DarklyMoron

On 9/14/2023 at 3:54 PM, steve1363 said:

Dallas Morning News article today states that ARPA-H sites should be announced this Fall.  Here is the link:  https://www.dallasnews.com/business/real-estate/2023/09/14/next-phase-moves-ahead-at-dallas-blossoming-biotech-hub-pegasus-park/

and a blurb…

Since announcement of the bidding process back in April 2022 I counted at least 3 articles in the DMN cheerleading the Dallas coalition.  The Houston Comical has printed exactly ZERO articles.  🤨  Let’s hope credentials win out on this one and not politics.  It is rare that Houston and Dallas go head-to-head on these types of bids.  Fingers crossed for Houston.

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

7 hours ago, X.R. said:

Is this going in that amazing looking space with all the chairs that faces binz/bissonnet? A michelin star chef? Food in Houston is seriously going places, what an amazing get by the Museum. 

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.

8 hours ago, MidCenturyMoldy said:

The article seems to be behind a translucent-semi-circular-glass-tubes-covered paywall. 

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!

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/

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.

3 hours ago, Triton said:

I have a feeling this is going to be incredibly beautiful.

Me too. With the MFAH's Kinder building complete, I think this will become my new obsession.

1 hour ago, H-Town Man said:

Well, they did an article already on the installation.

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.

19 minutes ago, Texasota said:

The Inquirer has Inga Saffron but I don't think she gets out of the Philly area that often.

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. 

16 hours ago, H-Town Man said:

It's curious that NY Times has not reviewed the architecture of this building.

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.

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?

On 11/15/2020 at 11:24 PM, rgarza said:

Unfortunately not. I worked for the subcontractor that installed the cool jacket tube glass, the clerestory glass, and the curtain walls around the building. 

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?

On 11/14/2020 at 4:06 PM, rgarza said:

It’s so surreal to see years of hard work condensed down to thirty seconds!

Will you be working on the Ismaili center? Willard Holmes said that was the next big project for McCarthy.

The “gardens” was always a bit of Hall’s showmanship. There are some nascent vines planted in the insets to the building that may become something, but it’s more about having moments of seeing the outdoors between each gallery space.

I was at the ribbon cutting tonight and the building is truly spectacular. The rolling ceilings on the third floor with their clerestory windows are a standout. Instagramers will love the two tunnels. The Wyatt theater is really handsome. But my favorite was how the building transforms the Naguchi sculpture garden and makes it part of the museum. The restaurant, whenever it opens, has one of the loveliest views in Houston.

I encourage everyone to visit whenever they can. I’m curious what y’all think. 

There's another video, but I can't figure-out how to embed it. 

https://player.vimeo.com/video/477299958

4 hours ago, X.R. said:

Now I just cross my fingers that landscaping is done well. 

So far I have not been overly impressed by Deborah Nevins & Associates. They're fairly standard choices (plumbago, crepe myrtle, and the ubiquitous creeping jasmine). Perhaps the goal is cohesiveness with the sculpture garden. I do like that they've added a planted median along with a mid-block raised pedestrian crosswalk on Bissonnet.  And keeping all those live oaks is great. I think only one had to be removed and another couldn't survive the new tunnel to the Law building.

12 minutes ago, Avossos said:

im confused by this. It seems like a very large piece.... does it drain water? Those skylights could double as drains into the basement... yikes

Yes. Water should rush in and drain-out. Sure hope those skylights are sealed well!

This isn't a great video, but it does show similar pieces from her gallery show a few years back. 

@hindesky@rgarza The sculpture of a woman outside the restaurant is La Rivière (The River) by Maillol.   https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/132944/la-riviere-the-river?ctx=529a780fce43e05e99a1e41b934f9bf2f0a44d58&idx=14

Also, I believe the Cristina Iglesias piece includes skylights over the large underground entrance hall. That should be interesting to experience.

@Triton The two tunnels include commissioned light installations, not too far removed from the Turrell tunnel below Main. Between Glassell and Kinder: artist Olafur Eliasson. Between Kinder and Law (under Bissonnet): artist Carlos Cruz-Diez.

Regarding the Glassell rooftop, the original plans had envisioned vines covering a pergola. It always seemed problematic not to provide a bit more shade up there, so I'm guessing this is meant to remedy that. It does seem a little strange retaining the previous pergola. We'll see!

Nice article in the Chronicle about some of the local talent employing their craft on the new building:

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/thepage/article/Meet-the-artisans-of-the-MFAH-s-new-Kinder-15705812.php?cmpid=gsa-chron-result

I agree that it would be nice to see developers push the envelope a bit more. But the need for an iconic skyline to me is secondary to what's happening at street level. Living in NYC for 25 years, I felt like the impact of the city wasn't any individual building. Yes, there were iconic buildings, but most were built like those in Houston to maximize profit. It is their density and how they contribute to the street life that make NYC the big apple. For example, The World Trade Center towers were iconic, but everyone hated the plaza area around them. I vote for pedestrians over pediments.

If MFAH is looking for input, I vote for the fully backlit lighting rather than the 'window' lighting. 

I expect that we may see some compare/contrast discussion between the MFAH’s new building and the planned LA County Museum. LA will have that ‘wow’ factor you’re craving, but I expect most critics will see the MFAH’s building as more successful. Bilbao, the Guggenheim in NY, and LA County are examples of eye-catching architecture that are very compromised as museums, where the architecture has supremacy over the art it’s supposed to display. Our own Menil is one of the more revered museum buildings in the country, not because it’s showy, but because of it’s sublime galleries. That said, I agree that Houston is lacking in the iconic landmark category.