Archinect - News

Your next job could be managing the Menil Collection’s iconic architecture

2023-09-27T12:41:00-04:00

Following last week’s look at an opening for a Landscape Designer at Balmori Associates, we are using this week’s edition of our Job Highlights series to explore an opportunity on Archinect Jobs for a Senior Project Manager at The Menil Collection.

The role, based at the Menil campus in Houston, TX, calls for an individual who will “lead museum and neighborhood capital projects and provide aesthetic guidance on architectural integrity and quality standards for the Menil’s buildings and grounds.” Among the credentials requested in applicants are a master’s degree in architecture or a related field, and a minimum of five years of project management experience in residential, small commercial, or related projects.

The Menil Collection Main Building by Renzo Piano Building Workshop. Image credit: Flickr user Rob Corder licensed under CC BY-NC 2.0

Why the role interests us

The open role at The Menil Collection offers us the opportunity to explore the private art collection’s championing o...

Kevin Daly Architects completes new Houston Endowment HQ project

2023-01-11T18:02:00-05:00

Kevin Daly Architects (kdA) recently celebrated the completion of their new Houston Endowment headquarters project, designed in collaboration with Mexico City-based studio PRODUCTORA.

The 32,000-square-foot building stands beside the city’s Spotts Park and offers the 96-year-old Endowment a new and more sustainable location that is better suited to its organizational aims and the needs of its public representation overall.

Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy Kevin Daly Architects.

Challenged with creating a building they say is simultaneously a “front door and a back porch” to the Endowment, the design team came up with a two-story hybrid steel and CLT solution that sits underneath a column-supported lattice canopy covering recessed volumes which are then lined in a dynamic facade of optic white aluminum rain-screen panels.

Photo: Iwan Baan, courtesy Kevin Daly Architects.

While noticeably similar to the 36-year-old Menil Collection just outside the city, the headquarters building also offer...

Rothko Chapel closes for its big overhaul

2019-02-28T13:22:00-05:00

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, founded in 1971 by the art patrons John and Dominique de Menil as an ecumenical site for both reflection and activism, will be closing on Monday for the rest of the year for the first phase of a $30 million restoration and campus expansion by Architecture Research Office.

New York-based firm Architecture Research Office (ARO) was selected in 2016 to be in charge of the restoration work.

"During the closure, work inside the Chapel will include modifications to the entryway and vestibule, enhanced audio, security and fire systems, replacement of the existing skylight and updates to the overall lighting design to allow for heightened illumination and an unimpeded interaction with the artwork," reads the announcement about the temporary closure, beginning Monday, March 4, on the Chapel's website.

Image via Wikipedia

"These upgrades will ensure more access and engagement with Mark Rothko’s extraordinary paintings and will improve the visitor experience as a whole. These preservation efforts will bring the experience of the Chapel closer to the founders’ and artist’s original intentions."

The building is scheduled to reopen in winter 2019.

“Quietly innovative”: A closer look at the new Menil Drawing Institute by Johnston Marklee

2018-11-08T18:08:00-05:00

Placed at the heart of the historic Menil Collection in Houston, Johnston Marklee's long-anticipated Menil Drawing Institute opened to the public last Saturday. As the fifth art building to be constructed on the iconic 30-acre campus, the approximately 30,000 square-foot Menil Drawing Institute showcases the expansive drawing collection of Dominique and John Menil. Johnston Marklee collaborated with landscape architects Michael Van Valkenburgh Associates on the $40 million project.

The Menil Drawing Institute is the first facility of its kind to be dedicated to the acquisition, study, exhibition, conservation, and storage of modern and contemporary drawings. Designed at an intimate scale, the MDI has a low-lying, elongated form that not only complements its park-like surroundings and nearby historic structures, but also signals potential future growth.

Open for less than a week, the MDI has received generally positive reactions so far. “[Johnston Marklee has] succeeded brilliantly, ...

First look at Johnston Marklee's Menil Drawing Institute, due to open next month

2018-10-11T18:15:00-04:00

Slated to open next month, Houston's new Menil Drawing Institute will become the country's first art institution dedicated solely to drawing. “For many artists, historically, drawing was an end in and of itself. To have an entire building devoted to [drawing] says something to the general public," Menil director Rebecca Rabinow told the Wall Street Journal Magazine, which will be featuring an exclusive first look at the building in its October issue.

