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Twombly Gallery, Renio Piano Building Workshop, architect, wilh Richord Filzgeiald & Partners, associate architect, I f f 5 .

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The T w o m b l y G a l l e r y a n d

William F. Stern

he 1995 completion of the Twombly Foundation, founded by Dominique de sculpture drawn from the Menil and Dia the Order of St. Basil. The de Menils" TGallery in an early-20th-eentury Menil\ daughter Farina (Philippa) and collections, along with more than 33 architectural influence would first be Montrose neighborhood continues a con- her husband, Hciner Friedrich, owned works donated by the artist himself. The felt when they were asked by the univer- temporary pattern of building that was Twombly paintings and drawings collect- Menil took title of six paintings from Dia sity to assist in the selection of an archi- established with the in ed in the 1970s and additional pieces and in so doing helped the foundation ro tect for new buildings. Among those 1971. Like the Rothko and the nearby purchased for Dia in 1980. At the time purchase a building on West 22nd Street recommended, , who had Menil Collection, the Twombly Gallery nl ilu I womhb exhtbitic i i louston, in New York, across the street from the designed the de Menil house ill River is the result of an unusual three-way discussion began about a collaboration foundation's existing four-story loft Oaks in 1950, received the commission collaboration between artist, architect, between Dia and the Menil for a perma- building. When renovated, the new build- to draw a master plan for the St. Thomas and patron. nent Twombly installation in , ing will be used for single-artist installa- campus. The de Menils underwrote the For the 1987 opening of the Menil with a smaller installation in New York. tions drawn from Dia's collection, with costs of the master plan and soon became Collection, the collection's founder, In fall 1990, Paul Winkler, Dominique de part of one floor designated tor a perma- actively involved in helping to form a 1 , with the MeniTs Menil, and T.irth.i and I leiner Friedrich nent installation of works by 1 womhly. new art department for the university. first director, Walter Hopps, and its cur- visited Twombly at his home in Rome With this determined, in November 1991 Fashioning his plan after "Thomas rent director, Paul Winkler, had hoped to solicit his support for the project. the Renzo Piano Building Workshop in Jefferson's academic village at the Uni- to mount an exhibition of paintings and Twombly was receptive, producing a Genoa began to develop a design for the versity ot Virginia, Johnson proposed .1 drawings by the American arrist Cy conceptual sketch that would later I u tmiblj (iallei \ in 1 louston. series of two-story block buildings laid out around an elongated court, intercon- Twombly. Nor until 19S9, however, was become the h.isis lnr the Twombly Thirty-five years earlier, in the mid- nected by a U-shaped covered walkway. such an exhibition presented. The Menil Gallery plan. He also offered to give 1950s, John and Dominique de Menil The design, a boldly modern composition Collection already owned works by works he owned to both spaces. The Dia came to the neighborhood that would nl exposed blac k steel frames inset w nil Twombly, and for the exhibition these and Menil representatives agreed that a eventually house their extensive collection panels of dusty-colored brick and floor- were augmented by paintings and draw- new building would be constructed in of art through their association with the tu-cciling glass, demonstrated Johnson's ings from the Ilia Art Foundation and I louston for a major installation of University of St. Thomas, a (latholic lib- allegiance to the international Style of from private collections. The Dia Art Twombly's paintings, drawings, and eral arts university founded by priests ot 17

