The Open-Ended City by Kathryn Holliday

Author:Kathryn Holliday [Holliday, Kathryn E.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2019-02-15T16:00:00+00:00

4.9. Rafael Moneo, atrium to the Audrey Jones Beck wing of the Houston Museum of Fine Arts. RG23–635 01–018, MFAH Archives.

Locating the main galleries on the top floor, where they can take advantage of natural light, was shrewd. They are the heart of the building and the climax of the narrative. Yet the farther one gets from the galleries, the less compelling the museum becomes. Except for the Main Street facade, with its reflecting pool and canopy of mature live oak trees, the exterior is stiff and uninspiring. Even the luscious bronze doors and panels, like slabs of Godiva chocolate, are not enough to make it memorable.

Mr. Moneo defends his introspective approach by saying that Houston is a car city and a semitropical city, where nobody walks and nature can be enjoyed only indoors.

“Air conditioning is what allows you to recover nature here,” he says. “This is not an Islamic garden. You need to be protected from the wet atmosphere.”

He has accommodated the automobile with a long porte cochere along Main Street and a combination visitor center and parking garage on Fannin. Visitors who park at the center will buy their tickets in the lobby, then follow an underground tunnel into the museum.

The lobby is pleasant for a garage but not nearly special enough for the entrance to a major museum. And the tunnel is dreary except for a tour de force light installation by James Turrell. Located midway between the Beck Building and the original, it marks the transition from old masters to contemporary art, from the depiction of light to the direct experience of it.

For all its interior richness, the Beck Building is going to take some getting used to. Unlike many new art museums, it is not a piece of sculpture. It does not do pirouettes or deconstruct on the sidewalk. It is a rather old-fashioned box in which the container is less significant than its contents. For a city that likes to live on the edge, nearly out of control, such sobriety may come as a surprise—but a healthy one.

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