One of the best parts of visiting the Fort Worth museums is the expansive lawn leading to the Kimbell as you walk down the hill from the Amon Carter. This morning’s Fort Worth Star-Telegram reports that the Kimbell is now considering siting Renzo Piano‘s planned addition to the legendary Louis Kahn building on that very lawn (rather than on Arch Adams street, cattycorner from the Kimbell and across the street from the Fort Worth Modern, as previously announced). It’s going to be heresy for fans of the Kahn building, whose gentle, subtle lawn entrance, flanked by treees, would necessarily be affected. It’s been a long and painful road to expanding the Kimbell, which everyone agrees is skimpy on size…but today’s news is a surprise, and not necessarily a welcome one. There’s been longstanding resistance to the notion of adding on to Kahn’s masterpiece, but it had seemed OK if it weren’t right on top of the Kahn building. When the Piano expansion was announced, it didn’t make much of a ripple in the architecture community–now that it may be sited basically at Khan’s front door, it’ll be interesting to see the reaction.
Not in Kahn’s backyard