Plans for the new museum building, designed by Johnston Marklee, were announced back in 2012 to coincide with the collection's 25th anniversary. The Los Angeles based architecture firm beat out David Chipperfield, SANAA and Tatiana Bilbao to receive the hotly sought-after commission.

Jonston and Lee's new building sits on the 30-acre campus, meant to house the large drawing collection Dominique and John Menil have amassed over several decades. The new Drawing Institute will accompany the original Renzo Piano-designed museum, which rec...

Post-Harvey Houston reopens its museums

2017-09-06T14:22:00-04:00

As aid workers and Texans begin to take stock of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Harvey, museums across Houston, the fourth biggest city in the country and one of the areas hardest hit by the storm, are starting to reopen. Gary Tinterow, the director of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), announced Friday that the institution would partially reopen on Tuesday 5 September with free admission through Thursday, 7 September. He offered the museum “as a place for reflection and renewal.”

While a leisurely visit to the museum may not be on the minds right now of Houston residents hit the hardest by Hurricane Harvey, reopening its cultural institutions is an important first step for the city to start the long process of recovery and breathe new life into the civic spirit.

Architecture Research Office to update the Rothko Chapel

2016-10-25T14:09:00-04:00

The Rothko Chapel in Houston, a masterpiece of midcentury architecture, houses 14 panels by the revered artist Mark Rothko. But the Chapel is in need of some TLC, from fixing the HVAC system to improving the lighting. The New York-based office Architecture Research Office (ARO) has been selected to oversee the renovations.

In addition to bringing the mechanics of the Chapel up-to-date, ARO will retool the entrance vestibule and renovate the Chapel’s skylight. They will also design a master plan, which will include modifications to an outdoor plaza and a reflecting pool that contains the Barnett Newman sculpture “Broken Obelisk”. The master plan also includes several nearby bungalows.

ARO has a proven track record when it comes to light-weight, highly-sensitive restoration projects. Back in 2013, they renovated a 19th century cast-iron warehouse used by Donald Judd as his studio and home until his death in 1994. While extensive renovations were required, ARO updated the building with ...

Review: Menil design by L.A.'s Johnston Marklee is deceptively simple

2014-02-20T17:10:00-05:00

Sharon Johnston, who runs the Los Angeles firm Johnston Marklee & Associates with her husband Mark Lee, told me a couple of years ago that there was one key difference between their work and the mannered, loosely flamboyant designs of Thom Mayne, Frank Gehry, Eric Owen Moss and other famous L.A. architects a generation or two older [...] Now that the firm’s design for a new building on the campus of the Menil Collection art museum in Houston has been unveiled, it’s easier to see what she meant.

Previously: In 25th anniversary year, Menil Collection names architect for initial expansion into neighborhood

Menil Collection hires Michael Van Valkenburgh to enhance Houston campus

2013-06-12T18:51:00-04:00

The appointment signals the start of implementing the Menil’s master plan for its “neighborhood of art,” which consists of six buildings devoted to art spread across several blocks, as well as outdoor sculptures, green spaces and bungalows.

In 25th anniversary year, Menil Collection names architect for initial expansion into neighborhood

2012-06-11T15:20:00-04:00

Almost twenty-five years to the day after Dominique de Menil and architect Renzo Piano celebrated the opening of the central museum building of the Menil Collection, Director Josef Helfenstein announced that the Board of Trustees has unanimously chosen the Los Angeles -based architecture firm Johnston Marklee to design the Menil Drawing Institute, the first major building project to be initiated under an ambitious plan for the institution’s future.

UPDATE: Review: Menil design by L.A.'s Johnston Marklee is deceptively simple

Menil Collection plans new building for Drawing Institute; four architecture firms named as finalists

2012-04-13T15:47:00-04:00

Four finalists have emerged from the Menil Collection's extensive international search to select an architect to design its Menil Drawing Institute (MDI), the first major project to be built as a part of the museum's long-range master plan.

After several years of site visits, careful research and thoughtful interviews, the Menil's architecture selection committee has announced a short list of long-established and newly-emerging architectural firms:

Tatiana Bilbao — up-and-coming Mexico City architect with a number of high-profile projects under her belt, including a building co-designed with artist Gabriel Orozco
David Chipperfield Architects — renowned London-based firm behind the Menil's 2009 master plan as well as the stunning Figge Art Museum in Iowa
Johnston Marklee — design duo from Los Angeles known for its ultramodern nods to architectural history
SANAA — Tokyo-based designers behind the Toledo Museum of Art's Glass Pavilion and winners of the 2010 Pritzker Prize