The plan is funded by UMLAUF Sculpture Garden & Museum, the Austin Parks Foundation and Nelie Plourde. (Courtesy of Umlauf Sculpture Garden & Museum)
Before his death, sculptor Charles Umlauf and his wife Angie arranged for the house they had lived in for more than 50 years to be donated to the city of Austin. The couple intended for the house, perched on a bluff overlooking Barton Creek and the UMLAUF Sculpture Garden and Museum below, to be opened as a gallery for Umlauf’s work.
But since Charles’ death in 1994 and Angie’s in 2012, the house and adjoining studio have been closed to the public. Now UMLAUF is in the midst of a campaign to make the original vision a reality.
The nonprofit, whose headquarters are on a 2.5-acre tree-shaded lot next to the Umlaufs’ home, wants to connect the two properties using its UMLAUF Historic Preservation, Enhancement and Association plan. The plan was recently approved by the city’s arts and historic preservation commissions and will go before the environment and design commissions this week. UMLAUF’s Amanda Volbracht told us the plan will go before the Parks and Recreation Board in September and hopefully be taken up by the City Council shortly after.
“We’re in the sharing phase right now,” Volbracht said. “We’re sharing it with as many people as we can and spreading the word. Then we’ll move into the fundraising phase next year.”
“Having a home and a studio on the same site as a public museum is really rare, so it’s a huge advantage that Austin can offer here.” – Amanda Volbracht from UMLAUF
UMLAUF solicited design proposals for the project last year and chose architectural firm Page’s plan to landscape the property and build a multi-story, 4,500-square-foot structure called the “Treehouse” into the side of the cliff. The Treehouse will integrate the house and studio into the existing sculpture garden, Volbracht said, solving the problem of getting visitors to the house and studio, which are perched 45 feet above the sculpture garden and offer stunning views of downtown.
“It’s really beautiful,” Volbracht said of the property. “I’ve been in the house quite a bit. It was renovated in the 1950s, so it’s very mid-century modern. And the studio is basically exactly as it looked when Charles Umlauf used it. So all of his tools and workbenches and shipping crates and art fragments are scattered all over the place.”
Umlauf is considered one of the most significant artists to come out of Austin. He has completed hundreds of works over the course of his 50-year career, has exhibited more sculptures in Texas than any other artist, and his work is included in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Smithsonian Museum, and every major museum in the state.
UMLAUF owns over 2,000 drawings and 273 sculptures by Umlauf, of which only 59 are on display in the existing gallery and sculpture garden. Volbracht said UMLAUF will be able to showcase many of these pieces to the public in the 4,700 square feet of exhibition space the treehouse provides. She believes visitors will be thrilled to stand in the home and studio where Umlauf spent his life and created his art.
“I think the most interesting part of our project is opening the house and studio to the public, because that was the original gift that Charles and Angie gave to the city,” Volbracht said. “Their vision was that the house and studio would be accessible and there would be sculptures there. And they’re very inspiring spaces. I think it will be very powerful for the community to see where the artist worked and lived. And to have a house and studio in the same location as a public museum is really rare, so it’s a huge benefit that Austin can offer.”
