Before this building, Americans knew Yoshio Taniguchi for his renovation of the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Asia Society Texas, opened April 14, 2012, was his first freestanding building in the country, and the materials are the show. The walls are Jura limestone from Germany, fossil-flecked and warm; quarriers cut 470 blocks to find 50 good enough. The grand hall is paneled from a single cherry tree more than a century old. Upstairs, the Louisa Stude Sarofim Gallery hosts two or three exhibitions a year of traditional and contemporary Asian and Asian American art, and the Explore Asia exhibition fills the North Gallery. Step out to the water garden terrace: 12,000 gallons of recirculating water, three spouts and bursts of artificial fog, with downtown framed by oaks beyond. In the sculpture garden sits Lee Ufan's Relatum - signal, his first commissioned work for a U.S. public institution.
What to expect
- Enter the lot across Southmore from Caroline Street or Austin Street.
- Museum District street meters have a four-hour limit; pay through ParkHouston.
- Photos are welcome; no flash, tripods or selfie sticks.
- Free bike racks sit in the lot's southeast corner, at Southmore and Austin.
What to do
- Sit on the second-floor water garden terrace and wait for the fog and water spouts to switch on
- See the current show in the Louisa Stude Sarofim Gallery
- Find Lee Ufan's Relatum - signal in the Allen Sculpture Garden
- April 14, 2012Opened
- Yoshio TaniguchiArchitect
- 40,000 sq ftSize
- 12,000 gallonsWater garden