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The Menil Collection At 1533 Sul Ross St.


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Ah, sweet! Perhaps they need to add a P.J. inspired addition to the Renzo Piano designed Menil to house this new collection! :P

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  • 7 months later...
Do they own all the houses around their Museum? The grey colored ones? That would be a great place to buy a house.

The Menil Foundation owns the majority of them, and they are picky about who they rent them out to.. like only artists, photographers, archi students, writers....

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  • 1 year later...

ARCHITECT RENZO PIANO AT THE MENIL: A FREE PUBLIC LECTURE April 21

THE MENIL COLLECTION

invites you to celebrate its Twentieth Anniversary

with a illustrated lecture by

RENZO PIANO

Free and Open to the Public

Renzo Piano was born in Genoa in 1937 into a family of builders. After

completing his studies, he traveled in Britain and America. In 1971 he

founded the firm Piano & Rogers with Richard Rogers, and then L

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OK

Suppose there's a Q&A session. What would your question be?

Since you asked....

The integration of the museum with the surrounding neighborhood is (so far as I know) unique. There are economic pressures within the neighborhood; can we maintain the surrounding buildings which contribute so to the museum? Do you have recommendations as to how future structures can be integrated?

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OK

Suppose there's a Q&A session. What would your question be?

Since you asked....

The integration of the museum with the surrounding neighborhood is (so far as I know) unique. There are economic pressures within the neighborhood; can we maintain the surrounding buildings which contribute so to the museum? Do you have recommendations as to how future structures can be integrated?

Good question; who owns most of those galleries? However, I can imagine those particular blocks have had astronomical price pressure for a long time now, and yet no townhouseblocks.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 3 months later...
The Menil Foundation owns the majority of them, and they are picky about who they rent them out to.. like only artists, photographers, archi students, writers....

We are renting one now, nice place, NO insulation = huge electric bill from heating and A/C. i dont know if all of the places are like this, but since they are from the same era i wouldnt doubt that a majority were without major insulation. Weird layout with two bathrooms upstairs right next to each other, one of which is a half bath. They allow you to paint and stuff inside which is nice. Good neighbors and it is routinely patroled by St. Thomas Police. I didnt know that there were any issues about who rents them out though, it is for my sister and her roomate, both students at Rice and St. Thomas. Lots of character though

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We are renting one now, nice place, NO insulation = huge electric bill from heating and A/C. i dont know if all of the places are like this, but since they are from the same era i wouldnt doubt that a majority were without major insulation. Weird layout with two bathrooms upstairs right next to each other, one of which is a half bath. They allow you to paint and stuff inside which is nice. Good neighbors and it is routinely patroled by St. Thomas Police. I didnt know that there were any issues about who rents them out though, it is for my sister and her roomate, both students at Rice and St. Thomas. Lots of character though

We found the same thing when we lived in one--huge electric bills. Not all the houses have been kept up very well, so there are lots of gaps around windows and doors, letting air out and critters in. All that aside, though, lots of charm and lovely neighbors. Not to mention the best neighborhood in Houston for walking.

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  • 10 months later...

Little-known fact to some, Menil owns many of the houses surrounding Menil. For example, I used to live at a house on the corner of W. Main and Mandell (across from Cafe Artiste) and my landlord was Menil. They have a property management office across Mandell from the museum. I always thought owning all those houses was part of a long-term expansion plan. No need for any mess when they want to expand. Just let all the leases expire and then bulldoze the houses. Incidentally, they already have a minor presence on Richmond Drive that they can use, Richmond Hall, a 1930s grocery store that now houses a light installation by Dan Flavin. Furthermore, there is already a Menil-owned path that leads between some houses from Branard to W. Main @ Loretto.

I see nothing but potential for Menil.

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Little-known fact to some, Menil owns many of the houses surrounding Menil. For example, I used to live at a house on the corner of W. Main and Mandell (across from Cafe Artiste) and my landlord was Menil. They have a property management office across Mandell from the museum. I always thought owning all those houses was part of a long-term expansion plan. No need for any mess when they want to expand. Just let all the leases expire and then bulldoze the houses. Incidentally, they already have a minor presence on Richmond Drive that they can use, Richmond Hall, a 1930s grocery store that now houses a light installation by Dan Flavin. Furthermore, there is already a Menil-owned path that leads between some houses from Branard to W. Main @ Loretto.

I see nothing but potential for Menil.

I think they also own that industrial building on the corner of Richmond and Mandell; used to belong to the power company, I believe? The white building with the ugly fence around it. It will improve that block of Richmond tremendously if/when they do something with that property.

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I think they also own that industrial building on the corner of Richmond and Mandell; used to belong to the power company, I believe? The white building with the ugly fence around it. It will improve that block of Richmond tremendously if/when they do something with that property.

You're probably right. At W. Main and Loretto there's an abstract sculpture in an empty field. At one point I saw a similar abstract sculpture being stored inside that gate at the white building.

Menil was a great landlord. The museum security guard would cruise my street and the other streets where they owned properties, and they were always a phone call away if there was someone suspicious and you wanted them to make a pass.

For anyone who hasn't been to see the Menil main museum (which has some surprisingly famous painters' work in it) and the Byzantine Fresco Chapel (which has a fascinating origin story) you don't know what you're missing, they're a real treat (and free).

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