Please note that advance ticket purchase is required for this tour.

The campus of Houston’s Museum of Fine Arts includes work by locally and internationally acclaimed architects, from William Ward Watkin’s original classically inspired 1920s building through mid-century additions designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and striking 21st-century structures by Steven Holl Architects. Together, these buildings — along with landscape elements such as Isamu Noguchi’s Cullen Sculpture Garden — show how museum design and conceptions of cultural space have evolved over the past century.

This new docent-guided tour spends a summer evening taking an in-depth look at the development of the museum campus. We’ll explore the exterior architecture of the MFAH’s principal buildings and spaces, discussing the architectural trends and philanthropic support that shaped the institution.

Please note this is an exterior architecture tour only. The tour will not go inside any buildings. There are no public restrooms along the tour route.

Photo: Original building of the Museum of Fine Arts (1924, William Ward Watkin) / Woodson Research Center, Fondren Library, Rice University

About the tour

Advance ticket purchase is required for the tour; tickets are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. We will not be able to accommodate walk-ups on the day of the tour. There are no refunds for tour tickets.

Registrants will receive parking and check-in information via e-mail.

In the event of inclement weather that prevents the tour from being offered as planned, we will notify registrants as far in advance as possible about their options to attend a rescheduled tour or transfer their reservations to another Preservation Houston tour.

Do you have an Architecture Walks pass?

If you have joined Preservation Houston and received a pass for a free Architecture Walk, you may redeem the pass for admission to this tour. E-mail [email protected] and we’ll be happy to help.

Passes are redeemable subject to ticket availability.