HOUSTON—Phase two of the campus expansion for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, one of the largest museums in the United States and the oldest art museum in Texas, recently broke ground and is slated for completion in late 2019. The milestone was commemorated with a groundbreaking event for the Nancy and Rich Kinder gallery building, according to McCarthy Building Companies Inc.

“We are excited to begin work on phase two of the expansion for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, while continuing to progress toward other construction milestones on site, including the topping out of the Glassell School of Art,” said McCarthy Houston division president Jim Stevenson.

The Kinder Building is a 243,632-square-foot gallery building that will house modern and contemporary art. With 126,620 square feet of underground space and 117,012 square feet above-grade space, the building will have a translucent-glass exterior cool jacket, three floors of galleries that circle a three-story central atrium, a 200-seat theater, street-level cafe, restaurant overlooking the sculpture garden, an underground Main Street parking garage with 115 spaces and pedestrian tunnels connecting to the Glassell School of Art and the Caroline Weiss Law Building. The design is by Steven Holl Architects.

McCarthy broke ground on phase one of the project in late 2015, which included the construction of the Glassell School, an 80,000-square-foot L-shaped structure constructed from pre-cast concrete slabs and glass panels, also by Steven Holl Architects. Nearly doubling the size of the previous building, the school will house studios for 7,000 students, an arrival and departure hall for all school groups, a cafe and an auditorium. Its design features two outdoor gathering spaces along its sloping roofline: a walkable roof terrace above and an amphitheater at ground level. The museum will start teaching classes in the new building in January 2018.

Adjacent to Glassell School is Brown Foundation Inc. Plaza, a public gateway to the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim campus by Deborah Nevins & Associates, featuring a 36,000-square-foot public plaza with moveable seating, shade trees and a reflecting/splash pool. Additional landscape planning for the entire campus is underway with a completion date of January 2018.

The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation by Lake|Flato Architects is a one-story 30,000-square-foot conservation center, housing studios and offices for the museum's art conservators and scientists in a steel-and-glass structure that is set atop a museum garage, with a public cafe at street level. It has a slated completion of 2018.

The 14-acre redesign of the museum's Sarofim campus—which, in addition to the Kinder Building, the Glassell School of Art, a landscape plan with multiple public plazas and the Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center—will expand the role the museum plays in the daily life of Houstonians. This will be evident not only as a cultural institution but as an urban oasis open to all, GlobeSt.com learns.

The entire project is slated for completion in late 2019. GlobeSt.com learns that the combined capital and endowment campaign has reached nearly $390 million, more than 85% of its $450 million goal.

In addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, McCarthy's Texas portfolio of entertainment and institutional projects includes the AT&T Performing Arts Center Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre in Dallas, Dallas' Klyde Warren Park located over Woodall Rogers Freeway and the Dallas City Performance Hall, among others.

The entire project is slated for completion in late 2019. GlobeSt.com learns that the combined capital and endowment campaign has reached nearly $390 million, more than 85% of its $450 million goal.

Instant Insights /

Museum's Capital Goal Nearly There

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