Mies van der Rohe. Without upsetting houses are the Da Camera chamber music entrance, from Sul Ross, and the the balance and scale of the older neigh- society, Writers in the Schools, Texas secondare entrance, from llranard, are borhood, these buildings stood comfort- Accountants and Lawyers for the Arts, placed slightly off center, further dimin- ably among the picturesque bungalows, and Inprint, Inc., the fundraising and ishing symmetrical formality. While the frame houses, and live oaks, setting a promotional arm of the University of use of gray-stained cypress siding and pattern that would be adopted by a suc- f louston creative writing program. The white steel structure help relate the Menil cession of architects. bungalows and frame houses acquired a to the neighboring bungalows, it is the At the time of the St. Thomas master particular distinction and the neighbor- asymmetrical siring that moderates the plan, the area surrounding the campus hood was unified when the architect impact of the greater building mass on was in decline. The Montrose subdivision Howard Barnstone suggested painting [nironie la Twombly Gallery with Menil Collertion m o s t the the residential neighborhood. ilr«l. and its adjoining neighborhoods hail been all the houses a medium gray with white The Twombly Callery, located across developed In the teens on open farmland trim. Another Menil property, Richmond the street from the Menil on Hranard, by entrepreneurs intent upon providing I laII, located on Richmond one block bors at the edge of the University of St. strategically aligns with the 1920s bunga- modest middle-class housing. With its south of the Menil Collection, has been Thomas campus. lows to either side. Unlike the bungalows, tree-lined streets and parklike landscape, used as a supplementary exhibition The much larger building for the Menil with their eccentrically articulated gabled Montrose was typical of America's first space for the Mem! and most recently Collection, designed by Rcnz.o Piano and front porches, the gallery turns a blank suburbs. Restricted for residential use and for FotoFest. completed in 19K7 to house the de Menil wall to the street, its entrance rotated 90 planned with uniform building setbacks, The trio of cultural buildings art collection, follows .1 similar pattern of degrees to the east, facing onto a grassy the neighborhood had matured during tin- constructed within the neighborhood siting to produce a compatible relation- pla/a anchored by a single mature live 1920s into a harmonious pattern of one- between 1971 and 1995 shows similar ship with the smaller surrounding houses. oak. l.ike the siting of the Koihko story Craftsman bungalows and larger patterns of site pl.ilining and general Occupying an entire block, the rectangu- Chapel, a block down the street, tins two-story houses set among graceful live relationship to their surrounding neigh- lar building is asymmetrically positioned maneuver effectively mitigates the formal oaks. After World War II, as a younger borhood. The first, an ecumenical chapel on the site. By adjoining llranard on the impact of the entrance. By establishing generation sought housing in newer designed to house commissioned paint- south and Mandell on the west, the build- the movement from street to building suburbs, the planning restrictions in ings by the great American abstract ing leaves a wide expanse of lawn to the entrance through the private space of a Montrose and many of its surrounding pocket park, the experience becomes painter , was built by John north along Sul Ross, and a narrower neighborhoods lapsed, leaving the area relaxed and intimate. As the termination and Dominique de Menil to the west of space on the east that |oms with park vulnerable to apartment construction and of Mulberry Street, this space is also the University of St. Thomas between Sol space across Mulberry Street (see neigh- small-scale tomnierci.il development. linked to the two open spaces on either Ross and Branard, based on plans b) borhood plan). The building's main

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Paradoxically, the loss of the restrictions Philip Johnson, who had earlier been — W ALABAMA and the uniformity they maintained set in retained to design the chapel (then minion an unusual transformation of the intended for the south end of the St. neighborhood that continues to this day. Thomas mall I, the completed building During the 1950s and 1960s the de was designed by I toward Barnstone « in !>••: Menils began to acquire property west of and Kugene Aubry. Like the "Twombly the St. Thomas campus, at first for the Gallery, the Rothko Chapel is turned Si wis:- future expansion of the University of St. away Irom the street in favor of a self- Thomas and later for the building of contained site plan. Backing up closely what would become one of Houston's to Sul Ross on the north, this centrally P richest cultural enclaves. In retrospect, planned, octagoiialb shaped building

their activity in this neighborhood can faces a rectangular reflecting pool on axis I^VijLiV* also be seen as the first and most compre- with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk hensive program of historical preserva- and is screened from Hranard Street to the tion in a city that cared little about its south by a dense stand of bamboo (see building past. The majority of the bunga- neighborhood plan I. The main approach lows and houses acquired by the de to the entrance is from a side street, fcrmaM-L Menils in this period were saved. When Yupon, along a walkway that enters at new buildings were proposed, oldei hous mid-block and leads to a paved plaza es were often moved to new sites rather between the building and the reflecting Neighborhood Plan. than destroyed. Over the years, these pool. I Ins unconventional relationship "I Key: 1 KoTfika Chapel building to street effectively allows the houses have been rented at modest rates 2 Menil Collection to artists, scholars, and nonprofit organi- Rothko to stand both comfortably and 3 Iwomtily Gallery zations. Among the organizations leasing independently among its residential neigh 18

