Now available on the Asia Society website, amid pix of dragon dancers and Yao Ming shoveling dirt at the groundbreaking last spring: 2 more renderings of architect Yoshio Taniguchi’s design for the society’s new 38,000-sq.-ft. Texas Center in the Museum District.
The view from Southmore St. at Caroline, in 2010:
You may have seen a few old small, blurry model photos of the Asia Society headquarters Yoshio Taniguchi has been designing. But more detailed plans and views of the building planned for Caroline and Southmore in the Museum District haven’t exactly been in wide circulation. Maybe that’s because the architect is apparently not done tinkering:
Even though the noted Japanese architect has spent the past four years developing his design for the new Asia Society Texas Center headquarters, he recently scoured a table-top model of the building like it was the first time he had ever laid eyes on it.
“Each time I meet with my client, I feel like I’m under pressure,” he said, while examining the model of the $50 million Asia House in a nondescript office near the Galleria. “I have to make it better. I can’t make a mistake.”
On this recent morning, Taniguchi was concerned about the height of a stone fence that will jut out from one corner of the building. He wants it tall enough to define the space but not so imposing that it blocks out the surrounding neighborhood.
Since January, Taniguchi and his team have suggested 85 small changes to the building before construction officially gets under way after today’s groundbreaking ceremony.
After the jump: More building details! Plus . . . an old small, blurry model photo!
