Blanton Museum of Art
A new cultural nexus in Austin
2018–2023
Introduction
Snøhetta has created a comprehensive grounds redesign for The Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin. The new grounds initiative unified and revitalized the museum campus across approximately 200,000 square feet, including two buildings and Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin. The project has created a new cultural nexus where Austin’s civic center meets the University of Texas campus.
Technical details
Blanton Museum of Art
Photo: Images by Casey Dunn
A series of architectural additions work together with public shade sculptures and a new landscape design to give the Blanton Museum of Art a bold new presence that reflects its artistic direction. The Blanton’s courtyard currently forms a gateway where Congress Avenue, the city’s main north-south axis, meets the main pedestrian spine of the UT campus.
Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin holds a place of pride on the museum’s northern side, while the Texas State Capitol is directly visible to the south across Martin Luther King Jr Boulevard. Snøhetta’s design unifies the museum campus with the city’s prominent avenue through a choreography of planting, geometry and art.
The museum’s landscape vision is defined by a series of new gardens and entry points that knit the grounds together with the streetscape and campus. From Congress Avenue, visitors now approach the courtyard under a canopy of dramatic petal sculptures which offer a threshold from the busy streetscape while framing Kelly’s Austin beyond.
With a climate future that will see more intense weather and drought, the project adapted the existing structures and landscapes for this change. Rising above the trees, a canopy of petal sculptures creates a shaded microclimate with dappled light that follows the sun. Standing 40 feet tall, each petal is made of perforated panels and spans 30 feet in diameter, equipped with drainage that moves water from the upper canopy through the column down to grade, allowing for infiltration and passive irrigation into the surrounding subgrade.
The perforations of the petals, while smooth on the exterior, are raised on the inside moving water toward the drainage system. Their curving outlines, inspired by the arched vaults of the loggia that outline the museum, help highlight views of Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin and the Capitol
The redesigned grounds include a new site-specific mural by renowned Cuban-American abstract painter Carmen Herrera that was commissioned by the Blanton. It is the first major public mural by Herrera. Sited on the interior wall under the Michener Gallery Building’s loggia, it spans the length of the building, with the museum’s entrance in the middle.
