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34 Triptych MFAH GLASSELL SCHOOL OF ART'S BIG REVEAL UNFOLDS IN THREE EPIC EVENINGS. Catherine D. Anspon basks in the view from the verdant roof garden. Photography Jenny Antill Clifton and Jacob Power. T he defining art event of the season was enacted in three successive evenings that unveiled the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston's new Glassell School of Art. The game-changer of a building, designed by Steven Holl, comes with Houston's finest new view, compliments of the BBVA Compass Roof Garden. This inspiring centerpiece of the grand $450-million redux of the MFAH campuses includes a gleaming Anish Kapoor sculpture that anchors The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, and, inside, a robust sculptural concrete stairwell destined to become another calling card of the new Glassell. All were shown off with contemporary pomp and circumstance, beginning with the most intimate fête of all: the first preview and seated dinner for trustee types and big-pocketed underwriters. The tony crowd had made the new Glassell possible, which rose on the spot of the bulldozed original 1979 glass-bricked building named after late patron Alfred Glassell Jr. Eight important personages took to the dais before the City Kitchen-catered dinner ensued: MFAH director Gary Tinterow; chairman of the board Rich Kinder; trustee and scion of the building namesake Alfred Glassell III; Will Mathis, who chairs The Brown Foundation, Inc.; BBVA Compass president and CEO Onur Genç; Glassell School director Joe Havel; architect Steven Holl; and landscape architect Deborah Nevins. (continued on page 36) Architect Steven Holl introduces the new Glassell. Guests walking down the Glassell School of Art roofline Rebecca Rabinow & Matthew Ringel Christina Anderson, Alvaro Aguilar Sheiludis Moyett Reggie & Leigh Smith Betty & Stephen Newton, Cullen Geiselman Rania Daniel, Sima Ladjevardian Heidi Gerger Amy Purvis, Lynn Wyatt Chair Marli Andrade, Deborah Nevins Mark Montgomery, Donette Stubblefield Reymundo Ocañas Judy & Scott Nyquist JooYoung Choi & Trenton Doyle Hancock Joe Havel, chairs Leslie & Brad Bucher Aliyya & Herman Stude