No More Free Parking at the MFAH

by Glasstire May 28, 2017
MFAH parking

Photo: Steve Gonzales, Houston Chronicle

Earlier this week, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston opened a new underground parking lot, reports the Houston Chronicle. Located under the museum’s still-in-progress Glassell School of Art building, the garage, which offers a total of 285 paid parking spaces on two levels, is replacing the free surface lot located on the corner of Bissonnet and Main. The MFAH’s new Kinder exhibition building will be built where this surface lot currently exists—its groundbreaking is set for May 31, meaning that the 220-space lot is now closed permanently.

In the new underground garage, which can be entered on Montrose (the address is 5101 Montrose), visitors will pay $10 for four hours of parking (museum members pay $6). As a comparison, the 400-space garage under the Dallas Museum of Art charges a $12 flat fee for parking (they initially charged $10, but recently increased the price).

Also coming to the MFAH campus in the next few years is a 120-space garage under the Kinder building. Eventually, both the Glassell and the Kinder parking will be connected by two new “art tunnels” to the rest of the museum’s campus.

The museum’s other paid parking garage, located at Binz and Fannin, is still open to visitors. There is also limited free street parking near the museum. For more information on parking at the museum, go here.

 

3 comments

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3 comments

Steve October 4, 2017 - 22:23

You should offer free parking once a week.

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joel Sampson October 5, 2017 - 21:28

This is a shame, seems expensive to me. Especially if you are there over 4 hours. I often went to the MFA on Sunday and ate lunch at the Cafe’ Express in the basement (now gone).

BTW: The Dallas Museum is FREE for members with no time limit.

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Barbara Koerble October 6, 2017 - 18:23

The problem with paid parking is that it discourages people on limited incomes from going to the museum, especially when coupled with the MFAH’s $15 admission fee just to get in the door to see the permanent collection. (The DMA now has free daily admission to their permanent collection, and the MFAH and the Nasher have a sponsored free admission day each week or once per month, respectively). I did notice that the MFAH is offering free parking from 5 pm to 9 pm on Thursdays, which is their weekly free admission day, so they seem to be considering the affordability issue. https://www.mfah.org/visit/parking/
The Dallas Museum of Art’s parking garage is free to both DMA members (minimum membership $100) and to Nasher Sculpture Center members (minimum membership $50), so apparently they find the free parking carrot helps them sell memberships. The MFAH might garner more members if they offered free parking with their memberships ($60 for an individual membership). But then they’ve got to pay for the note on that new parking garage, and parking garage construction doesn’t come cheap.

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