OMA Converts 1930s Houston Coffee Plant Into Music School

OMA has broken ground on the Frank Liu Jr Academy for Music and Arts (FLAMA), a tuition-free charter school set inside a 250,000-square-foot former coffee plant in Houston. The school is expected to open in 2027.

The three-storey building will serve students from pre-K through eighth grade. It occupies the historic 1930s JA Folger & Co coffee plant, a complex of multiple warehouse buildings along the Buffalo Bayou East corridor in Houston's Second Ward.

"Like fine-tuning an instrument, our design recalibrates the existing industrial structure into an open, connected, and expressive environment for learning," said OMA partner Jason Long.

Long added: "FLAMA will be a new learning environment that builds on the character of the existing building while giving it a new life for the community."

How do instruments shape the architecture?

The design integrates musical instrument forms throughout the learning spaces. A curved stair "recalls the form of a French horn", according to the team.

The double-height cafetorium will feature a large circular opening informed by the round body of a banjo. An F-shaped opening will connect two library commons, calling to the forte symbol and the f-hole of a string instrument.

Renderings show expansive, colourful spaces, including a roof terrace with an enormous yellow roof.

What guides the layout?

The building follows Montessori learning principles, with spaces organised around "prioritising openness, independence, and collective learning".

Learning spaces ascend in age from the bottom to top floors. Each floor will contain two central gathering spaces, with classrooms, practice rooms and academic programs arranged around them to create "neighbourhoods" of learning.

Who is developing the project?

Local developer Lovett Commercial is developing the site. According to local reports, commercial, retail and apartment buildings are also slated for the former coffee plant complex.

FLAMA will operate as an open-enrollment, tuition-free public charter school.

The project marks another Houston collaboration between OMA and Lovett Commercial, who previously worked together on POST Houston. OMA recently completed an affordable housing development in San Francisco, while co-founder Elia Zenghelis passed away aged 89 earlier this month.

Images are by Out of RAM. With FLAMA, a Depression-era industrial landmark gains a second life as public education infrastructure by 2027.