Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion

[Angostura 1253]

16 hours ago, Luminare said:

 

[...] because, again, this genre of architecture isn't about the building itself, but the architect that is behind it [...]

 

 

This might be part of the problem.

 

[DarklyMoron 221]

12 hours ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

 

Just a note: It's Cullinan Hall, named for Nina J. Cullinan. With all the "Cullen" stuff in Houston it's an easy mistake to make.

 

Disregard if autocorrect is to blame!

 

Nope, that was just me being sloppy! Thanks and apologies to Nina.

[hindesky 46826]

[MidCenturyMoldy 621]

 

Taken 12/13/19

 

 

 

Taken 12/13/19

 

 

 

Taken 12/14/19

 

 

 

Mies van der Roadkill

 

 

 

Taken 12/13/19

Edited December 28, 2019 by MidCenturyMoldy

[mfastx 538]

Looks very European.  Love it. 

[hindesky 46826]

[Montrose1100 3722]

Not that anyone asked, but this thing looks great. The whole Museum District is even more beautiful with this structure in it. The light and bright glass is a breath of fresh air compared to the dark and cold beige buildings.

 

The thing makes me smile on my weekly pilgrimage to Total Wine. Super impressed and applaud the choice. The cooler design would have been great, however, this will age well. 

[bobruss 4988]

I agree with you 100%. I can't wait to see it glowing at night and from the renderings it appears that the overall campus will be unified and there will be more of a sense of continuity with the landscaping and out door areas of which there will be many. From what Ive seen recently it appears that there are a lot of windows all over the south end facing the law building and Main. 

[mls1202 432]

With the completion of this phase, is all the available land in the immediate area now spoken for?  Looking at google maps, it looks like any further expansion would require some existing buildings to be torn down.

[shasta 337]

We still need more walkable mixed-use elements to complement the museums, parks, and nearby residential. More restaurants and some retail would be nice  to connect the buildings along Bissonnet/Binz.

[X.R. 1123]

12 minutes ago, shasta said:

We still need more walkable mixed-use elements to complement the museums, parks, and nearby residential. More restaurants and some retail would be nice  to connect the buildings along Bissonnet/Binz.

 

This x100. People in the neighborhood clamor for that stuff. I mean, they begged the Boone Manor people to let museum district residents pay the developer to use the apartment gym. And they begged them to let the cafe in the apartment be GFR. The need is pretty clearly there, I'm not quite sure what the hold up is.

[bobruss 4988]

This will definitely happen and fairly quick. They are planning a new tower at Hermann Lane next to the Parklane. The new Chelsea Market is going to boost residential and put more pressure on to develop more retail and service related businesses. The Midtown side will continue to add more retail and service once some of these large projects get finished.. One thing that I noticed when I was waiting for my car at Montrose Auto across from Bell Park is there is nothing in several blocks to get anything to drink or shop or do anything. That needs to change.

[Texasota 2971]

A grocery store would also be nice. And one of them small format Targets.

[clutchcity94 385]

1 hour ago, bobruss said:

This will definitely happen and fairly quick. They are planning a new tower at Hermann Lane next to the Parklane. The new Chelsea Market is going to boost residential and put more pressure on to develop more retail and service related businesses. The Midtown side will continue to add more retail and service once some of these large projects get finished.. One thing that I noticed when I was waiting for my car at Montrose Auto across from Bell Park is there is nothing in several blocks to get anything to drink or shop or do anything. That needs to change.

Kam’s? Grand Prize?

Edited January 2, 2020 by clutchcity94

[bobruss 4988]

Im talking about early in the day for coffee or breakfast. Grand Prize is happy hour or later and I don't want Chinese food early in the morning.

It would have been great if Grand Prizer was a breakfast place. It's right next door. But it's not.

[clutchcity94 385]

A great spot for retail in the area is the abandoned Museum Florist shop at 5007 Montrose Blvd. I really love the retro look of that brick building. Anyone know when it closed?

[nate4l1f3 1123]

On 1/2/2020 at 3:48 PM, clutchcity94 said:

Kam’s? Grand Prize?

Kam’s in no longer in business. It’s been replaced by Bamboo Asian Seafood. 

[hindesky 46826]

[wilcal 1707]

Opening November 1

 

https://www.mfah.org/about/campus-redevelopment/

[hindesky 46826]

[hindesky 46826]

[hindesky 46826]

[pablog 311]

 

[hindesky 46826]

[hindesky 46826]

[hindesky 46826]

[hindesky 46826]

[rgarza 406]

A shot of tube glass being installed on the southeast corner of the building. 