side of Mulberry, enhancing the parklike rower rectangulai volume foi the cnrr\ Menil, the logic of the plan and the clear Piano was confronted with an even more setting of the museum buildings, both the vestibule. Where the foyer of the Rothko sequence of spaces provides for an easily specific program of natural light for the Rothko Chapel and the Twombly Gallery is substantially closed, the foyer of the perceived path between galleries, with design of the Twombly Gallery. To are monumental masonry buildings, bare- Twombly Gallery, like that of the Menil subtle variations giving each a slightly achieve the appropriate levels and desired ly penetrated by windows or doors, bin Collection, opens to the outside through a different spatial quality. quality of light, the architect designed a because the formal relationship to the wall of glass and glass doors framed by a Beyond these planning and spatial roof system that filters light in stages street is played down, their mass does nor poured-concrete portal. On the opposite continuities, what most closely unites the through four screens placed over the disturb the delicate and informal fabric of side of the building, the required second Rothko Chapel, the Menil Collection, outer galleries, with opaque flat roofs the reMilfnii.il neighborhood. Although means of egress has been treated like the and the Twombly Gallery is the use of covering the center gallcn and the n u n the Twombly Gallery displaced one small entrance, opening through an identically overhead natural light as a means ot illu- vestibule. The uppermost layer of this house (which was tinned intaci to an framed glass wall to the outside. The minating spaces. From (he Rothko to the intriguing filtration system is manifested empty lot a few houses east on Branard), foyer itself occupies the center bay along Twombly Gallery one encounters a drive on the outside by a bright white steel tins laic -2()rh-century building is perfectly the three-bay width, with an archive to achieve perfect natural lighting, and canopy, supporting a mesh of fixed alu- at home with the Craftsman bungalows, room on one side and a service area and while the effect in each case is different, minum louvers, that appears to float over not through architectural style but stair to the basement mechanical rooms the results are equally astonishing. the building mass. While lighter and through compatible scale and thoughtful on the other. The vestibule might be com- The paintings and interior of the more delicate, the light-filtering louvered site relationships. pared to the porch of a Greek or Roman Rothko Chapel are illuminated from canopy makes friendly reference to the The Rothko Chapel and the Twombly temple, framed by a tripartite portal with a roof-mounted pyramidal skylight cen- white concrete baffles of the Menil Gallery also share certain internal plan- perfectly proportioned poured-concrete trally positioned over the chapel space. Collection across the street. But unlike the Menil, where the curved baffles arc ning strategies, particularly their simplici- columns and lintel standing in for an After the initial installation, it became exposed beneath the skylights, the lou- ty and directness of plan. A single gallery ordered Classical structure. Although apparent that too much direct sunlight vered canopy of the Twombly Gallery is space, the Rothko Chapel is centrally born and raised in Virginia, Twombly has came through the unprotected glass, and intentionally obscured on the inside. planned and is entered through a foyer spent the last 40 years in Italy, and many a cloth scrim was soon added underneath Beneath the canopy, a double-glazed, that serves as a threshold where visitors of his paintings make reference to the the glass pyramid. Later, to diffuse the clear-glass hipped roof seals the interior can pause before moving left or right into ancient world. Italian architect Renzo light further, the scrim was replaced by from the outside elements. Barely visible the ethereal volume occupied by Rothko's Piano has subtly incorporated references a concave baffle suspended beneath the from the outside, the glass roof has a panels of color, which are installed on to that world into the building, respecting skylight that allows light to drift in nickel coating to filter ultraviolet light four opposing walls of the octagonal a*, well the intentions behind the softly along its edges, delicately washing

