Steven Holl Architects: Nancy and Rich Kinder Building in Houston

Studio Steven Holl Architects has extended the Nancy and Rich Kinder Museum in Houston, Texas. The extension is characterized by its permeability and opens up the first floor at all heights. Read more about it here.

The museum extension was commissioned by the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston. Steven Holl Architects designed new exhibition spaces, galleries, seven garden courtyards, a 215-seat theater, conference rooms, a restaurant overlooking the sculpture garden, a café, two pedestrian tunnels and an arrival hall in front of the parking lots. The three-storey forum will open up the first floor of the museum at all levels.

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston (MFAH) is located in the Museum District of the Texas city. Since the recently completed renovations, which include the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building that opened in 2020, it is now the 12th largest art museum in the world by exhibition space. The museum’s permanent collection spans over 6,000 years of history and features around 70,000 works from six continents.

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building is open to the museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art. It is the third MFAH gallery building designed by Steven Holl Architects. The New York-based architecture firm was instrumental in the eight-year project to expand and improve the museum’s Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus. The Kinder Building presents an interesting contrast, as it looks much more modern and unusual than the existing gallery buildings. With its curved forms, the work engages in a dialog with the adjacent Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden.

The architecture of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building is characterized by a porous permeability. It makes it possible to open up the first floor of the building at all heights. Seven gardens structure the building and mark entrances. They also help to structure the façades. The largest garden courtyard is located on the corner of Bissonnet and Main Street. It marks the central entrance to the new campus.

The large entrance hall of the new children’s building opens up views of gardens in four directions. The new building is also designed to create a welcoming energy and a sense of openness and community. To this end, the new first floor has become a social space that is open to all. The space is longer and more open than the two gallery floors above. The entrance hall is adjoined by a restaurant, a café and further galleries. Both the Brown Foundation Plaza and the Glassell roof garden are suitable for performances, events or special exhibitions.

The wide Texan sky spans the children’s building and was deliberately incorporated into the design by the architects. The concave curves of the building are reminiscent of cloud circles. They visually push the roof geometry downwards and dose natural light to illuminate the galleries from above. At the same time, the undersides of the curved ceiling act as natural light reflectors, capturing the light and directing it into the galleries.

Overall, this creates an organic impression that is closely related to the lush vegetation of the museum and the water on the new campus. The light is organic and flowing. It therefore blends in perfectly with the movement of the galleries. All galleries have natural light and are designed to be flexible and open. They are arranged around an open forum and offer views into the seven gardens with their green trellises and shady areas. A stepped ramp and elevators connect the foyer to the gallery levels and provide direct access to all galleries. With glass as the main element, the Kinder Building offers a new material for the MFAH, which is otherwise made of stone and steel.

Read more: The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art in Los Angeles is another example of a state-of-the-art museum building in the USA.