Kimbell Art Museum expansion

The programmes and collection of the Kimbell Art Museum have grown dramatically in recent years, far beyond anything envisioned by the museum in the 1970s. Addressing the severe lack of space for the museum’s exhibition and education programmes, the new Renzo Piano Pavilion provides gallery space for temporary exhibitions, classrooms and studios for the museum’s education department, a large 298-seat auditorium, an expanded library and underground parking.

The expansion roughly doubles the Museum’s gallery space. Furthermore, the siting of the new building, and the access into it from the car park, will correct the tendency of most visitors to enter the museum’s original building by what Kahn considered the back entrance, directing them naturally to the front entrance in the west facade.

Subtly echoing Kahn’s building in height, scale, and general layout, the Renzo Piano Building Workshop (RPBW) structure exudes a more open and transparent character. Light and discreet—with half its footprint concealed underground—it establishes a unique identity while fostering a dialogue between old and new. The building consists of two connected structures, with the front section, known as the "Flying Pavilion," facing the west façade of Kahn’s building across landscaped grounds. Its three-part façade reflects the activities inside, with a central lightweight, transparent, glazed section serving as the new museum entrance.

On either side of this entrance, behind pale concrete walls, are two gallery spaces for temporary exhibitions. A sequence of square concrete columns wraps around the sides of the structure, supporting solid wooden beams and overhanging eaves that provide shade for the glazed façades facing north and south. In the galleries, a sophisticated roof system combines stretched fabric, wooden beams, glass, aluminum louvres, and photovoltaic cells to create a controlled, daylit environment. Supplementary lighting, concealed behind scrim fabric, enhances the illumination when needed.