[danielsonr 389]

This is a great looking building, but the glass tubing reminds me of this...

 

[monarch 3797]

 

^^^ as you may attest from above, the ORIGINAL DESIGN of the exterior glass tubing... called for it to be TRANSLUCENT... throughout the ($450mm) edifice itself.  this particular design element... if they would have held on to it... would have undoubtedly created a much more BEAUTIFUL and SOFTER exterior appearance overall.  however, someone came up with the brilliant idea of FROSTING the glass tubing.  whereby, this in itself, is creating a very COLD STORAGE overall FREEZER affect throughout.  everyone, is acutely aware that our fair city of houston can be HOT and quite HUMID at times.  therefore,  the very last thing that we want from our state-of-the-art, ultra modern MUSEUM OF FINE ART, is for it to resemble a COLD STORAGE FREEZER / YETI COOLER.  i find myself REALLY PRAYING for the OVERALL BEAUTY of this particular... and much anticipated edifice to some day come shining through...    

 

 

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by monarch

[Houston19514 4658]

The glass tubing IS translucent.  Pretty sure there has been no change in this particular design element. They are etched glass, just as originally planned.

 

When the design was presented, Steven Holl (the architect) used these words: Regarding the skin of the building: “a cool jacket,” composed of “sandblasted glass tubes” that “allow the building to be a glowing, translucent, matte-finish presence.”  .https://www.artsjournal.com/culturegrrl/2015/01/translucent-complementary-contrast-steven-holls-alluring-expansion-of-mfa-houston-with-video-2.html

Edited April 20, 2020 by Houston19514

[rgarza 406]

Frosted glass is translucent. Those aren’t mutually exclusive terms. The glass being installed isn’t as translucent as what is shown on the model because it’s a completely different material. I rather like the way the building is coming together, but I may have some bias since I’m helping build it. To each his own, though. 

[Houston19514 4658]

The model apparently was more representational than a precise replication of the plan.  The tubes being installed are very much what was described from the beginning (and shown in the renderings).

 

Edited April 20, 2020 by Houston19514

[Naviguessor 2185]

Look, Monarch, the trees are no longer going to be steel wool, either.  

[H-Town Man 5008]

The model did look better, fwiw.

 

[danielsonr 389]

2 hours ago, rgarza said:

Frosted glass is translucent. Those aren’t mutually exclusive terms. The glass being installed isn’t as translucent as what is shown on the model because it’s a completely different material. I rather like the way the building is coming together, but I may have some bias since I’m helping build it. To each his own, though. 

Yes, I think the building is stunning overall. It is already visually striking from a distance. But I have also seen the building up close, from the same perspective as your photo, and the glass tubes appear clunky and inelegant to me. Perhaps I should reserve judgement until all the finishing touches are complete. For instance, I presume there will be some sort of cladding at the bottom of the tubes to conceal the metal framework.

[rgarza 406]

At this elevation the tube glass will go all the way down to ground level. We just can’t install those yet because there is still some masonry work that needs to be done there. In other areas where the Tube glass doesn’t go down to ground level, yes, there is a soffit system in place to hide the steel glass support system. 

[monarch 3797]

9 hours ago, rgarza said:

Frosted glass is translucent. Those aren’t mutually exclusive terms. The glass being installed isn’t as translucent as what is shown on the model because it’s a completely different material. I rather like the way the building is coming together, but I may have some bias since I’m helping build it. To each his own, though. 

^^^ props to you @rgarza for harboring the enthusiasm/courage... to pronounce that you are hereby helping to construct the newest addition to the MUSEUM OF FINE ART HOUSTON.  your "bias" is duly noted, and perfectly acceptable.  nonetheless, THANK YOU for highlighting my overall point, that i was trying to make with the aforementioned initial rendering illustration.  whatever the "material" (S) being utilized for the REALLY TRANSLUCENT exterior cladding within the rendering... it presents a much more BEAUTIFUL, SOFTER, and WATER like overall affect upon the edifice itself, which is much more representative of the BEAUTIFUL MUSEUM DISTRICT of HOUSTON.  heck, even HELEN KELLER could see that there is definitely a difference in the overall appearance.      

