Homestate Glory

Three new Texas landmarks touted as some of the best architecture in the world

The Data and Library Service Center at Rice University, designed by CarlosJiménez.
Photo by © Paul Hester/Hester + Hardaway
The Dallas Theater Center, which includes the Winspear Opera House (pictured)and the Wyly Theater, is also featured in the Atlas.
Photo by © Nigel Young
Miró Rivera Architects designed this pedestrian bridge on Lake Austin.
Photo by © Paul Finkel/Piston Design

The BBVA Foundation has published a four-volume series entitled Atlas: Architectures of the 21st Century, a follow-up to Atlas. Global Architecture circa 2000, which was published in 2007.

Its pages document more than 1,000 architectural projects that span the globe, from mud brick schools in Africa to skyscrapers in the Persian Gulf, with 237 of those works illustrated and their sociopolitical and cultural context described in detail.

Making this narrow list are three projects that have been constructed right here in the Lone Star State: the pedestrian bridge on Lake Austin that was conceived by Miró Rivera Architects; Rice University's Data and Library Service Center in Houston, designed by architect Carlos Jiménez; and the AT&T Performing Arts Center, which includes the versatile Wyly Theatre, designed by Joshua Prince-Ramus and Rem Koolhaas, and the Winspear Opera House, designed by Norman Foster.

All three Texas landmarks are considered examples of "global architecture."

All three Texas landmarks are considered examples of "global architecture," a distinction that architect and Atlas director Luis Fernández-Galiano acknowledged is sometimes synonymous with standardization.

"But there is also a positive globalization, as seen in this Atlas, in which ideas and architects travel and interact with the local environment in a process of cross-fertilization," Fernández-Galiano said in a statement.

"Insofar as architecture is a useful art at the service of the community and needs to be inserted in a time and place, the best global architectures are those that attain this context awareness and manage to transform themselves through contact with their future surroundings."

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Concert News

Austin icon Gary Clark Jr. to play free show launching wife's maternity pop-up

Photo courtesy of Bumpsuit

Bumpsuit is now open at the Domain Northside.

Austin icon Gary Clark Jr. is playing a free hometown show on Friday, December 13, to celebrate the opening of his wife, Nicole Trunfio's trendy maternity store, Bumpsuit. It's open now, and will be in Austin for six months.

Clark will be playing with his band: King Zapata and Elijah Ford on guitar, JJ Johnson on drums, and Dayne Reliford on backup vocals and keyboard.

They're fresh off the announcement that Clark will receive a Texas Medal of Arts, one of the highest honors a Texas artist can receive. He's known for modernizing the blues — not overwriting past traditions, but bringing the established sound into popular music people love whether they're conscious of the genre or not.

The new store's neighbor Grimaldi's Pizzeria is bringing a pop-up bar to the event, and there will also be yard games, photo opportunities, and more, according to a release.

Bumpsuit is filling an auspicious space for minimalist fashion at Domain Northside. It'll spend its tenure at 11700 Domain Blvd. Suite 120, the former site of Austin's first Skims Workshop, which has since moved on to a permanent location in the same shopping center.

The two stores are very similar in aesthetic, with Trunfio's focusing on maternity and postpartum wear. Styles are generally made in neutrals or jewel tones, and cut in extremely simple shapes.

“After spending our summer on tour as a family with Gary and his band, we are excited to end the year at Domain Northside to coincide with the opening of our Bumpsuit store,” said Trunfio in the release.

"Doors" for the (presumably outdoor) concert next to Bumpsuit neighbor Vuori (11701 Domain Blvd. Suite 154) are at 7 pm; the show starts at 8:30 pm.

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