Kendall/Heaton Associates

The Center for Conservation addition will transform the existing garage on the eastern campus perimeter into a pivotal portal to the MFAH campus from the east and strengthen the urban fabric with a new lobby and café on Fannin Street.  The Center will unite the now separate Painting, Sculpture & Textiles, Decorative Arts, Paper, and Photography Conservation studios and Science department to better serve the museum collections and curatorial efforts.  The one-story addition above the existing garage will house the Conservation studios in a succession of east/west oriented sheds which will capture daylight.  The east/west sheds will have north facing clerestories which distribute indirect natural light throughout the studios.  The flat roofed bays between the sheds will contain the critical conservation lab support spaces which will serve the studios. The Binz Street façade will put conservation studios on display in a projecting glass bay which hovers above the new lobby and Café.