The Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Centre for Conservation at Museum Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) in Texas has reopened as part of the second phase of the institution's US$450m (€395.5m, £351.5m) redevelopment, designed by Lake|Flato Architects.

The new centre sits across the road from MFAH’s curatorial offices and includes 23,796sq ft (2,211sq m) of conservation studios and support space and will now allow the museum to bring together various art conversation operations, which had hitherto been spread away from each other, into the main campus.

“Our team can now easily collaborate across all areas of the MFAH — from the collections on the main campus to those in our decorative-arts house museums, Rienzi and Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens — using the most advanced technology in a space that was designed with the conservation and care of the museum’s varied collections specifically in mind,” said David Bomford, chair of the MFAH department of conservation.

MFAH director Gary Tinterow added: “The new Blaffer Foundation Centre for Conservation— one of just a handful of purpose-built museum conservation buildings anywhere—dramatically elevates our conservation facilities to the distinguished level of our extraordinary art conservators and scientists.

“The completion of the centre also brings us one step closer to our goal of unifying the museum’s facilities into one contiguous, 14-acre main campus in 2020.”

Other elements of the ambitious project include the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, which opened in May, and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building which will house gallery space, a 200-seat theatre, a restaurant and an underground car park.

The whole renovation is expected to complete in 2020.