, the campus will provide an active setting for the three significant new structures: the Glassell School of Art, the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation.

The MFAH has engaged Deborah Nevins & Associates to unify and animate this campus, one bisected by a main thoroughfare and dotted with a century’s worth of architecturally significant structures—by William Ward Watkin, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Isamu Noguchi, Carlos Jiménez, Rafael Moneo, and now Steven Holl Architects and Lake|Flato Architects. “Outdoor space in an urban environment is where people can come together and be joyous,” said Nevins, whose projects have ranged from small-scale urban gardens to 40-acre parks. “The questions we have to answer are, ‘How will you animate the space to bring people in? What experiences can they have? What is the Houston pedestrian experience, and what are the devices to simplify it?’ You have to create a space that makes people want to be there.”

Civic Impact of the Campus Redevelopment Plan
The redesign of the campus will take as its core focus the role the MFAH plays in the daily life of Houston, not only as a cultural institution, but also as an urban oasis that is open to all, invigorating the surrounding area. The redesigned campus is projected to have a significant impact on the city: in the near term through job creation, and in the long term by generating nearly $334 million in economic activity over 20 years, with more than $2.5 million in direct, indirect, and induced city tax revenues.

“Houston has experienced incredible growth over the last 20 years, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, has grown rapidly with the city,” Houston Mayor Annise Parker commented. “The Museum has embraced other parts of the world, in its collections and its programs, and so it has become more and more a reflection of the breadth of this city. The redevelopment of the campus and the resulting increase in public access to art and programming will further enhance the Museum’s service to the city.”

The Campaign for the MFAH
To date, more than $363.7 million—some 80 percent of the $450-million capital and endowment campaign goal—has been raised. The principal gifts were provided by Fayez S. Sarofim ($70 million) and the Kinder Foundation ($50 million). Additional lead gifts of $10 million or more were provided by The Glassell Family Foundation; Mr. and Mrs. Meredith J. Long; Mr. and Mrs. Charles W. Duncan, Jr.; The Brown Foundation, Inc.; The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation; The Cullen Foundation; The Wortham Foundation, Inc.; and Lynn and Oscar Wyatt. Overall, the Museum has received 110 gifts, nearly half in the amount of $1 million or more. Leading corporate support has been provided by the BBVA Compass Foundation in the amount of $8 million, a sponsorship that is part of the bank’s longstanding commitment to the arts and its partnership with the MFAH, and is the largest gift BBVA Compass has ever given to any organization.

About the Glassell School of Art
The Glassell School of Art was opened in 1979, following a founding gift from trustee Alfred C. Glassell, Jr., who was committed to advancing the Museum’s art-education mission. The origins of an MFAH school date to 1927, when the Museum’s first school was established, three years after the Museum opened. During those early years, the school offered six classes for students from age 9 to 14. By 1939, 14 courses were offered for adults and children, with an enrollment of 196 students. By the early 1970s, growing enrollment led to plans for a new building to house the art school. The Glassell School of Art, an efficient, utilitarian design by Eugene Aubry for the architecture firm of S. I. Morris and Associates, was green-lighted in 1978 and took less than a year to build. Initially, classes for both the Junior School and Studio School were conducted there. In 1982, the Core Residency Program was established for artists, and in 1998 a critics’ residency was added.

Today, the Glassell School of Art is the only museum school in the country with programs that serve students of all ages, from 3-year-olds, to adults, to the postgraduate artists and critics of the Core program. Notable Core alumni include Trenton Doyle Hancock, Julie Mehretu, and Shahzia Sikander. Each year, the school enrolls about 7,000 students and offers more than $100,000 in scholarships. During construction of the new building by Steven Holl Architects, Studio School classes and the Core program have relocated to off-site facilities nearby. The Junior School continues to operate out of the Museum’s Central Administration Building, its home since 1994, until completion of the new Glassell School, which will accommodate all three programs. www.mfah.org/glassell

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Tracing its origins to 1900, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, is one of the largest cultural institutions in the country. The main campus is located in the heart of Houston’s Museum District and comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Glassell School of Art, and the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden. The Beck and Law buildings are connected underground by the Wilson Tunnel, which features James Turrell’s iconic installation The Light Inside. Additional resources include a repertory cinema, two significant libraries, and public archives. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present collections of American and European decorative arts. The encyclopedic collections of the MFAH are especially strong in Pre-Columbian and African gold; Renaissance and Baroque painting and sculpture; 19th- and 20th-century art; photography; and Latin American art. The MFAH is also home to the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. www.mfah.org

Follow the progress of the MFAH campus redevelopment project at www.mfah.org/future

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