Competition launched for £145m redevelopment of Dallas Art Museum

Practices have three weeks to submit bids for a USD $175m (£145m) redevelopment of the Dallas Museum of Art in Dallas, United States.

Malcolm Reading Consultants has launched an international two-stage competition for the design job on behalf of the The Texas museum and is inviting emerging and established firms from across the world to participate.

No design is required for the first stage, with multidisciplinary teams asked to submit details of their approach, team composition and experience.

Five teams selected to go through to the second stage will then receive a USD $50,000 (£42,000) honorarium for concept designs along with up to USD $10,000 (£8,300) in expenses.

The work will include the addition of new gallery space, reorganising the museum’s existing spaces and upgrading the existing building.

Established in 1903, the Dallas Museum of Art is among the 10 largest art museums in the United States. Its collection consists of 26,500 works spanning 5,000 years of history across a full range of world cultures.

The current campus was designed by modernist architect Edward Larrabee Barnes and opened in 1984. It is part of the Dallas Art District, a downtown area which includes various arts and performance venues.

The museum’s director Agustín Arteaga said the building is no longer able to accommodate an exponential growth in the collection, meaning that many works are hidden from the public due to space limitations.

“This is a pivotal moment for the DMA,” he said. “The campus was thoughtfully designed for the time with many good qualities but also presents challenges.

“It is time for our building to evolve to meet the current and future needs of our diverse and expansive collections and communities.”

Competition director Malcolm Reading added: “Barnes’ campus has a marvellous site and has kept its monumental calm as the Dallas Arts District has matured around it.

“This will be a fascinating architectural challenge for the competition finalists. The campus needs to have a strong presence and be an inviting space. But also, be less complex internally, easy to navigate and use.”

The deadline for first stage responses is 5am Greenwich Mean Time on 15 March. The competition’s second stage will start in spring 2023 with the winner announcement expected in summer 2023.