The landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh has been appointed to enhance and expand the Menil Collection’s 30-acre campus in Houston, the museum is to announce Thursday.
“It’s always a challenge to take a landscape that has evolved incrementally and a landscape that has a subtle and modest character and to somehow succeed in improving it,†Mr. Van Valkenburgh said in an interview. “It’s not something that needs to be reinvented.â€
Projects by Mr. Van Valkenburgh’s firm include the redesign of Pennsylvania Avenue at the White House, Brooklyn Bridge Park and Hudson River Park in New York City and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.
The appointment signals the start of the Menil’s master plan for its urban “neighborhood of art,†an enclave of museum buildings, green spaces, and bungalows. Site preparation for the first phase of the design is expected to begin in September.
The master site plan, by David Chipperfield Architects, calls for the creation of additional green space and walkways, new visitor amenities such as a cafe and new buildings for art.
“The feeling here of appreciating art is closely tied to the experience of crossing a green space under our magnificent trees as you go from one gallery building to another,†Josef Helfenstein, the museum’s director, said in a statement.
The museum’s existing building and Cy Twombly Gallery are both by Renzo Piano.
