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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...

“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...

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