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.

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.

The petals double as a rainwater collection system in an artful reflection of nature. Two new vaulted entrances to the museum’s Michener Gallery Building compliment the loggia’s arches and curves of the petals. 

Four new immersive art installations will surround the petal installation, featuring works from Carmen Herrera, Bill Fontana, Gabriel Dawe, and muralist Kay Rosen. 

“Our inventive landscape and reimagined building entrances fulfill that promise,” Dykers said at the announcement. “Snøhetta’s design expands the museum’s world-class art collection beyond the museum’s galleries and creates a highly-visible public place of — and for — the arts in Austin.”

More information about the museum's redesign can be found on the Snøhetta website.