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At a museum whose galleries are housed within several low-slung buildings illuminated by gently diffused daylight, the arrival of taller, sun-blocking neighbors is a plausible threat. This is particularly true in sprawling Houston, a city where conventional zoning laws are nonexistent.

Thank goodness, then, that the namesake foundation of philanthropists John and Dominique de Menil had the foresight to assemble a force field of sorts around the 30-acre campus of the Menil Collection, the Houston art museum it operates. By buying and holding multiple parcels to stave off undesirable development, the foundation ensured that the Menil’s galleries, which include Renzo Piano’s main museum building (1987), would never be darkened by another structure’s shadow. The strategy also ensured the preservation of the prewar bungalow-lined, live oak–shaded pocket of Houston’s Montrose neighborhood that the museum is so nimbly embedded within, its approachable, pedestrian-friendly appeal maintained in perpetuity.

But the foundation is not development-averse, and last December the immediate, museum-anchored neighborhood gained its first major new addition since Johnston Marklee’s Menil Drawing Institute. And, intriguingly, it’s not a gallery building.

Hotel Saint Augustine, designed by Lake|Flato with interiors by Post Company for Austin-based hospitality group Bunkhouse Hotels, is situated a block south of the Menil’s stand-alone Cy Twombly Gallery (1995), also designed by Piano, and opposite a large swath of green space. The 71-key property makes a respectful neighbor to the museum.

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The main entrance. Photo © Julie Soefer

“The foundation really viewed this as a campus extension,” says Lake|Flato principal David Lake. “The hotel is a public-spirited, 24/7 front door that provides another amenity to the experience of going to the Menil.”

Set on a roughly two-acre site, the 63,100-square-foot project marks Lake|Flato’s fourth collaboration with Bunkhouse, and Post Company’s first. It comprises five modestly scaled two-story buildings oriented around a series of lushly landscaped courtyards. Set back from the street, all the buildings—save one at the western end that faces a swimming pool—are connected by a series of second-floor catwalks.

Some rooms have entrances from the street. Photo © Nicole Franzen

Approaching the property, particularly at its northern elevation along West Main Street, one might mistake Hotel Saint Augustine for a tastefully designed townhouse development. Here, a row of 10 guest rooms can be accessed through private entrances from the street via gated exterior patios. This, Lake|Flato project director Nyssa Sherazee says, “makes you feel you’re staying in the neighborhood, not just checking into a hotel.” Second-floor guest rooms looking out onto West Main Street feature screened porches nestled within the canopy of oak trees.

The larger property, too, offers multiple points of access, with the main entrance facing Loretto Drive. Its muted material palette gives the hotel away as being of the Menil. Clad in generous expanses of glazing and combed-wood siding, the guest room buildings have elongated gray-brick facades. Gray—so characteristic of the campus that “Menil Gray” is part of the local lexicon—refers to the narrow bands of stained cypress that clad Piano’s main gallery building and the paint of the bungalows neighboring it. Raked mortar joints emphasize the bricks’ horizontality and further break down the scale.

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The lobby (2) and reception (3) are near the main entrance (1). Photos © Nicole Franzen (2), Julie Soefer (3)

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By situating the hotel’s more public-facing (and potentially more boisterous) programs—including Perseid, a modern French bistro, and, directly above it, a second-level event space—within a single steel-and-timber-framed building toward the center of the site, the design team achieved the “quiet” balance the museum sought. Anchoring it all is the central courtyard. Dotted with trees, the landscape features bridge connectors linking different buildings at grade over a series of a rain gardens that capture and filter stormwater runoff—crucial in the soggy Gulf Coast city.

The project’s overarching emphasis on porosity reflects the Menil Collection’s “democratic attitude of bringing art to everyone,” says Lake|Flato partner Chris Krajcer. “The openings and passageways into it refer to how the museum is free and open to all—anybody can walk on the hotel grounds.”

Adjacent to the lobby is an intimate listening lounge. Photo © Julie Soefer

The interiors offer a marked departure from the decidedly subdued exterior. Saturated colors, and a playful eclecticism that pays tribute to the millennia-spanning Menil Collection, define Post Company’s design. Just off the reception area—with its backlit grid of lacquered red shelving—contemporary furnishings and vintage pieces comingle in the lobby and adjacent lounge. Notably, no art hangs on the walls. Instead, you’ll find a Tobia Scarpa chair here, an Ingo Maurer pendant there, and so on. Sheer floor-to-ceiling drapery transforms these public spaces into a series of cozy nooks. “It’s an idea of procession and exploration,” says Post Company partner Jou-Yie Chou. “It breaks down what could feel like a very large space into these intimate parlors without having to create walls.”

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The 71 guest rooms and suites (4) feature marble-floored bathrooms (5) and warm color palettes (6). Photos © Julie Soefer

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In each of the buildings, eye-popping interior corridors with daring color combinations and bold-patterned carpets connect the guest rooms. Throughout the rooms and suites, there are direct nods to the de Menils’ former Houston residence, designed by Philip Johnson with interior by Charles James, including cabinets with vibrant lacquered interiors inspired by the ones designed for Dominique de Menil’s dressing room.

“We went into this playing the contrarian to Lake|Flato’s architecture,” says Chou, “adding a level of saturation, texture, depth, and contrast to what’s happening within the massing and glazing—the quietness of the buildings that they designed.”

A boutique hotel on the campus of a world-class art museum, flanked by buildings designed by Pritzker Prize–winning architects (Johnson was partly responsible for the nearby Rothko Chapel), could easily feel cloistered, cold, inaccessible. Hotel Saint Augustine, though, feels as if it’s right at home.

Click plan to enlarge