A New Facility for Houston's
Fastest Growing Community

A recent (and unscientific) survey of friends and colleagues reveals a stereotypical image of Houston, America's 8th largest metropolitan area, identifying the area with suburban sprawl, uncomfortable humidity, and a sports-crazed populace. Others might point to the Houston of world-class cultural institutions (its Museum of Fine Arts, Symphony and Opera, in particular), iconic skyscraper architecture, and fine restaurants serving much more than country-fried steak. But few have noticed that Houston's fastest-growing minority group – recently estimated at 10% of the population – is composed of Asians and Asian-Americans.

In fact, Texas ranks third in the US for overall Asian population, and Houston is the center of this dramatic growth, with more than 100,000 residents (each) of Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian and Filipino origin, some 60,000 Pakistanis, and sizable segments of Koreans, Japanese, Cambodians, Laotians, Indonesians, Thais, Burmese, Malaysians, Taiwanese, Sri Lankans, Bangladeshis, and a number of Pacific Islanders from the Hawaiian Islands, Polynesian Islands, and New Zealand.

AMS was asked to assist with the planning for a new facility aimed at bringing these disparate communities closer together, and promoting dialog and common understanding between Houston's Asian and non-Asian communities.

The effort was initiated by Asia Society, founded in New York in 1956 by the Rockefeller family to nurture an understanding of Asia and to promote dialogue between Americans and the people of Asia and the Pacific. The Society's Houston center was established in 1979 and produces an annual schedule of more than 100 cultural and educational events encompassing exhibitions, conferences, cultural performances, films, lectures, and policy initiatives.

In 2002 Asia House Texas was established to fund, construct, and operate a multi-functional cultural facility to serve as ''Houston's premier venue for all things Asian.'' The Asia House board has coalesced around an exciting vision of a facility ''where members of Houston's Asian American communities and their neighbors may come together to forge common understandings and appreciation, and where Asians and Americans will meet to draw on and benefit from the experiences and lessons learned during the past decades.''

The project has initially been envisioned to encompass galleries, an auditorium, interactive resource center, spaces for lectures and social events, administrative offices, a gift shop and gardens. AMS worked closely with the Society's board and staff to develop operating plans for the new pan-Asian cultural center through leadership interviews, model case studies, surveys with cultural organizations throughout Houston, and a series of planning meetings.

Yoshio Taniguchi has been selected as design architect, signifying his first freestanding new building outside his native Japan. Mr. Taniguchi, best known in the U.S. as the architect for the expansion of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, has long been recognized in Asia as one of the preeminent architects working today.

The new facility will occupy a showcase parcel in Houston's thriving Museum District, nearby such diverse institutions as the Museums of Natural Sciences and Medical Science, Children's and Holocaust Museums, and the Museum of Fine Arts and Contemporary Arts Museum. The Center promises to be a showcase addition to Houston's cultural resources, and a place where Americans can become better educated about the myriad of Asian cultural traditions.

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