[Urbannizer]

steven holl-designed 'kinder building' for the museum of fine arts, houston prepares to open

the museum of fine arts, houston (MFAH) has announced that its new building — the ‘nancy and rich kinder building’ — will open to the public on november 21, 2020. designed by steven holl architects, the latest addition to the institution’s ‘sarofim campus’ is dedicated to presenting works from the museum’s international collections of modern and contemporary art. it will open with the first comprehensive installation of these works, drawn from the collections of latin american and latino art; photography; prints and drawings; decorative arts, craft, and design; and modern and contemporary art.

designed by steven holl architects, the trapezoidal concrete ‘kinder building’ is clad with vertical glass tubes that emit a soft glow at night in a pattern across its façades. five rectangular courtyard pools are inset along the perimeter, emphasizing the building’s openness to its surroundings. ‘light enters the kinder building through the ‘luminous canopy’ of its roof, modeled on the billowing clouds of the texas sky, and light emerges from the cladding of soft-etched translucent glass tubes, whose glowing presence at night will add to the impact of the campus as a civic experience for all of houston,’ explains steven holl.