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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. — The New York Times
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... View full entry
Texas, one of the gems of the Southwest, offers beautiful landscapes and a one of a kind history. As far as notable buildings are concerned, Texas is home to Renzo Piano's Menil Collection, I.M. Pei's Dallas City Hall, and Tadao Ando's The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth. With structures as... View full entry
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... View full entry
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... View full entry
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will celebrate the inauguration of the Glassell School of Art this Sunday, May 20, marking the completion of the first phase of the museum's 14-acre redevelopment. The first phase also includes the BBVA Compass Roof Garden designed by Steven Holl Architects and... View full entry
The Transart Foundation for Art and Anthropology merges two fields not often associated with one another, supporting experimental work at the intersection of art and anthropology. Previously a nomadic space, the multidisciplinary institution recently found a permanent home in Houston, Texas, in a... View full entry
Though Harris County Judge Ed Emmett is the public official most closely tied to the salvation of the Astrodome, many private citizens have played important roles, too.
Without their many letters, petitions, documents and road trips – the tools of architectural preservation – Houston might have lost its most iconic building.
— Houston Chronicle
Houston Chronicle editor Allyn West retells the long and twisting tale of how the Astrodome went from designated wrecking-ball fodder to National Historic Landmark and the activism behind it. View full entry
Looks like Houston has a giant, shiny bean-shaped sculpture of its own now. Completing its two-day installation today, “Cloud Column” by Anish Kapoor — the same artist who created Chicago's infamous “Cloud Gate” — is the first of two sculptures on the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza at... View full entry
Houston recently gained a new music venue designed by SCHAUM/SHIEH, a small architectural collaboration operating between Houston and New York. The White Oak Music Hall is part of a whole cluster of music venues designed by the firm including The Lawn, and Raven Tower Pavilion. The Pavilion, a... View full entry
We can build homes to sit above flood waters so people can ride out the Harveys of the future, but it won’t be easy or cheap. [...]
More than a million people live in the 100- and 500-year flood zones across the Houston area, and hundreds of thousands more do in other U.S. cities, including Miami and New York. Harris County’s move conforms with the advice of building engineers, climate experts, and the insurance industry.
— Citylab
No other major metropolitan area in the U.S. has grown faster than Houston over the last decade, with a significant portion of new construction occurring in areas that the federal government considers prone to flooding.
But much of that new real estate in those zones did just fine, a Times analysis has found.
— Los Angeles Times
The City of Houston, notorious for its relative lack of zoning codes, did in fact take future flooding into account and mandated that new homes were to be built at least 12 inches above flood levels predicted by the federal government. "The 1985 regulation and others that followed," the LA Times... View full entry
The pitch-perfect paean to the only city we knew could have been taken straight from Exodus, or the Voluntary Prisoners of Architecture: The Avowal (1972) by Rem Koolhaas and Elia Zenghelis with Madelon Vriesendorp and Zoe Zenghelis [...] No wonder, then, that of all the images from this project, a photocollage of musicians posing in the “strip of intense metropolitan desirability” resonates with my memories of Houston and its eclectic punk scene. — Enrique Ramirez, Harvard Design Magazine
Inspired by the confusing yet formative years of adolescence, Harvard Design Magazine's “Seventeen” issue explores “teens of all sorts—humans, buildings, objects, ideas—and their impact on the spatial imagination”. In the poetic “Life Begins at the Apocalypse Monster Club” by... View full entry
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.”
— The Art Newspaper
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. View full entry
Houston calls itself “the city with no limits” to convey the promise of boundless opportunity. But it also is the largest U.S. city to have no zoning laws, part of a hands-off approach to urban planning that may have contributed to catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Harvey and left thousands of residents in harm’s way. — The Washington Post
Hurricane Harvey is drawing renewed scrutiny to Houston's 'Wild West' approach to planning and its unusual system for managing floodwater that, according to environmentalists, greatly diminishes land's natural ability to absorb water. While local officials have defended the city's take on... View full entry
Rain continues to fall in Houston, Texas, a city which may see up to 50 inches of precipitation over a span of five days thanks to the aftereffects of Hurricane Harvey. Unfortunately, the continued flooding has been exacerbated due to some decades-long, head-in-the-sand urban planning, the history... View full entry
