Menil Expansion Close To Finish

Finish work continues on the interior of the building, with completion anticipated in July, 2017.  The design, by Johnston Marklee, shields sensitive works on paper from natural light, while at the same time filling the common areas of the building with carefully modulated sunlight.  Two square, open-roofed, landscaped courtyards serve as entrances – one on the west end of the building and one on the east, while a third courtyard creates a ‘scholars cloister’ on the building’s north side. A large space referred to as the ‘living room’ functions as both a circulation spine and gathering place.  On the south side, the space opens into exhibition galleries.    

The new 30,000-square-foot, $40 million Menil Drawing Institute is the fifth building on the Menil’s 30-acre campus.  The building is centrally sited within the campus and will become an important part of the Menil’s neighborhood of art buildings, surrounded by green spaces and placed at the center of new pedestrian paths.  Constructed on a footprint of 17,000 square feet and rising to a height of 16 feet, the Menil Drawing Institute is midway in size between the mostly residential bungalows that encircle the Menil campus and the more substantial architecture of the main museum building.