30 June 2011

Architectural Landmark #3: The Museum of Fine Arts Houston Caroline Weiss Law Building

This is it ladies and gentlemen, our final stop before downtown. The Caroline Weiss Law Building at the internationally renowned Museum of Fine Arts Houston. The building is one of only 2 museums designed by legendary architect Mies van der Rohe and contains the only theater he designed.

The museum's original building was designed in 1924 by William Ward Watkin in the popular Neoclassical style. In 1953, the MFAH commissioned Mies van der Rohe to create a master plan for the institution. He designed two additions to the building—Cullinan Hall, completed in 1958, and the Brown Pavilion, completed in 1974. A renowned example of the International Style, the Caroline Wiess Law Building is one of only two Mies-designed museums, and includes the only Mies-designed movie theater, in the world.

The grand, open galleries of the Law Building provide an ideal space to exhibit the museum's collection of 20th- and 21st-century artworks. The Law Building is also a multicultural showcase, housing dazzling installations of Oceanic art, Asian art, Indonesian gold artifacts, and Pre-Columbian and sub-Saharan African artworks. Of special interest is the Glassell Collection of African Gold, the greatest assemblage of gold objects in the world.

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