The Menil Breaks Ground On A One-Of-A-Kind Institute

According to the Chronicle, the Menil Collection (1533 Sul Ross) broke ground on an exciting new addition last Friday: The Menil Drawing Institute. The 30,000-square-foot project is the first new art building at the Menil in two decades and will be the first of its kind in the country. The Institute will be used for the “conservation, study, exhibition and storage of works on paper.”

To preserve the delicate pieces stored and exhibited inside, the building’s design will provide for “mild, gradually decreasing daylight,” utilizing landscape architecture like oak trees and Texas persimmon as “sunlight controls.”

The newest addition will be located “southeast of the main museum,” and is part of a larger $40 million project envisioned in a 2009 master site plan.