Designed by the Renzo Piano Building Workshop of Genoa/Paris/New York and Kendall/Heaton Associates of Houston, the highly anticipated expansion of the Kimbell Art Museum opens on Wednesday, November 27, 2013.
The $135 million, 101,130-square-foot colonnaded pavilion by Renzo Piano stands as an expression of simplicity and lightness—glass, concrete and wood—65 yards to the west of the signature cycloid-vaulted museum of 1972 by Louis I. Kahn.
Glimpsed from the portico of the Kahn Building, the highly energy-efficient two-part structure gives the impression of weightlessness: its recessed glass entrance is centered between crisp concrete walls; a wafer-thin layer of glass hovers over its louvered roof system; and enormous overhanging wood beams appear to float above the exterior walls.
Appearing for the first time in a Renzo Piano–designed building are galleries with smooth concrete walls and coupled wood ceiling beams. Twenty-nine pairs of these 100-foot-long Douglas Fir beams extend throughout the whole length of the front or east wing—jutting through the south gallery, entry lobby, and north gallery before coming to rest on exterior concrete columns. This wood beam structure supports the louvered roof system that controls the flow of sunlight into the building.
Two glazed outdoor walkways connect the simply expressed and luminous east wing with the rearmost building section, which is sheltered beneath a green roof. Here, a gallery designed for light-sensitive works is set partially underground and walled in lustrous concrete, its only window offering a dramatic view up a stepped ascent.
The pavilion's greatest surprise lies in the west wing: an auditorium with bright-red, raked seating plunges below ground to the stage, which is set against the backdrop of a deep and broad light well animated by shifting patterns of natural illumination.
Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell, noted: "In its marshaling of light and materials, human scale, and tripartite plan and elevation, the Piano Pavilion provides a 21st-century counterpoint to Kahn's classic modern masterwork."
View from the southwest at night, Renzo Piano Pavilion, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert LaPrelle
South view, Renzo Piano Pavilion and Louis Kahn Building, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert LaPrelle
Interior view of south gallery, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Interior view of south gallery, looking out to the lawn, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Roof detail, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Detail of concrete gallery wall, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Auditorium, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Auditorium, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Auditorium, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Detail of roof and beam system, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
View of facade looking south, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
View of facade looking south, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
View of facade looking south, Renzo Piano Pavilion, September 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
South gallery, Renzo Piano Pavilion, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
View from south gallery looking north, Renzo Piano Pavilion, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
South gallery, Renzo Piano Pavilion, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Grand staircase, Renzo Piano Pavilion, October 2013. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas. Photo by Robert Polidori
Piano Building sketch, 2008. © Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Renzo Piano on the west portico of the Kahn Building, 2008. Photo by Robert LaPrelle. © Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Related Stories
| Nov 16, 2010
CityCenter’s new Harmon Hotel targeted for demolition
MGM Resorts officials want to demolish the unopened 27-story Harmon Hotel—one of the main components of its brand new $8.5 billion CityCenter development in Las Vegas. In 2008, inspectors found structural work on the Harmon didn’t match building plans submitted to the county, with construction issues focused on improperly placed steel reinforcing bar. In January 2009, MGM scrapped the building’s 200 condo units on the upper floors and stopped the tower at 27 stories, focusing on the Harmon having just 400 hotel rooms. With the Lord Norman Foster-designed building mired in litigation, construction has since been halted on the interior, and the blue-glass tower is essentially a 27-story empty shell.
| Nov 16, 2010
Where can your firm beat the recession? Try any of these 10 places
Wondering where condos and rental apartments will be needed? Where companies are looking to rent office space? Where people will need hotel rooms, retail stores, and restaurants? Newsweek compiled a list of the 10 American cities best situated for economic recovery. The cities fall into three basic groups: Texas, the New Silicon Valleys, and the Heartland Honeys. Welcome to the recovery.
| Nov 16, 2010
Landscape architecture challenges Andrés Duany’s Congress for New Urbanism
Andrés Duany, founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, adopted the ideas, vision, and values of the early 20th Century landscape architects/planners John Nolen and Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr., to launch a movement that led to more than 300 new towns, regional plans, and community revitalization project commissions for his firm. However, now that there’s a societal buyer’s remorse about New Urbanism, Duany is coming up against a movement that sees landscape architecture—not architecture—as the design medium more capable of organizing the city and enhancing the urban experience.
| Nov 16, 2010
Just for fun: Words that architects use
If you regularly use such words as juxtaposition, folly, truncated, and articulation, you may be an architect. Architects tend to use words rarely uttered during normal conversations. In fact, 62% of all the words that come out of an architects mouth could be replaced by a simpler and more widely known word, according to this “report.” Review this list of designer words, and once you manage to work them into daily conversation, you’re on your way to becoming a bonafide architect.
| Nov 16, 2010
NFRC approves technical procedures for attachment product ratings
The NFRC Board of Directors has approved technical procedures for the development of U-factor, solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), and visible transmittance (VT) ratings for co-planar interior and exterior attachment products. The new procedures, approved by unanimous voice vote last week at NFRC’s Fall Membership Meeting in San Francisco, will add co-planar attachments such as blinds and shades to the group’s existing portfolio of windows, doors, skylights, curtain walls, and window film.
| Nov 15, 2010
Gilbane to acquire W.G. Mills, Inc.
Rhode Island-based Gilbane Building Company announced plans to acquire W.G. Mills, Inc., a construction management firm with operations based in Florida. The acquisition will dramatically strengthen Gilbane’s position in Florida’s growing market and complement its already established presence in the southeast.
| Nov 11, 2010
Saint-Gobain to make $80 million investment in SAGE Electrochromics
Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest glass and construction material manufacturers, is making a strategic equity investment in SAGE Electrochromics to make electronically tintable “dynamic glass” an affordable, mass-market product, ushering in a new era of energy-saving buildings.
| Nov 11, 2010
Saint-Gobain to make $80 million investment in SAGE Electrochromics
Saint-Gobain, one of the world’s largest glass and construction material manufacturers, is making a strategic equity investment in SAGE Electrochromics to make electronically tintable “dynamic glass” an affordable, mass-market product, ushering in a new era of energy-saving buildings.
