Jack S. Blanton Museum of Art
The University of Texas at Austin
Austin, Texas
120,000 Sq. Ft. Gallery Building Connected by a Tunnel to a 60,000 Sq. Ft. Building with Cafeteria, Bookstore and Administration for the Museum
$55 M
2006 Phase I
2008 Phase II

Architect: Booziotis & Company Architects
Design Architect: Kallmann McKinnell & Wood

The long-awaited Blanton Museum project broke ground in 2003 with a monumental design by designer Kallmann McKinnell & Wood.  These two buildings form a new gateway to the south face of the UT Austin campus, bookending Congress Avenue opposite the State Capitol 5 blocks away, and standing diagonally across from the new State History Museum.

The design features a grand scale building clad in native shell limestone with granite accents, and the requisite red-tile pitched roof.  It will house masterworks from the Suida-Manning collection of Baroque and Renaissance art, along with world-class collections of prints and drawings, a Latin American collection, and a contemporary/American gallery.

Natural light is an important design element, which challenged Datum's engineers to innovate a complex system of non-parallel alternating sawtooth steel trusses that allow light into the trapezoidal atrium.  Thorough coordination was required to marry the structure with the complex system of reflectors that diffuse light into the galleries.

A 25'-deep basement under the entire footprint houses the extensive mechanical systems.  A structural grid of 25' was selected for economy and regularity after an exhaustive framing selection process that investigated numerous systems with spans up to 80'.  Cast-in-place columns and wide pan joists frame the structure, which has 22' tall stories.  The floors were designed for a live load of 250 psf to accommodate forklifts and heavy artwork moving around the building.