In less than two years, Dallasites will have a new museum to honor Holocaust survivors and to learn about human rights. The Dallas Holocaust museum started construction on its new Dallas Holocaust and Human Rights Museum Tuesday morning.
The 51,000-square-foot facility will open in summer 2019 at 300 North Houston St. in the West End. The Dallas Holocaust Museum has outgrown its rented building at 211 North Record St. and must often turn away visitors because of capacity requirements. The new building, which will quadruple its current size, will allow the museum to double its visitor counts. The museum will include a 250-seat Cinemark XD theater, two classrooms, library, archive, and memorial area.
In a related milestone, the museum reached its fundraising goal of $61 million. Ann and Nate Levine, for whom the family learning center will be named, donated $10 million. Several other foundations and individuals, including real estate executives Herb and Donna Weitzman and Marianne and Roger Staubach, also made significant contributions.
The museum has now set another goal to raise an additional $10 million for special exhibits, scholarships, programming, and education.
Omniplan Architects designed the museum that will be constructed by Austin Commercial. The museum’s permanent exhibit will be designed by Berenbaum Jacobs Associates.