DarklyMoron

Well, this is a Steven Holl building. Glowing crystalline boxes are sort of his thing. If you want swooping sculptural forms, get yourself a Gehry.  The challenge with museum buildings is that they aren’t great candidates for bold undulating form. Curators and conservators would be thrilled with hermetically-sealed boxes. Windows and curved walls are the enemy. Overall, I think Holl has done a good job of breaking-up the large mass with the 7 insets, the cantilevered sections and the diaphanous cladding. And the true test will be how it works as gallery space inside. But, you’re right. It is a blocky building in the end.

Both 1 & 2. The actual windows through the concrete (which are relatively few) are being augmented with some fictional "windows" placed on the concrete. (My husband works at the museum. I'm pretty sure that that's public information.)

The original plans showed doors directly into the cafe behind those clear tubes. The model on display in the museum lobby showed a couple small patches of clear tubing on the facade aligned with gallery windows. This section is the only one that was retained. As much as we like windows, they can be problematic with artwork, especially works on paper.

Man, that roofline. With hundreds of millions of dollars hanging below, I sure hope they've got that monster ready for our Houston downpours. Should be amazing to see from the inside.

I agree that generally raised plazas are not terribly successful (see Jones Plaza downtown). At the same time, I applaud any project that doesn’t simply build a tower atop a parking garage with zero pedestrian considerations. Personally, the big cantilevered (top heavy) massing is what I like about the renderings.

Are we getting another Cloud Column?

Wonder if they've actually spoken to any local museums about filling that space. It's not a small building in the renderings and the number of institutions that could fill it are few. (Nevermind, who could afford it.)

I hate it: the scale, the destruction of symmetry between the north and south sections, the failure to sustain the distinctive elements of the shopping center, etc. I don't begrudge them diversifying their portfolio, especially with retail becoming more precarious. But, I also think they could have preserved the front facade and still built the tower in the back. Any architectural integrity remaining in that historic shopping center is pretty much gone now.

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.

For me, the success of a new museum building is how well it displays the artwork within, not in making some striking statement from the outside. Take the Beck and Law buildings. Mies' Law building is generally considered a better architectural statement. But the second floor gallery and Cullen hall are both large difficult spaces requiring a lot of intervention: extensive "temporary" walls, drapes to mitigate light, security challenges (why Van Gogh was moved to the other building), etc.  The Beck building is the opposite. Nothing much to look at from the outside, but the top floor galleries are really quite remarkable in both their scale and use of natural light. Yes, I'd like the best of both worlds and I'm still quite confident this will be a striking new building for Houston. But it's what happens inside the building that matters most.

That side of the building makes me most happy. The Noguchi sculpture garden has always been a hidden oasis, but this will connect it to the museum at long last. Views from the restaurant (behind the white wall) should be stunning. The building insets as well as the slight cantilever of the second story ensures that it doesn't overwhelm the park-like space. Can't wait for it to be completed.

The British paper The Guardian just named Jartansson's The Visitor the best visual artwork of the 21st century. A bit silly, sure. But it is an amazing experience. Just give yourself enough time to really experience the ebbs and flows. 

 https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2019/sep/17/the-best-visual-art-of-the-21st-century

According to the Chronicle story back in July, the opening will be “late 2020.” That should mean open to the public. 

While obviously different materials, I'm seeing a kindred spirit in CAMH's cladding.

On 2/7/2019 at 1:23 PM, Luminare said:

 

From the renderings it looks like it will probably some kind of custom metal panel rain screen system. This would also give them enough room/space to add lighting within the screen itself giving it that "glowing" look they had in the nighttime render. Looked like the interior lobby spaces would be concrete.

It's actually a frosted glass of semi-circular columns. They had a mock-up at the art storage facility.