room. At the Menil Collection the visitor Twomhly sketch that generated the plan. the paintings.1 in the range most harmful to art objects. also arrives into a receiving area, larger The entry foyer leads to eight separate The experience with natural light at the Beneath the glass roof and inside the in scale than the more intimate Rutlikn galleries laid out within the geometry of Rothko Chapel served as a lesson for the building, operable louvers supported by foyer and open to the outside. Through the nine-square grid. Taking advantage Menil Collection. Acknowledging over- a steel frame provide the third layer of the simple idea of a centrally planned of the multiple combinations inherent in head illumination as an ideal, though protection. Mechanically controlled and foyer with a transepting hallway that thai geometry, Piano designed one of the difficult to control, light source, Renzo operated with a light-sensitive photoelec- extends the length of the building and outer galleries as a double square to Piano designed a system that would accept tric cell, the louvers automatically adjust contains galleries on one side and a accommodate larger and longer paintings. natural light and at the same time diffuse their apertures according to changes in restricted service zone on the other. Piano All of the galleries save the center one the light as it entered the galleries. Ranks daylight. Directly below the mechanically assured a clarity of organization that open on two sides to adjacent galleries, of ferroconcrete baffles, suspended controlled louvers, a stretched cotton makes the expenenci ol the Menil build allowing uninterrupted circulation in beneath coated skylights, are angled to scrim fabricated by a Galveston sailmaker ing relaxed and unencumbered. The wide, either direction. Portal openings between filter sunlight from the north, providing tonus a celling and pro* ides the final graceful hallway, open on either end to galleries align but arc not necessarily a cool white glow that reflects into the layer of Piano's light-filtering sandwich. the outside light, connects the museum centered, creating variations in wall galleries, most strongly illuminating the For night lighting, custom-designed fix- interior to the lush greenery of i louston lengths to accommodate paintings ol south walls. This light is supplemented by tures attached to light tracks suspended and the neighborhood beyond. different horizontal dimensions. In the the expanse of glass openings at the from the steel frame discreetly poke through the cloth. The conceptual plan of rhe Twombly middle gallery facing west, on the oppo- entrance and either end of the wide hall- Gallery that originated from the sketch site side from the foyer, the space is way, by narrow slit windows along the I Ins technological tour de force pro- perimeter walls, and by light from an drawn by Cy Twombly during the early brightly illuminated through windows duces light virtually without shadow, a interior atrium on the east end of the planning discussions shows a rectangular and glass doors, producing a sensation so condition so rarely experienced that the building. The overall effect is a remark- block containing five connected galleries. dramatic that in moving into this gallery initial sensation is a kind of dizziness. able use of daylight to gently illuminate Piano significantly elaborated Twomhly's it is as if one lias actually stepped outside. The perfectly even natural light is differ- the art and, in Piano's words, "bring life coin epi In l.i\ ing i .in galleries H ithm This transitional space compares to the ent from the Mend's light, which varies to the space." plan based on a nine-square grid, adding Menil Collection, where one is constantly subtly, or the Rothko's, which changes in at one end of the building block a nar- brought to the outside. And like the Working with a single-artist gallery. intensity from top to bottom. As light 19

filters through the sailcloth it takes on a Johnson's St. Thomas buildings. Both Piano expressed the thickness of rhe warm tonality, filling the space with a architects utilized an exposed steel frame facing blocks w i t h a 5/4-inch joint, pro lantern-like glow that quietly varies when structure with in-fill panels, brick at St. ducinga finely scaled rectangular grid outside conditions shilt from clear to Thomas and horizontal cypress siding at derived f r o m the dimensions of the cloudy. The light softly reflects from the the Menil. Whereas Johnson was clearly block's face, 34 inches w i d e by 17 inches crisp plaster walls, providing near perfect influenced by the work of Mies van dcr tall. The w h i t e , louvercd metal canopy, illumination tor Twombly's paintings, Rohe, Piano, as architectural historian hovering over the block, provides a c o u n - particularly those with pale backgrounds Reyner I5.inh.im has observed, seems to terpoint to the heaviness of the masonry and intricate markings that weave in and have taken as his point of departure the structure and suggests the chamber w i t h - out of rhe surface. These paintings, subtle work ol California architect Craig in. By carrying the masonry materials in content and delicately expressed, are Ellwood and others who participated in into the foyer and adjacent side r o o m s , seen at their best in the airy, shadowless the Case Study Houses program of the the inside and outside are brought togeth- light that filters into the galleries. Appro- 1940s and 1950s.' But Piano goes far er at the entrance. The purity of the priately, paintings more vibrant in color beyond Johnson, whose 1950s design exterior is reiterated inside, where the and thicker in surface are displayed in seems almost imitative of Mies van der 15-foot-high rooms are finished w i t h the gallery on the opposite side of the Robe's buildings at Chicago's Illinois plaster walls that meet natural oak plank entrance, where filtered light is mixed Institute of Technology. For the M e n i l floors. Rooms fold into one another with daylight corning through windows Collection Piano designed an exception- through the w i d e , square portal openings and doors. Only the center gallery and ally innovative w o r k of architecture in the thick walls. W h i l e m o n o l i t h i c in the archive room next to the entrance, whose elegantly detailed steel frame, form, the building is graciously propor- both intended for the display of more painted w h i t e , embraces the gray-stained tioned and never overwhelmin g in scale, delicate works on paper, receive no day- cypress panels and supports the white fulfilling T w o m b l y ' s desire for a b u i l d i n g light. Selected galleries in the Menil ferroconcrete sun baffles, consciously that w o u l d be a timeless expression Collection are also closed to outside light joining the M e n i l to the neighboring o f architecture. and provided with controlled, often dra- bungalows by echoing their painted gray The collaboratio n that brought about matic, artificial lighting. It is no exaggera- clapboard and white t r i m . the "Twomhly Gallery fulfills an intention tion to claim that the lighting of the The T w o m h l y C i l l e r y and the M e n i l articulated 40 years earlier, when John Twomhly Gallery, particularly under Collection are composed ol simple and D o m i n i q u e de M e n i l began planning Exploded iiometrk: Twombly Gollwy.

