Dallas Holocaust Museum

This competition entry for a new Dallas Holocaust Museum is conceived as a solid core, wrapped by a transparent veil, and entered through a garden. The garden and plaza provide both a civic space and transition from the street. The lobby is a pavilion in this garden; transparent at ground level and enclosed by massive stone walls above. Other ground floor functions include a theater, special exhibit, classrooms and children’s exhibit, along with prefunction and circulation spaces. Public in character, these spaces are enclosed by a glass veil, open to view from the exterior with privacy and light control provided by interior partitions.

Clad in rough gray granite in horizontal layers, the core volume houses the permanent exhibit on level 2, and library and administration on level 3. Apertures in the stone provide places of respite from the exhibits, and allow glimpses of the interior activity for those outside the transparent veil. At the south end of the garden, a towering plane of glass contains 60,000 stars, each representing 100 souls. As the sun moves across the sky, shadows of the stars will move across the garden. Three stories tall, the glass wall is a dramatic symbol for the museum.