Field Operations replaces SWA in Dallas Museum of Art renovation

In a turn of events, Field Operations has replaced SWA as landscape architect for the forthcoming renovation of the Dallas Museum of Art (DMA). The news comes two years after Nieto Sobejano Arquitectos (NSA), a Madrid- and Berlin-based office, won an international competition to design DMA’s future home.

Per reporting in The Dallas Morning News, SWA project lead Chuck McDaniel’s recent retirement may have been a factor in the switch. Field Operations beat out three other finalists for the commission. Those offices, as reported in The Dallas Morning News, were: Ten Eyck Landscape Architects, Hocker, and Reed Hilderbrand.

Regarding the decision, a DMA spokesperson told AN the Field Operations proposal “documents demonstrate a clear understanding of both design challenges and opportunities, including integrating natural elements into an urban setting, connecting art and landscape within the museum typology, and placing community at the core of placemaking in landscape design.”

“The DMA and Field Operations have a clear philosophical alignment with the overall design intent for the future of the Museum,” the spokesperson continued. An SWA spokesperson declined to comment.

Together, NSA, Field Operations, DMA officials, and the project team will rethink the outdoor spaces surrounding the museum campus while redesigning the building itself.

NSA’s vision is a reflection of Edward Larrabee Barnes’s original 1984 design and his 1990s expansion, both of which will be largely retained in the renovation. The north and south faces of the building will be fronted with a perforated white metal, and the museum’s graphic identity will be artfully displayed on the facade.

Moving forward, the task at hand for Field Operations entails integrating the museum and its host city. This will entail rethinking the forecourt, and new pedestrian-oriented space with a grid of pathways, garden beds, and ponds. Field Operations aims to forge strong connections between the Arts District and Klyde Warren Park.

This won’t be Field Operations’s first rodeo in the Texas city. Previously, the firm completed West End Square, a prominent Dallas public space.

The rest of the design team remains the same with Atelier Culbert, in the role of exhibition designers; Arup for MEP, lighting, and sustainability work; Bollinger+Grohmann as structural and facade engineers; and PGAL as local architect.