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natural conditions, is as beautiful and boxlike forms, exquisitely put together the University of St. "Thomas campus to unusual as can be hoped for in any space with precise detailing and richness ol promote art and architecture as a source intended for rhe exhibition of art. material. But in the'Twombly Gallery, of cultural and civic enrichment. Taken While the Rothko, the Menil Piano departed from the expression of together, the St. Thomas campus, the Collection, and the Twombly Gallery the articulated frame, designing a build- Rothko Chapel, the Menil Collection, share essential qualities, the three build- ing dominated by mass and weight. I he and the Twombly Gallery in their neigh- ings are articulated as individual works of building is essentially a concrete-block borhood of historic bungalows and architecture, each building like a member structure with concealed perimeter modest houses form a place of lasting of a family in a shared precinct. Whereas poured-concrete columns and concealed significance, reminding us that a city at a campus of museum buildings singular m interior steel columns. The outer wall is its best is an evolving work of art. While Twombly Gallery Interior. style, material, and character would have made up of a double concrete-block wall privately planned and funded, this dominated the neighborhood, cash ol comprising an interior eight-inch-thick enclave is a viral center of Houston's these structures is a separate work, invest- block and a custom-cast six-inch block public realm. • ed with the inventive spirit of modern on the outside. C oncrete-block walls are architecture. Relating the Rothko Chapel often clad with another lacing material i Susan J, is.ii in-., Tl>e Rothko Chapel: An Act of huih [Houston: Kothko Chapel, l<*HM|, pp. 4J-4Z to the University ot St. Thomas, architects such as brick or stone, but Piano realized 1 Ibid., p. 84. Barnstone and Aubry adopted the same that concrete block could emulate the 1 Ki'ytKT Banham, "klnrhnt, EhHichkeit, richness ot stone without disguising its Einfachkeji .. and Wii Yon'.-. I In- ( .LM- Sunk light-colored, iron-spotted brick that Houses m the World's Eyes," m Elizabeth A. T. Johnson had selected in the 19511s tor the materiality. Both color and profile were Smith, BCL, Btnepfints fi>r Modern Livings History customized lor the precast outer blocks. ,wd L*gaey of the Case Slmlv Houses It jnilirid|>e: new buildings of the University of St. MIT I'ri-ss. I W ) | , p. l i i . Thomas. While separate from the cam While stone varies in color, the process of pus, the Rothko Chapel might appear to precasting yielded a uniform light sandy the stranger to be a part of the university. color, giving the building a singular reso- u Rcnzo Piano's building for the Menil nance. Departing from the flatness .\Di.\ Collection in some ways harks back to perceived thinness of stone cladding, 0 S 15 » Twombly Goffery Plon.