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DarklyMoron

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  1. I did find one article in the Chronicle. https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/article/Texas-makes-case-to-Biden-to-host-new-medical-17070715.php
  2. Yes, the cafe is in the space along Bissonnet. The restaurant is in the space facing the sculpture garden. The restaurant should be pretty spectacular. Can’t wait.
  3. Ah yeah. They give you a few free articles a month. I inadvertently used up my going to the same article 3 times. D’oh!
  4. An extremely positive review of both the building and the installations in the National Review (with a few brief right wing asides). https://www.nationalreview.com/2021/02/hallelujah-houston-mfa/
  5. The Law entrance is only closed to limit the staff needed for screening, etc. It will be reopened whenever we return to normal. @H-Town ManI think your point about the interior having a slightly dismal feel is interesting. The new Menil drawing center mitigates that transition from the bright outdoors to the necessary dimness for works on paper rather well. Harder in a space like Kinder with the mix of mediums. And I agree that Law and really the entire campus looks and feels so much more cohesive and smart. Just that little bit of landscaping in the median does a lot to connect the two buildings. I get your point about the pods. I used to love going to the Met in NY and getting utterly lost in some wing. That said, I think most would argue for clear way finding. And I’d suggest that for a newbie visitor, this expanded campus gives you many opportunities to get lost. Imagine directing someone from the Glassell entrance to the European paintings. Anyway, thanks for your thoughtful observations.
  6. Me too. With the MFAH's Kinder building complete, I think this will become my new obsession.
  7. I would call that a pre-opening feature on Mari Carmen and MFAH's prescience in collecting Latin American art. I would hope they'd do a real review of the entire Kinder installation. What will be interesting is their take on our representation of modern and contemporary art. Houston does not follow the modern art canon like Moma. Each department was essentially doing its own thing until this building brought them all together. So they sometimes complement one another, sometimes not. They may find it refreshing or jarring. We'll see.
  8. All I can say about Inga Saffron is that she wrote a pretty negative review of the Kimbell's Renzo Piano addition a while back. When I met the Kimbell's director (and this was years later), he was still smarting from that review.
  9. Kimmelman seems more interested in the anthropological aspects of architecture than architectural criticism. My bet is one of the art critics, like Roberta Smith, will cover it but mainly focusing on the installation. It would be nice to see more reviews of the building. Not many papers have architecture critics anymore. I grew up reading Thomas Hine in the Philadelphia Inquirer. The Chronicle has poor Molly Glentzer covering everything from art to ballet.
  10. A couple glowing reviews of the building: Rice Design Alliance: https://www.ricedesignalliance.org/mfah-kinder Wall Street Journal (paywall): https://www.wsj.com/articles/a-triumphant-user-friendly-addition-11605960002?st=mzq14ojca68nzbk Excerpt from WSJ: As a place for viewing art, and in terms of sheer sensational impact, the Kinder is a triumph. It is impressive by day or night, adroitly integrated into its site, and—best of all—designed with special consideration for the ease and comfort of its users. It is also uncommonly well detailed (Mr. McVoy told me that they made extensive use of large-scale study models, and it shows). In short, the building delivers all that was asked of it, in abundance.
  11. Construction overall was actually around $385 million and that includes the new gallery building, the school, the underground parking and the new state of the art conservation labs. They very wisely raised an additional $90 million to support an operational endowment. So this building is not just bought and paid for, but they’ve ensured that the additional expenses are covered in perpetuity. That’s 650,000 square feet of new construction. Compare that to LA’s plans to spend $750 million to replace 3 buildings At LACMA with 1 building AND end up with less space. $475 million is a lot of money, but they have spent it wisely.
  12. I know a lot of people dismiss the architectural merits of this shopping center as already so compromised, but even with all the ham-fisted alterations, I still found some charm in the place. Despite it all, it was still distinguishable from most strip shopping centers and I wish they would embrace that rather than destroy what they have. That theater, its marquee, is a landmark for the community and one appeal to living in the neighborhood. It's your calling card. Why tear it down?
  13. Then you may be able to explain this fun little anomaly in the glass tubes. Is there any reason for the inverted corner, or is it just because?
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