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Kimbell Art Museum Commences Construction on Plano Designed Building

On Monday, October 18, 2010, the Kimbell Art Museum begian site preparation for the construction of its much-anticipated additional building, designed by Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW).

A separate structure located to the west of the existing building by Louis I. Kahn, the new facility will allow the Kimbell for the first time to exhibit most of its permanent collection while hosting major special exhibitions. It will also provide studios and classrooms to better serve the museum’s education programs, and feature an approximately 300-seat auditorium that will have excellent acoustics for music.


South East View

“We are thrilled to get this project started,” commented Eric M. Lee, director of the Kimbell Art Museum. “It is an important moment in the history of the Museum and our community.”

During this preparatory phase of the building process, workers will install a fence and erosion controls, and relocate the utilities currently along Will Rogers Road. Trees and shrubs, many of which are unhealthy or are nearing the end of their life expectancy, will be removed. Later in the building program there will be a complete replanting and landscaping, the details of which have yet to be finalized. The low travertine wall located in front of the Kahn building’s yaupon-holly court will be removed during the preparatory phase but will be replaced exactly as before.

The Piano-designed museum building is scheduled to open in 2013. The Kimbell’s Louis Kahn structure will remain open throughout construction.

Kimbell Art Museum
The Kimbell Art Museum, owned and operated by the Kimbell Art Foundation, is as renowned for its collections as for its architecture. The Kimbell’s collections range in period from antiquity to the 20th century, including European masterpieces from Fra Angelico, Michelangelo, and Caravaggio to Cézanne and Matisse, and important collections of Egyptian, Near Eastern, Greek, and Roman antiquities, as well as Asian, Mesoamerican, and African arts.

The Museum possesses a core of works that not only epitomize their eras and styles, but also touch individual high points of aesthetic beauty and historical importance that assure them a place among the masterpieces of world art.

www.kimbellart.org

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