When it first opened on campus in 2006, the Blanton Museum of Art was tucked away like a secret. It had one entrance, which directly faced its companion building that held offices and classrooms. Long sidewalks shaded by trees secluded it from the rest of campus, and a path led visitors out onto Martin Luther […]
View from MLK Jr. Blvd. looking north toward the Faulkner Gateway and
Austin by Ellsworth Kelly, with the Edgar A. Smith Building on left and the Mari and James A. Michener Gallery Building on right North view through the Faulkner Gateway toward Ellsworth Kelly’s
Austin. Left: Edgar A. Smith Bldg.; right: Mari & James A. Michener Gallery Bldg. (Courtesy of Blanton Museum of Art)
Being inside the Blanton Museum is a great experience.
Getting inside the Blanton is, well, less of one.
If you re like most museum visitors, you come out of the University of Texas Brazos garage – your closest parking option – only to face the Blanton s backside, distinguished chiefly by its loading dock. So you have to walk around the building to reach the entrance. Going left puts you on a narrow sidewalk between whizzing traffic on MLK Jr. Boulevard and the campus unwelcoming southern wall. Going right offers a more pastoral setting and an enticing view of Ellsworth Kelly
Centered on the Moody Patio, a gathering space between the existing structures, the proposal generates “
15 elegant, petal-shaped structures, creating a shade canopy at the southern edge of the Blanton’s campus”. Inspired by the initial vault-design of the museum, the addition will create a visual identity for Blanton. Changing the experience of visitors, the new architectural elements will highlight accesses. In addition, “
to amplify the Blanton’s popular and innovative music programming, the design incorporates two raised platforms on the Moody Patio to stage live music and other performances”.
The Blanton holds a prominent place at the intersection of the new Texas Capitol Complex, and it also serves as the gateway to the university campus. Our inventive landscape and reimagined building entrances fulfill that promise. Snøhetta’s design expands the museum’s world-class art collection beyond the museum’s galleries and creates a highly visible public place of