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The Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center is known as one of the world's cultural archives, serving as home to 30 million literary manuscripts, 1 million rare books, 5 million photographs and more than 100,000 works of art.
It seemed only fitting, then, that the Ransom Center be given a redesign that properly reflected the treasures held inside. That was the impetus for the renovation that transformed the entrance and the interior and exterior design of the Ransom Center's first two floors.
The Ransom Center renovation is a winner in this year's Commercial Real Estate Awards' architectural design category, sharing the spotlight with The Crossings.
"What stands out is what the transformation architecture was able to accomplish by taking an opaque box and bringing a transparency to it," says Stephen Sharpe of the Texas Society of Architects, the state component of the American Institute of Architects, who served as a judge in the architecture design category.
"It invites people in and enlivens the interiors for the people who work there and those who visit," he says.
Bill Aylor, project architect at Lake Flato Architects in San Antonio, the firm selected for the Ransom Center's redesign, says people had no idea what was in the building from looking at its exterior.
"It was...