Architecture firm OMA has unveiled its design for the Frank Liu Jr. Academy for Music and Arts (FLAMA), a transformative adaptive reuse project that converts a historic 1930s J.A. Folger & Co. coffee plant in Houston, Texas, into a tuition-free public charter school. Led by OMA partner Jason Long and project architect Salome Nikuradze, the 6,050-square-meter undertaking merges industrial heritage with a progressive spatial philosophy centered on music, creative learning, and community engagement.
Currently under construction, the school is situated along Houston’s burgeoning Buffalo Bayou East corridor, directly across from the site of the future Turkey Bend development. By breathing new life into a prominent industrial landmark, the project demonstrates how neglected urban infrastructure can be repurposed to serve contemporary educational and cultural needs. Rather than treating the school as a collection of isolated, inward-facing classrooms, OMA’s design approaches education as a collective, shared cultural experience, organizing the building’s three stories to foster independence, curiosity, and collaboration among students.
FLAMA Organizes Learning Around Shared Neighborhood Spaces
The architectural layout of FLAMA is meticulously tailored to the developmental stages of its student body. Younger children occupy the lower levels of the three-story building, while older students progress upward as they advance through their education. Drawing heavy inspiration from Montessori educational principles, the spatial arrangement prioritizes student autonomy, openness, and spontaneous collaboration through a series of interconnected common areas that the design team refers to as "neighborhoods."
Each floor is anchored by two central gathering spaces, locally dubbed "cymbals," around which classrooms, music practice rooms, and core academic programs are arranged. This configuration completely rethinks traditional school circulation. Instead of treating corridors and hallways merely as functional pathways for moving between enclosed rooms, OMA integrates shared spaces directly into the daily educational rhythm. These flexible commons are designed to comfortably accommodate informal gatherings, independent study sessions, collaborative project work, and impromptu performances, allowing the typical boundaries of the school day to naturally overlap.
Music and Sound Shape the Interior Architecture
Music is not merely part of the curriculum at FLAMA; it actively informs the physical geometry of the architecture itself. At the ground level, the youngest pupils share an intimate common zone dedicated to play, movement, and drum circles, directly reflecting the Montessori emphasis on foundational physical development. Nearby, students in the first and second grades gather around a larger open space featuring a sculptural staircase that dramatically curves like a French horn, providing a natural stage-like setting for informal performances and group readings.
As visitors move to the upper floors, the shared spaces transition to accommodate more focused study and collaborative research. Students in grades three through five utilize an open library equipped with flexible furniture designed to easily adapt to group projects and after-school programs. Directly above, a second library commons serves students in grades six through eight, offering quieter, more concentrated zones for independent work.
A striking architectural connection unites the two libraries: an opening cut into the floor in the shape of the letter "f." This clever form serves a triple purpose, visually referencing the forte symbol in musical notation, the characteristic f-holes found on stringed instruments, and the initials of the academy itself. Beyond its symbolic resonance, the void creates a vertical link between the floors, allowing natural daylight and acoustic sound to filter fluidly between the two distinct learning environments.
At the absolute heart of the school sits a double-height cafetorium designed to bring the entire student body together for daily meals, school-wide assemblies, and musical performances. Here, a large circular opening and a sweeping auditorium staircase recall the iconic body of a banjo, successfully transforming a utilitarian space for eating into a vibrant focal point for collective gathering and artistic expression.
Bringing Natural Daylight into a Historic Industrial Structure
One of the most complex engineering and design hurdles in converting the former 1930s coffee plant into a modern educational facility involved maximizing natural light within a deep, historic industrial footprint. To solve this, OMA positioned the primary classrooms along the building’s exterior perimeter, ensuring that students and teachers have direct access to exterior views and abundant daylight throughout the day. Simultaneously, a series of new circular skylights were introduced to pierce the roof, drawing sunlight deep into the central shared interior spaces.
Despite the sweeping interior transformation, the design team went to great lengths to preserve and honor the building’s rich industrial past. The original historic grid windows along the street-facing facades have been meticulously restored and upgraded to meet modern energy efficiency standards. Inside, a newly landscaped courtyard introduces a playful, human-scale intervention to the stark industrial setting. Featuring colorful geometric window divisions, the courtyard establishes a dialogue between the structure’s rugged manufacturing history and its progressive, student-focused future.
The realization of the Frank Liu Jr. Academy for Music and Arts is a collaborative effort involving a multidisciplinary team of specialists. Lovett Commercial serves as the client for the project, while RDLR Architects acts as the architect of record. The surrounding landscape has been crafted by SWA Group, with structural engineering managed by IMEG, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing engineering provided by DBR Engineering, and acoustic consulting led by Salas O’Brien.
