The Harry Ransom Center at the University of Texas at Austin is an internationally renowned research library and museum, which provides unique insight into the humanities with collections related to literature, the performing arts, film, photography, and art. To advance the Ransom Center’s mission, Cooper Robertson led a strategic master plan and collection storage analysis. The work included a detailed space program with technical criteria, and a concept design for the renovation and expansion of the 45-year-old facility to accommodate the next twenty years of collection and program growth.

The Ransom Center’s holdings include artifacts from several notable collections, including David O. Selznick’s archive from his Hollywood studio operations, with original dresses from the movie, Gone With the Wind. The Ransom Center’s in-house conservation department was responsible for restoring many of these costumes for display in a recent exhibition on the making of the movie, held in its ground-floor gallery. As part of the master plan, a newly expanded conservation center will allow the Ransom Center to provide state-of-the-art treatments to its collection materials. In addition, the master plan defined secure preservation environments customized to each of several different categories of collection material in order to protect and extend the life of its valuable artifacts. Other project components include the modernization of building systems, enhancement of public, outdoor, and staff spaces, the provision of flexible workspaces, and improvements in building connectivity.