“That’s a Wrap”

Fall 2020

Sited in Houston’s diverse and historic Second Ward, this project expands Talento Bilingue de Houston’s arts infrastructure beyond its walls into the local community. The existing building, already a site for mural competitions, is wrapped in an armature for mural canvases that could host and archive many more artworks over time. The partially enclosed “wrapper” introduces additional intermediate spaces around the periphery of the building, creating a shaded outdoor forecourt, new points of entry, and moments of public rest. The building footprint is incised to form an outdoor courtyard and extruded to create a new front-of-house library in place of the existing box office. By activating unused spaces throughout the site while also respecting its history, these interventions celebrate the building as an armature for Latino arts and culture and engage the civic potentials of the bayou-facing site.

Publication^︎︎︎
Final Review^︎︎︎
Houston, TX