Phase 1 Museum at the Edith and Peter O’Donnell Jr. Athenaeum at the University of Texas at Dallas

The Phase I museum, which includes the Crow Museum of Asian Art, is the first building completed in the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum, a new cultural district at the University of Texas at Dallas. The design process for the museum began with the creation of a master plan for a 12-acre arts and cultural complex. This plan was developed in close collaboration with UT Dallas to fulfill the university's vision for an interdisciplinary district that would bring the arts into dialogue with other disciplines. The idea of the "classical athenaeum"—a meeting place for knowledge exchange in the arts, humanities, and sciences—was a key inspiration, a concept championed by the late Rick Brettell, director of the Edith O’Donnell Institute of Art History. In the 18th century, the term “athenaeum” referred to academic and social clubs where art, science, and music were presented and debated. The challenge was to reinterpret this model for the UT Dallas campus in a way that would foster interdisciplinary encounters while remaining welcoming and accessible to both students and the public.

The planning process involved working with the university and key stakeholders, including the caretakers of important collections associated with UT Dallas. Through a comprehensive approach to programming, visioning, and master planning, it became clear that the vision encompassed a new cultural district designed not just for the university but for the wider community. The district consists of a collection of buildings and open public spaces that connect with the rest of the campus to the north.

This vision culminated in the Edith and Peter O'Donnell Jr. Athenaeum. Located at the southeast corner of the campus, the cultural district serves as a new gateway, organized around a central plaza flanked by museums, a performance hall, and a parking structure. The plaza, imagined as the social heart of the district, is designed to be active with students and visitors engaging in study, socializing, and attending art events and performances. The buildings share a unified design language and are conceived as volumes "carved" from a single mass, shaped by circulation routes from the campus. Transparency is a key feature, with large expanses of glass linking the interior spaces of galleries and public areas to the plaza and the campus beyond. The district is designed to keep culture and creativity on display at all times.

The Phase I museum, the first building completed in the Athenaeum, was designed with the Crow Museum of Asian Art collection in mind, along with other key collections. The exhibition galleries are located above a smaller ground floor that includes seminar rooms, study rooms, a lobby, and a reading room, all connected to the plaza through large windows. The ground floor features flexible outdoor spaces that can be used for events, studying, socializing, and performances, shaded and sheltered by the deep overhang of the galleries above.

In addition to the building design, exhibition design services were provided for the Crow collection galleries. This process involved working closely with the museum’s director and curators to create environments that reflect the scale and nature of the objects in the collection. The exhibition design aims to create unique, color-rich settings for each collection, with "rooms within rooms" that offer intimate spaces for viewers to engage with the art. Key galleries are designed to display works in natural lighting conditions, using lightwells and narrow windows to admit indirect northern light.

The first floor also includes the Brettell Reading Room, a study and convening space dedicated to the memory of Dr. Richard Brettell, designed to hold his personal library donated to UT Dallas. The reading room opens onto the plaza and is connected to a seminar room for lectures and workshops, making the building an active part of the campus, driven by learning, discussion, and study