Snøhetta's Blanton New Grounds redesign opens at the University of Texas at Austin

2023-05-25T12:20:00-04:00

A recently completed project from three alumni Snøhetta staffers at the University of Texas at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art has delivered an artistic intervention they say stands as a new gateway between the 51,000-student campus and its host city.

Principal and co-founder Craig Dykers, Managing Director Elaine Molinar, and Director John Newman, each School of Architecture graduates from the late-1980s, collaborated to enact a new canopy-like intervention that’s meant as a centerpiece to the museum’s $35 million Blanton New Grounds initiative.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

Their solution involved a series of 40-by-30-foot metallic shade structures formed in the shape of flower petals to create a canopy of the new landscaped garden entrance to the museum while also framing Ellsworth Kelly’s 2018 monumental stone Austin chapel on the Blanton’s Moody Patio.

Photo: Sloan Breeden Photography

The petals double as a rainwat...

Blanton Museum of Art: Snøhetta-designed New Grounds Initiative unveiled

2021-01-15T13:45:00-05:00

The Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin is planning a $35 million campus redesign led by the firm Snohetta. It will feature architectural and landscaping improvements throughout the museum’s 200,000-square-foot grounds like a dramatic biomorphic canopy redefining the entrance plaza as well as a public mural commission by the Cuban-American painter Carmen Herrera.

View of the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building, featuring the Moody Patio, Carmen Herrera mural, and inverted vault at the gallery entrance. Image courtesy of Blanton Museum of Art.

A virtual groundbreaking celebration will take place on February 18 with completion of the $35 million initiative expected in late 2022.

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Snøhetta's Blanton New Grounds redesign opens at the University of Texas at Austin

Blanton Museum of Art: Snøhetta-designed New Grounds Initiative unveiled