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44 Houston. Shahzia Sikander's training in the lost art of Pakistani miniatures spills over into her practice, making her one of the fi rst Core Fellows to land in the Whitney Biennial, in 1997. Julie Mehretu, a MacArthur "Genius" grantee whose canvases now top $4.6 million, recently ranked fi fth among women artists by auction record. Her work depicts abstract world metropolises, a mirror of her upbringing in Detroit and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. INSIDER NOTES GARY TINTEROW MFAH director, chief fund-raiser for the $450 million new museum campaign A pedestrian path to urbanism. "The new Glassell building, The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, and the BBVA Compass Roof Garden are each very important in the larger plan of opening the campus to the public and making the Museum District a pedestrian environment and destination. We expect to see more people enjoying our public spaces, parking in our garages, and exploring the entire neighborhood on foot." STEVEN HOLL Architect of the 500,000-square foot, 14-acre redux of the MFAH campus, the largest cultural construction project currently in America Two defi ning features of the new Glassell. "I proposed the ramp up as an integral way to connect the new Glassell to the whole future campus. The angle of the incline is similar to some walls Isamu Noguchi made for the [Cullen] sculpture garden. The angle is also refl ected in the precast concrete wall elements of the facades. A roof garden has been a part of the design since September 2011. The inclined path became a part of the winning design in December 2011. The day when people can walk up and get this new viewpoint embracing all of the MFAH campus will be a truly joyful moment." JOE HAVEL Glassell director and molder of the school, whose tenure extends across three decades, beginning in 1991 as Core Program associate director The promise of the new Glassell. "The building has enhanced facilities, most notably in the sculpture, ceramics, and jewelry departments. The new gallery spaces will upgrade our exhibitions. Even more fundamentally, it is a building designed for the digital age that will integrate digital media into all other aspects of the museum. The school will also have an enhanced connection to the museum's gallery buildings — something that will be emphasized even more when the Kinder exhibition building is complete [eta early 2020]." What was preserved. Joe Havel: "A central quality of the previous building that has been enhanced in the new building is its openness to the general public. The big central forum and exhibition space of the old Glassell building is reinvented in the new building, with a central forum with a grand stairway, access to exhibition spaces, a nearby lecture hall, and a grab-and-go cafe. The old school was an inviting place that people felt they owned, and I hope that feeling will carry over into the new space. Architecturally, we salvaged some glass blocks and are building an exterior wall between the Cullen Sculpture Garden and The Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, which falls on the perimeter wall of the previous building and serves as a historical reminder." Your involvement in the design. Joe Havel: "I was involved at key points from its very inception. I worked with Gary Tinterow and Willard Holmes from the MFAH and members of the Steven Holl team, including Chris McVoy, who was a strong voice in authoring this building. As the building developed and construction began, the questions became more practical and detailed at which point members of the Glassell staff and faculty, under the leadership of associate director Jenny Cronin, worked with the design team as well as members of the McCarthy construction team to get everything right." The next decade. Joe Havel: "World-class cities deserve world-class art schools. My goals align with this ambition. We are working right now to develop new collaborations within the Houston community that will make us even more of a hub for art practice … I am excited for what we can do as an engine for 21st century culture." Glassell Benefi t and Auction ( featuring works by past and present Core Fellows), Friday, May 18, 7:30 pm, at the new Glassell, 5101 Montrose Blvd.; tickets from $500, tables from $10,000; glassellbenefi t@mfah.org. " — Joe Havel, MFAH Glassell School of Art director "THE OLD SCHOOL WAS AN INVITING PLACE THAT PEOPLE FELT THEY OWNED, AND I HOPE THAT FEELING WILL CARRY OVER INTO THE NEW SPACE." The walkable roofl ine of the Glassell School of Art, with the Brown Foundation, Inc. Plaza, devised by Deborah Nevins & Associates, in collaboration with Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture. Rendering of the center staircase of Steven Holl Architects' new Glassell School of Art (continued from page 42)