Stephen James tells the story of a great unrealized project in The Menil Connection: Louis Kahn and the Rice University Art Center . Kahn, Rice, and the art collectors John and Dominique de Menil collaborated in this unusual venture, which, among other things, would have housed the de Menil art collection on the Rice campus. The project embodied Kahn's approach to designing an institutional landscape, interwoven with the smaller spaces that he judged were essential for teaching and learning. Its abandonment was the genesis of the independent Menil Collection, for which Kahn also prepared a design, but which was ultimately built by Renzo Piano.