[monarch 3797]

7 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

The model apparently was more representational than a precise replication of the plan.  The tubes being installed are very much what was described from the beginning (and shown in the renderings).

 

 

^^^ @Houston19514 here's an extra set of HIGH POWERED EYES FOR YOU since your normal SPIN MACHINE is currently running off the charts.  who really cares about just how "representational" the model was within the illustration?  just like "pictures don't lie"... models are not supposed to lie.  they are supposed to be representative of what the desired object is supposed to emulate.  although, no one or nothing has to be absolutely perfect upon this particular scenario (designing a state-of-the-art edifice)... the differences in the overall appearances of the model vs the edifice under construction... is absolutely OVER POWERING!      

[Texasota 2971]

You guys know that this building will be internally lit right? Rather than being solely lit by exterior sunlight? So the appearance of the exterior glass is guaranteed to change, and will likely shift throughout the day? 

 

Now it's entirely possible that this cladding scheme just won't work, but the final effect will not be clear until the building is actually finished.

[zaphod 449]

I mean, they could always improve on it with LED lighting. A nice warm white would look really good at night.

[Houston19514 4658]

On 4/20/2020 at 3:54 PM, monarch said:

 

^^^ @Houston19514 here's an extra set of HIGH POWERED EYES FOR YOU since your normal SPIN MACHINE is currently running off the charts.  who really cares about just how "representational" the model was within the illustration?  just like "pictures don't lie"... models are not supposed to lie.  they are supposed to be representative of what the desired object is supposed to emulate.  although, no one or nothing has to be absolutely perfect upon this particular scenario (designing a state-of-the-art edifice)... the differences in the overall appearances of the model vs the edifice under construction... is absolutely OVER POWERING!      

No spin here. Just trying to stick to the facts.  Contrary to your claim, the plans for the glass tube exterior of the new museum building were not revised.  Yes, the pictures of the model appear to show a different material.  But guess what?   The pictures of the model also don’t match the renderings or the architect’s descriptions of the glass tubes.  

Edited October 27, 2020 by Houston19514

[jmitch94 2033]

15 hours ago, Houston19514 said:

No spin here. Just trying to stick to the facts.  Contrary to your claim, the plans for the glass tube exterior of the new museum, building were not revised.  Yes, the pictures of the model appear to show a different material.  But guess what?   The pictures of the model also don’t match the renderings or the architect’s descriptions of the glass tubes.  

Also I doubt that they will make the sidewalks out of cardboard like the model. 

[H-Town Man 5008]

10 hours ago, jmitch94 said:

Also I doubt that they will make the sidewalks out of cardboard like the model. 

 

I think that in most architectural models, more effort is expended to make the building being modeled look like the final building than to make the trees in the model look like actual trees or the streets and sidewalks look like actual streets and sidewalks. People already know what the pavement looks like so the modeler doesn't put much time into the pavement; the point of the model is to show what the building will look like. Granted it will not be exact and there will be some leeway; how much leeway there should be is debatable.

 

 

[hindesky 46826]

The northern tower crane was taken down sometime during the week. 

[rgarza 406]

Friday, May 1st was the last day we were scheduled to be able to use the north crane, so they probably started tear-down Friday evening and completed on Saturday. The remaining tower crane is scheduled to come down on May 15th, although that is subject to change depending on how much crane work we have left to do in two weeks. This project is nearing completion! (at least as far as major exterior construction goes)

[danielsonr 389]

7 hours ago, hindesky said:

The northern tower crane was taken down sometime during the week. 

 

7 hours ago, rgarza said:

Friday, May 1st was the last day we were scheduled to be able to use the north crane, so they probably started tear-down Friday evening and completed on Saturday. The remaining tower crane is scheduled to come down on May 15th, although that is subject to change depending on how much crane work we have left to do in two weeks. This project is nearing completion! (at least as far as major exterior construction goes)

Saturday, May 2 at 2:30...

[slcowart416 79]

That one missing piece of glass tubing on the north wall (facing church & Glassell School) has been driving me crazy for weeks!

[EllenOlenska 1180]

As a person who only ever gets excited for whispers about trains (and buses too) this place thrills me. 

Might I have some critiques, sure. But frankly the thing is worthy of critique. It's cool in a whole lotta ways. It's possessed of a rather more severe grandeur than in the renderings. 

[brijonmang 5511]

Good job to the construction crews for all wearing their PPE!