At a news conference in New York in mid-February Los Angeles-based architecture firm Johnston Marklee presented its design for the Menil Drawing Institute (MDI), a freestanding addition to the Menil Collection’s 30-acre campus in Houston. The 30,000-square-foot structure will sit south of the Menil’s main museum building from 1987 and its Cy Twombly Gallery from 1995, both designed by Renzo Piano. Johnston Marklee will also design an Energy House, which will serve as the central utilities plant for the group of buildings.
Embedded in a leafy residential neighborhood, the campus is a mecca for art lovers and scholars and includes a building with a permanent light installation by Dan Flavin and the independent Rothko Chapel. The MDI will be the first freestanding facility in the United States dedicated to the exhibition, study, storage, and conservation of modern and contemporary drawings. And it will be the first new project at the Menil since David Chipperfield developed a master plan for the campus in 2009.
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