Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth

Related person

Tadao Ando (architect)

Date

1999;2002 (opened)

Location

North and Central America->United States->Texas (TX)->Fort Worth

Description

The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth is the oldest art museum in Texas, first chartered (under another name) in 1892; the new building opened in Fort Worth Cultural District (which also includes the Kimbell Art Museum and the Amon Carter Museum) on December 14, 2002. The new Modern features 53,000 square feet of gallery space, a 5,600-square-foot education center, and a state-of-the-art auditorium. Five long, flat-roofed pavilions appear to float atop the 1.5-acre reflecting pond. Cantilevered cast-concrete roofs support linear skylights and clerestory windows, which accommodate natural light. Five Y-shaped columns standing 40 feet high support the roof slabs, and have become a symbol of the museum. The museum is two storeys tall throughout.
"Massive planar walls of architectural concrete boldly express the Modern's basic structure while protecting the collection within. Forty-foot-high transparent walls of glass framed in metal surround the concrete envelope, providing magnificent public circulation areas from which to view the surrounding building, the large reflecting pond, outdoor sculpture, and the landscaped grounds.
The desire to use diffused and reflected natural light within the gallery spaces was a major influence on the building's design. Immense cantilevered cast-concrete roofs shade the building's exterior and accommodate the introduction of natural light into the gallery spaces by supporting sophisticated systems of continuous linear skylights and clerestory windows. Supporting the concrete roof slabs are five forty-foot-tall concrete Y-shaped columns.
By day, the Modern's setting on eleven naturally landscaped acres, including an outdoor sculpture garden and terrace and a large reflecting pond at the building's edge, provides a restful complement to the building's architectural strength. By night, with the concrete walls bathed in an even glow of light, the transparent glass-and-steel galleries appear as large lanterns floating on and reflected in the pond."

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