Martin, Ellen

The Childrens Museum of Houston- A Decorated Shed

With exhibits such as Think Tank and Kidtropolis, everything about the Childrens

Museum of Houston gears children for learning- even the architecture. The building

communicates to children that it is a place for them, and to parents that it is a place for their

children to learn and have fun. The Childrens Museum of Houston was designed by Venturi,

Scott Brown and Associates and Jackson & Ryan Architects and was completed in 1992. The

buildings design pulls from Classical and Modern elements and twists them to be playful,

colorful, and childlike. The buildings design principles help it to function as a permanent space

for children as well as a framework for changeable exhibit spaces.

Temple front Entrance

Martin, Ellen

Robert Venturi

Venturi graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University in 1947 and received his

master of fine arts in 1950. He later became a Rome Prize Fellow and went to study

architecture at the American Academy in Rome from 1954-1956. His awards include the

Pritzker Prize, which he received in 1991, and in 1992, he received the Presidential National

Medal of the Arts. Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture and Learning from Las Vegas

are his two most influential books and they are still in print. Venturi also coined the term, less

is a bore, as a rebuke to Mies van der Rohes minimalist ideal that, less is more. His most

famous buildings feature exaggerated facades and architectural ornament, as well as a

postmodern fusion of modern and classical architecture. His major works include the Provincial

Capitol Building in Toulouse, France; the Mielparque Nikko Kirifuri resort hotel in Nikko, Japan;

and the Seattle Art Museum in Washington. Venturis architectural thought causes these

buildings and the Childrens Museum to share a design element. They each have a grand hall,

street or in the Childrens Museums case a kids hall in their design.

Design Principles

The Childrens Museum features a decorated shed design with a sign composed of a

temple front, Greek columns, and caryatids. The building in linearly organized and uses a grand

hall as its primary axis.

The Decorated Shed

Martin, Ellen

The Childrens Museum is a perfect example of Venturis decorated shed theory. Robert

Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and Steven Izenour wrote their theory, The Duck and the

Decorated Shed in their book, Learning from Las Vegas: The Forgotten Symbolism of

Architectural Form. The authors proposed that there are two distinctly different types of

buildings- ducks and decorated sheds- and that all buildings can be classified as one or the

other. The term duck refers to the big duck, built by Martin Maurer for the purpose of selling

ducks and duck eggs.

A duck describes any and all buildings that are entirely symbols. Their form and shape

communicate their purpose and they are often more sculptural than architectural. A decorated

shed, however, has a simple, generic structure and is only identifiable by its signage. Unlike

ducks, decorated sheds are not inherent symbols; they require applied symbols, or signs. A

decorated shed has explicit ornamentation that distracts the viewer from the buildings

underlying structure.

The Childrens Museum is itself a decorated shed. In order for exhibits to be dismantled,

rearranged and redesigned, a large exhibition space is all that is required for the interior space.

The exterior however, must attract viewers with a sign. The Childrens Museum features a

sign composed of a temple front, Greek columns, and caryatids.

Temple Front

A cartoon Greek portico that reads Museum is the first thing visitors notice when they

come to the building. With large columns and bright colors, this adolescent twist on classical

architecture is a sign as well as a crucial element of the building. Paul Goldberger writes for The

New York Times that the museums entrance, stands slightly in front of the structure, a

Martin, Ellen

cartoon version of the Brandenburg Gate, which functions as a sign as much as an element of

the building. The Childrens Museums front excels in announcing the entrance of the

museum. Robert Venturi over-scaled, detached, curved, and corner-positioned the front to

contribute to the grandeur of the museum.

Greek Columns

To the left of the temple front, is the buildings most formal faade. Childrens is

spelled out over huge, yellow columns. Columns are traditionally given to buildings of

importance such as libraries and museums; in this instance they are used to allude to a

historical theme in a context that children will understand. Venturi uses child-like columns to

candidly indicate the buildings importance as a museum- even if it is one for children. The

small scale of the decorative detail complements the big scale of the columns; although the

columns are monumental, the detail is friendly and playful.

Caryatids

Along the other side of the building are the Caryakids, several fiberglass cutout

children that hold up the awning and are modeled after classical Greek caryatids.

A caryatid is a sculpted female figure serving as an architectural support. The best-

known and most copied examples are the six figures of the Caryatid Porch of the Erechtheion

on the Acropolis at Athens. Although the origins of the term caryatid are unclear, the Roman

architect Vitruvius writes in his work De Architectura, that the caryatids of the Erechtheion

represent the punishment of the women of Karyae, who were condemned to slavery after

betraying Athens by siding with Persia in the Greco-Persian Wars.

Martin, Ellen

Venturi's play on the classical caryatid is cleverly called a caryakid. Along La Branch

Street, 13 caryakids create a covered walkway by supporting a low wing of prefabricated,

green corrugated metal. The caryakids function as an architectural element and as another

sign, flashing the museums identity to the street.

The Grand Hall

The largest spatial quality of the museum is the grand hall, or Kids Hall. Extending the

full length of the building, the Kids Hall separates permanent spaces- the auditorium, art

studio, gift shop, auditorium, and staff offices- from the open exhibition area. The space is

immense, well lighted by tall windows, and decorated with huge, brightly colored arches

running along the length of its ceiling.

Organization

Caryakids

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The building is linearly organized along the Kids Hall and the site. The permanent

spaces are closest to Binz Street, while the shed exhibition area is pushed into the interior of

the site. Because of the dust and noise it produces, the workshop for making new exhibitions is

separated from the rest of the museum and located at the rear of the site.

Kids Hall

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References

Architecture in the District. Articles. Houston Museum District. Houston Museums, 2013. Web. 16 Feb 2015. .

Childrens Museum of Houston. Web. 15 Feb 2015. . Goldberger, Paul. Architecture View; For Children, Pop Goes the Museum. Arts. The New York

Times. The New York Times Company, 1993. Web. 17 Feb 2015. .

Hersey, George L. The Lost Meaning of Classical Architecture. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1988. Print.

Larson, Magali Sarfatti. Behind the Postmodern Faade: Architectural Change in Late Twentieth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1995. Web. 19 Feb 2015. Turner, Drexel. Little Caesars Palace The Childrens Museum of Houston. Cite Survey 1993: 29-37. Print.

Sloyer, Michael. Ducks and Sheds. The Architectural Mirror. Blogspot, 2009. 24 Mar, 2015. .

VSBA. Childrens Museum of Houston. A-Z Project List. Venturiscottbrown.org. Web. 17 Feb 2015. .

Von Moos, Stanislaus. Venturi, Scott Brown and Associates: Building and Projects, 1986-1998. New York: The Monacelli Press, 1999. Print.