VISUAL ARTS SCHOOL, Houston, TX
Design Director with Gensler
The new home for visual arts at a private K-12 academy north of Houston focuses externally on creating a new gateway to the campus and internally on optimizing daylight. Marking the corner of the main quad, the new 15,00-square-foot structure couples with the existing performing arts facility to create a gateway at the southeast corner of the Quad. The program is distributed on two floors, with the art studios and galleries on the upper levels. These are organized on an east-west axis, with tall clerestories gathering north light. The half vault shapes bounce ambient light downward into the space on the inside and offer a visible profile on the outside, to mark this important corner. Research continually shows that good daylight can promote better visual acuity, more creativity, quicker learning, and higher test scores. Optimal solar orientation also can reduce energy consumption by as much as 20%, lower operating costs. So the plan encourages higher performance at lower costs.