The Walls At This Downtown Houston Office Building Are Talking — A Museum Director and TV News Star Deploy Gensler’s Headquarters For Good

Art Gensler, the late co-founder of the eponymous architectural firm, believed in the power of design to transform spaces and lives. As he once stated, “We must recognize that design is coloring outside the lines. Design can be the great synthesizer. Designers must be idea makers.”

That ethos — focused on sustainability and community — is expressed in the Downtown Houston Gensler building.

Within this unique setting, architecture, art and community come together in the collaborative exhibition “The Architecture of Culture: Works from the Guess Lawson Collection.” The project is a partnership between Gensler and the Guess Lawson Collection, showing through Friday, April 25.

Community in the Collection

The collection is the work of Houston Museum of African American Culture CEO John Guess and longtime Channel 13 anchor Melanie Lawson. As husband and wife, they’ve built a deeply personal and thoughtful group of artworks. The pieces reflect their belief in art’s power to inform, inspire and push forward social conversations.

“I am so pleased that we could show this art at Gensler, a company that shares our values,” Guess says. “We want to bring people together in living environments that people share.”

Danielle Finnerman, the collection’s curator, emphasizes how the works initiate meaningful dialogue. “Art is an opportunity for the past, present and future to communicate with each other,” she says. “Their collection is initiating those conversations and bringing people together.

“Melanie and John love art, but they go beyond collecting. They bring their community together and lift it up. Their collection has purpose. It’s a collection with works that all have something to say.”

As a result, the exhibition showcases works by Houston art legends John Biggers, Bert Long, Jr. and David McGee, alongside renowned artists Betye Saar and Elizabeth Catlett. Spanning multiple generations and cultures, the show highlights artists at every stage of their careers — from emerging talents to established masters. It also features influential Houston figures such as Molly Gochman and abstract painter and collagist Dick Wray.

The synergistic fusion between art and architecture is a driving conceptual force behind the exhibition.

Peter Merwin, a retired design principal for Gensler, sees architecture and art as tools for civic dialogue. He and Guess have known each other for years, and the exhibition is partly inspired by that connection.

“What makes Gensler unique is that it’s a semi-public space,” Merwin notes. The architecture office sees more than 100 visitors a day and often hosts public events.

“I think one of the best things about this exhibit is that it’s a different setting. It’s not a gallery, not a home, not a museum.”

That shift opens up new possibilities. “The engagement can be different and hopefully richer because it’s a neutral, semi-public space. Ideally, this fosters rich dialogue,” Merwin says.

Ellen Gravesmill, a designer with Gensler, also helped conceptualize and plan the show. She believes the space naturally lends itself to inspiration. “It inspires our clients when they come in, too. It’s a way that we can show them what’s possible in their own spaces.

“Our office is sort of a testing ground. We test new furniture and new systems. And when we show people where art can be — maybe in unexpected places. Then they think it’s possible in their own spaces.”

Art with Purpose

“The Architecture of Culture: Works from the Guess Lawson Collection” is organized into four conceptual groupings: The Architecture of Culture, Lilith, Two Worlds and Purpose. Gallerist Janice Bond, founder of Art Is Bond, consulted on the exhibition and helped shape its conceptual direction, guiding how themes of identity, duality and intention are presented throughout the show.

One of the exhibit’s highlights is a section devoted to the transcendent Lilith archetype and independent women. Camille Bacon’s essay on that theme describes a world in which “women are not punished for the revolt against ideologies that conscript them to a binaristic mode of somatic, emotional and metaphysical labor and, instead, are celebrated for asserting their will.”

Bacon also quotes Melanie Lawson: “As a woman, when I see that gaze of those women in all of those works, that is when I feel we really tie art to activism. You cannot look at those images and not be compelled to do something.

Several artworks stand out in their critique and celebration. Nathaniel Donnett tackles capitalism in A Piece of the Pie (2012). Meanwhile, Robert Hodge pays homage to Henrietta Lacks in The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks (2024), a timely mixed media piece. In light of current events, it resonates amid the recent undermining of health and science research entities in Washington, D.C. It also speaks to the systemic racism Lacks endured within medical science. Rodshir Dailë, based in Paris, created another one of the exhibition’s standout works with his Portraits in Distant Lands series.

As for Dallas-based artist Vicki Meek, the Guess Lawson Collection stands as a bold cultural force and a testament to Black artistic voices.

“It’s composed of many contemporary African diaspora artists doing work that speaks to myriad styles and aesthetic concerns,” Meek says. The Glass Menagerie (2021-22), a rosy pink self-portrait encased in glass, is Meek’s contribution to the exhibition.

“This collection really explodes the idea that Black art is monolithic,” she says. “It illustrates how diverse visual conversations art happening within the Black artist community. I feel honored to be included in the Guess Lawson Collection.”

Looking ahead, Merwin views the collaboration between Gensler and the Guess Lawson Collection as an ongoing, art-centered dialogue.

“Art is meant to be seen, experienced and shared with others,” he argues. “Not all work should be in the background. I believe it should catalyze discussion and provide fuel for ideas. Art is frozen moments in life.”

“The Architecture of Culture: Works from the Guess Lawson Collection” is extended through Friday, April 25 at the Gensler building located at 909 Fannin Street in Downtown Houston. Learn more here.