Caroline Wiess Law, heiress of the Humble Oil fortune, bequeathed her estate to the Museum of Fine Arts Houston—to the tune of a $450 million endowment (link courtesy of MAN). "[T]here will not be as much pressure on the operating budget to build the new building as there was on the budget when we built the Beck building" is putting it lightly; as Tyler notes, they'll surely be bringing on a "starchitect." So long as the MFAH doesn't end up Gehrified, this is absurdly cool news.
Posted by Kriston at February 16, 2005 1:14 PMMy understanding is the new building will probably go across the street from the Law building (which was designed by Meis van der Rohe). Given that building and the new Beck building, I doubt seriously that the new building would be particularly over-the-top. The Beck Building has only been open for five years, and it was a $125M effort. I think it's nice, though it should have been a much more significant building. Especially in a city that houses the Menil collection. My dream would be to bring back Renzo Piano for the new building.
There is a separate move afoot to get a building for Latin American art. Given the success of last year's Inverted Utopias show and this new bequest, I imagine that fundraising will not be as difficult as it would have been this time last year.
Posted by: 'stina at February 16, 2005 2:35 PMGehry himself is now apparently itching to do something new.
Word was he was hoping to spin his new style in Chicago on his new Pritzker Pavillion for Millennium Park.
Well, Dick Daley caught wind of this and brought the kibosh. They were paying for that Frank Gehry feeling and damned if he was going to accept anything less than a pale imitation of Bilbao.
Posted by: Dan at February 16, 2005 3:55 PM