The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) and design competition organizers Malcolm Reading Consultants (MRC) has launched the global search for a dedicated and gifted architect-led team to reimagine the Museum’s campus.

The architecture competition is open to all local, regional, national, and international firms.

See full details of the competition and how to enter are available on the dedicated competition website: https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/dallasmuseumofart. 

Located on a prime site in downtown Dallas, the DMA, the anchor of the Dallas Arts District, seeks an architectural reinvention to enable the Museum to better serve the diverse city of Dallas and create additional gallery space to accommodate its expanding collection including several forthcoming bequests that will add thousands of works.

The collection, which has benefitted from generous civic benefactors, currently includes 26,500 works and spans 5,000 years of history, representing a full range of world cultures. The collection is notable for important holdings of the arts of ancient Americas, Africa, and South Asia, and in European and American painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, as well as one of the most important collections of modern and contemporary art in the United States.

The competition program, which will strengthen the DMA’s work with its communities and reaffirm the Museum’s connection to surrounding neighborhoods, envisages an addition/s that would add flexible galleries. The Museum also requires a reorganization of internal space, circulation, and entrances, as well as a comprehensive modernization framed within a thoughtful sustainability strategy.

Competitors should be aware that the Dallas Arts District is key to Dallas’ identity as a nexus of culture, creativity, inclusivity, and dynamism and is an economic engine for the city.

The competition will feature a public exhibition in summer 2023 of the concepts created by the shortlisted firms. The DMA looks forward to inviting the community to provide feedback at that time. 

The competition process is being led by an Architect Selection Committee of community members, which is Co-Chaired by trusted community leaders Jennifer Eagle and Lucilo Peña. A full list of members can be found at the conclusion of the release.

"The DMA and its Architect Selection Committee is committed to an open process and looks forward to involving our community to reimagine the future of the DMA together. We are thrilled by the prospect of assembling a world-class team to bring this next great chapter to life," said Jennifer Eagle and Lucilo Peña.

Opened in 1984, the original campus by Edward Larrabee Barnes was surrounded by empty lots and warehouses. Over the nearly four decades since its opening, the neighborhood around the DMA has grown and evolved, including the expansion of the Arts District, the addition of Klyde Warren Park to the north, and the construction of new residences, restaurants, and offices.

Barnes’ austere Modernist design in Indiana limestone forefronted elegance and calm dignity. Today, the DMA needs to re-present and enliven its spaces to relate to a more open and inclusive society with changing visitor expectations.

The estimated project budget is circa US$150-175m. The Museum will look to both public and private funding sources with a funding campaign due to launch later this year.

Dallas Museum of Art Flora Street Entrance. Image courtesy of the Dallas Museum of Art

Competition format

The official language of the competition is US English. No design is required at the first stage — rather designers will need to study the Search Statement (available on the competition website) and submit their approach to the project, team composition and relevant experience, as well as company details, through a digital form.

The competition requires integrated multidisciplinary design teams comprising as a minimum: lead design architect, landscape architect, exhibition designer, and engineering disciplines including structural, services and sustainability.

Five teams will be shortlisted, and each will receive an honorarium of US$50,000 and expenses of up to US$10,000 for their design work when the competition concludes with the selection of the winner.

Non-Texan US and international teams should have a team member registered to practice in the State of Texas; the competition encourages creative design collaborations.

The finalists’ proposals will be judged by the DMA’s Architect Selection Committee which comprises:

• Jennifer Eagle, Architect Selection Committee Co-Chair
• Lucilo Peña, Architect Selection Committee Co-Chair; Former Trustee; President of Development, Billingsley Company
• Agustín Arteaga, The Eugene McDermott Director, Dallas Museum of Art
• Zaida Basora, FAIA; Executive Director, The American Institute of Architects – Dallas
• Mary McDermott Cook, Trustee 
• Jeff Ellerman, Chairman of the Board of the Trustees; Vice Chairman CBRE
• Marguerite Steed Hoffman, Former Trustee
• Darren L. James, FAIA; NOMA; President, KAI Enterprises
• Howard Rachofsky, Former Trustee
• Catherine Marcus Rose, Trustee and Former President of the Board of Trustees
• Deedie Rose, Trustee 
• Jennifer Scripps, President and CEO Downtown Dallas, Inc.
• Gowri Sharma, President of the Board of Trustees
• Gayle Stoffel, Trustee

The deadline for first stage responses is: 10:00 CDT (GMT-5) Wednesday, March 15, 2023.

The competition’s second stage will start in spring 2023; the winner announcement is expected in summer 2023.

Visit the competition website: https://competitions.malcolmreading.com/dallasmuseumofart.

Top image: Dallas Museum of Art Exterior - image courtesy of Dallas Museum of Art. 

> via Malcolm Reading Consultants

architecture competition