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
| May 2, 2013
First look: UC-Davis art museum by SO-IL and Bohlin Cywinski Jackson
The University of California, Davis has selected emerging New York-based practice SO-IL to design a new campus’ art museum, which is envisioned to be a “regional center of experimentation, participation and learning.”
| Apr 30, 2013
Tips for designing with fire rated glass - AIA/CES course
Kate Steel of Steel Consulting Services offers tips and advice for choosing the correct code-compliant glazing product for every fire-rated application. This BD+C University class is worth 1.0 AIA LU/HSW.
| Apr 26, 2013
Documentary shows 'starchitects' competing for museum project
"The Competition," a new documentary produced by Angel Borrego Cuberto of Madrid, focuses on the efforts of five 'starchitects' to capture the design contract for the new National Museum of Art of Andorra: a small country in the Pyrenees between Spain and France.
| Apr 24, 2013
Los Angeles may add cool roofs to its building code
Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa wants cool roofs added to the city’s building code. He is also asking the Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to create incentives that make it financially attractive for homeowners to install cool roofs.
| Apr 23, 2013
Architects to MoMA: Don't destroy Williams/Tsien project
Richard Meier, Thom Mayne, Steven Holl, Hugh Hardy and Robert A.M. Stern are among the prominent architects who on Monday called for the Museum of Modern Art to reconsider its decision to demolish the former home of the American Folk Art Museum.
| Apr 17, 2013
First look: Renzo Piano's glass-domed motion pictures museum
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences last week released preliminary plans for its $300 million Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences museum in Los Angeles, designed by Renzo Piano and local architect Zoltan Pali.
| Apr 11, 2013
American Folk Art Museum, opened in 2001, to be demolished
Just 12 years old, the museum designed by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien will be taken down to make way for MoMA expansion.
| Apr 2, 2013
6 lobby design tips
If you do hotels, schools, student unions, office buildings, performing arts centers, transportation facilities, or any structure with a lobby, here are six principles from healthcare lobby design that make for happier users—and more satisfied owners.
| Mar 22, 2013
8 cool cultural projects in the works
A soaring opera center in Hong Kong and a multi-tower music center in Calgary are among the latest cultural projects.
| Mar 15, 2013
AIA opposes House bill cutting Eisenhower Memorial funding
AIA opposes House bill cutting Eisenhower Memorial funding.
