Designs for $200m Las Vegas Museum of Art revealed – The Art Newspaper

The Las Vegas Museum of Art (LVMA) has unveiled renderings of its upcoming 60,000-sq.-ft building, designed by the Pritzker Prize-winning architect Francis Kéré. The museum, which is on track to open in 2029 at Symphony Park in downtown Las Vegas, will aim to mirror the surrounding landscape, drawing inspiration from the Mojave Desert and the legacy of Modernist architecture in the city.

The design for the four-storey museum features a mosaic façade of stone sourced from the nearby Red Rock Mountains. A shaded front porch and light-filled atrium will lead to a canyon-like grand staircase and, on the second floor, galleries will be designed to visually evoke the work of the Modernist architect Paul R. Williams, who made many contributions to Las Vegas. Baobab trees, a recurring metaphor in Kéré’s work symbolising gathering and community, will also inform the design.

Kéré, who won the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2022, is celebrated for his environmentally centred and socially engaged work. Some previous projects include Xylem (2019) at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Montana, a timber pavilion envisioned as a place for reflection; the 2017 Serpentine Pavilion in London, where he became the first African architect to design the annual commission; and regular contributions to the Venice Architecture Biennale.

Kéré’s work has been exhibited in major institutions like the Philadelphia Art Museum, the Royal Academy of Arts in London and the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Denmark. The architect said in a statement that he hopes to create a “welcoming, engaging building that reflects both aspects of Las Vegas” as “a place of architectural marvels and of a timeless, awe-inspiring desert landscape”.

Kéré added: “We see the LVMA as a gathering place where the entire community can recognise itself and take pride in a building that reflects the history and spirit of the city and the beauty of its natural surroundings.”

The $200m project is supported by gifts from the late philanthropist Elaine Wynn, the museum’s founding board chair and president, and donations from trustees including Dana and Greg Lee, Roger Thomas and Arthur Libera and the Elaine P. Wynn and Family Foundation. A museum representative says it has now passed the halfway mark of its capital fundraising campaign.

The LVMA was conceived as a partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (Lacma) and will showcase works from Lacma’s collection, with its director and chief executive Michael Govan serving as a founding trustee. Earlier this year, the LVMA opened a satellite exhibition titled Family Album (until 9 January 2026) at the Las Vegas Civic Center Gallery with loans that connected to the history of Las Vegas.

Ahead of the grand opening, next year the museum will open a 15,000-sq.-ft gallery and media lab for exhibitions, public events and educational programming. The space will be near the site of the future museum and additionally feature a retail storefront.

The LVMA’s executive director Heather Harmon says the museum will be a celebration of the city’s diversity and spirit. “Kéré’s incomparable design unites his vision for community-centred museum design with a deep understanding of the environment that surrounds our institution,” Harmon said. “It signals the dawning of a new era for culture in Las Vegas.”