The University of Texas at Dallas (UT Dallas) recently broke ground on the Crow Museum of Asian Art, the first phase of a new 12-acre cultural district on campus. The Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenæum will be an arts destination for students, faculty, and community.
Designed by global architecture and design firm Morphosis, the arts campus will create a new gateway to the university and include a performance hall, a museum for the traditional arts of the Americas, a central plaza, and a parking structure. The Athenaeum is part of a significant period of growth of the arts at UT Dallas, a school that has historically focused on science, engineering, technology, and business.
The cohesive and dynamic vision for the Athenæum is intended to establish UT Dallas as a cultural hub with outdoor features including landscaped gardens, tree-lined walkways, paved open spaces with benches and water features, an amphitheater, and public sculptures. The plan knits together the buildings within the Athenæum and provides important pedestrian connections to the rest of the campus.
The two-story, 68,000 sf Crow Museum, which includes 12,000 sf of contiguous outdoor space for programs and events, will be completed in Phase I in 2024. It will have 16,000 sf of flexible gallery space to display the collection’s diverse selection of Asian art with ancient and contemporary works from Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Myanmar, Nepal, Pakistan, Thailand, Tibet, and Vietnam. The museum will also house a state-of-the-art conservation lab, classroom spaces, administrative offices, and the Brettell Reading Room.
Another building, a two-story 53,000 sf performance hall, will include a 600-seat concert venue, practice rooms, choral and orchestra rehearsal rooms, to be constructed in Phase II. A two-story 50,000 sf museum for the traditional arts of the Americas will be completed in Phase III. A three-story 1,100-car parking structure with two levels above grade and one basement-level walk-out will serve the Athenæum and campus.
The three cultural buildings are designed with second floors that are larger than the ground floor, creating covered exterior spaces that can be used for studying, building entry, daytime and nighttime events and gatherings, performances, art display, and everyday campus life. Each building is clad with white precast concrete panels featuring a three-dimensional pattern created through an innovative process designed by Morphosis.
Building Team:
Owner: University of Texas at Dallas
Design architect: Morphosis
Architect of record: GFF
Design MEP Engineer: Buro Happold
MEP Engineer of Record: Campos Engineering
Structural engineer: Datum Engineers
General contractor/construction manager: The Beck Group
Related Stories
| Jul 19, 2013
Reconstruction Sector Architecture Firms [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Stantec, HOK, HDR top Building Design+Construction's 2013 ranking of the largest reconstruction architecture and architecture/engineering firms in the U.S.
| Jul 19, 2013
Renovation, adaptive reuse stay strong, providing fertile ground for growth [2013 Giants 300 Report]
Increasingly, owners recognize that existing buildings represent a considerable resource in embodied energy, which can often be leveraged for lower front-end costs and a faster turnaround than new construction.
| Jul 2, 2013
LEED v4 gets green light, will launch this fall
The U.S. Green Building Council membership has voted to adopt LEED v4, the next update to the world’s premier green building rating system.
| Jul 1, 2013
Report: Global construction market to reach $15 trillion by 2025
A new report released today forecasts the volume of construction output will grow by more than 70% to $15 trillion worldwide by 2025.
| Jun 28, 2013
Building owners cite BIM/VDC as 'most exciting trend' in facilities management, says Mortenson report
A recent survey of more than 60 building owners and facility management professionals by Mortenson Construction shows that BIM/VDC is top of mind among owner professionals.
| Jun 25, 2013
Mirvish, Gehry revise plans for triad of Toronto towers
A trio of mixed-use towers planned for an urban redevelopment project in Toronto has been redesigned by planners David Mirvish and Frank Gehry. The plan was announced last October but has recently been substantially revised.
| Jun 25, 2013
DC commission approves Gehry's redesign for Eisenhower memorial
Frank Gehry's updated for a new Dwight D. Eisenhower memorial in Washington, D.C., has been approved by the Eisenhower Memorial Commission, reports the Washington Post. The commission voted unanimously to approve the $110 million project, which has been gestating for 14 years.
| Jun 5, 2013
USGBC: Free LEED certification for projects in new markets
In an effort to accelerate sustainable development around the world, the U.S. Green Building Council is offering free LEED certification to the first projects to certify in the 112 countries where LEED has yet to take root.
| Jun 3, 2013
Construction spending inches upward in April
The U.S. Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce announced today that construction spending during April 2013 was estimated at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of $860.8 billion, 0.4 percent above the revised March estimate of $857.7 billion.
| May 21, 2013
7 tile trends for 2013: Touch-sensitive glazes, metallic tones among top styles
Tile of Spain consultant and ceramic tile expert Ryan Fasan presented his "What's Trending in Tile" roundup at the Coverings 2013 show in Atlanta earlier this month. Here's an overview of Fasan's emerging tile trends for 2013.