HOUSTON--St. Louis, Mo.-based McCarthy Building Cos. Inc., will lead the $450-million expansion of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), the oldest art museum in Texas and one of the largest museums in the country.

The redevelopment of the 14-acre campus will consist of a new exhibition building, an art school, an underground parking garage, a rooftop garden, extensive site development and a central plant. The design is by Steven Holl Architects and the museum has also announced plans for a new conservation center by Lake|Flato Architects, according to a Wall Street Journal report.

“The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston is the oldest museum in Texas and one of the largest in the United States. Our team plans to build a state-of-the-art addition that will live up to the esteemed reputation of the renowned museum,” McCarthy Houston division president Jim Stevenson told GlobeSt.com. “McCarthy's experience with building complex, architecturally significant projects for the entertainment and arts industry will be showcased in this project. We look forward to working with the musuem, architects and other partners involved to build a high-quality arts venue the museum and the city of Houston will be proud of.”

In addition, the MFAH project will be the first "new construction of a fine arts museum in McCarthy history," says Stevenson.

McCarthy will be partnering with program manager The Projects Group along with architecture firm Kendall/Heaton (in addition to Steven Holl Architects) to construct the new 164,000-square-foot exhibition building, which is set to house 20th- and 21st-century art, in addition to the new 80,000-square-foot facility for the Glassell School of Art. Both the exhibition hall and school will link to two existing gallery buildings and a sculpture garden, creating a 14-acre public campus between downtown and the Texas Medical Center. Construction for the project will begin this summer and is scheduled for completion in 2019.

McCarthy has a history of building architecturally significant projects in the entertainment and arts industry. In addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, McCarthy's Texas portfolio of entertainment and institutional projects includes the award-winning AT&T Performing Arts Center/Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre and Klyde Warren Park in Dallas.

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McCarthy Will Build MFAH Expansion

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