His creation, The Light Inside , brightens the tunnel linking the museum to its newest building, opened last year. The involvement of a prominent artist in the Live Oak Friends project attracted donations from individuals and foundations, said Sally Reynolds, a non-member who helped raise money for the meeting house. Still, more than five years passed between Mr. Turrell's offer in 1995 and completion early this year, and much of the time was spent working out the dynamic that developed among the donors, the Friends, the artist, architect Leslie Elkins and the builder, W.S. Bellows Co. We know what it means to build a Friends meeting house. It is just inside the North Loop, in a mixed-use neighborhood of repair shops, old bungalows and new townhouses.
Office towers are visible to the north, and faint freeway noise is audible.
Inside the meeting house, the skyspace is striking even when closed because the cover's interior is lighted by indigo-colored neon. But it's most interesting when it's open. On Fridays just before sunset, weather permitting, a member throws a switch and a motorized system slowly rolls the cover back, opening the vaulted ceiling to the sky. Visitors are kept out until it is completely open. Mr. Turrell suggested sunset as the best time for opening the roof, to achieve maximum visual impact, as the balance changes between the light inside and the light outside, but consideration is being given to occasional sunrise openings.