A new mixed-use facility with an eye for design is steadily rising in Houston’s vibrant Museum District. Developers of the Museo medical office building have announced plans for a 10-story, mixed-use tower located at 5115 Fannin St. and slated to open in fall of 2021

The building, constructed by Mission Construction, LP, pays homage to the neighborhood’s dedication to art, science, and culture. Museo will encapsulate three city blocks of prime Museum District real estate that will ultimately include a medical arts building, residential tower, five-star hotel and spa, open-air plaza, and public art spaces — along with multiple food, beverage, and entertainment offerings, according to a press release.

Museo takes its cues from early 20th-century analytical cubism and will be defined by the art movement made famous by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, where fragmentation is used to break up forms that are later reconstructed in abstract fashion.The architecture utilizes similar compositional tools that carve up Platonic geometric forms to create a “sculptural building,” according to a release.

An unrealized Philip Johnson design that has been significantly evolved by PJMD Architects principal Marko Dasigenis in tandem with Dallas-based Huitt-Zollars inspired the building.

Dasigenis, acclaimed architectural colorist Carl Black, and Dr. Mike Mann personally sourced 5,500 square feet of rare marble from the Greek island of Thasos to be cut to measure for the lobby. “I am extremely excited to place this particular type of marble in the lobby because it is not a dead white or a cream white. When light hits this marble, it is an effulgence” Black noted, in a statement. “The marble possesses rare crystals that make it the purest white on the planet.”

The lobby will boast two hand-selected crystal chandeliers that will hang from the 14-foot ceiling and a striking 6-foot marble statue from the Macedonian Period. The Chthonic sculpture — a reference to the underworld religious spirits in Ancient Greece — hails from a Thasos quarry and dates back to approximately 200 B.C.

The color blue, meant to symbolize health, rejuvenation, and lightness, will play a prominent role in the interior spaces. “Medicine has two sides to it. One is negative as it relates to pain and suffering, but the other is the ability to heal,” noted Dasigenis. “Our goal is to emphasize the healing qualities of medicine through the use of the color blue.”