One of the most recent state buildings, the museum chose a prominent location near the Blanton Museum of Art (
AU41.6) at the University of Texas. Lieutenant Governor Bob Bullock began the effort to establish a state history museum in 1997. The Boston firm of E. Verner Johnson and Associates was also the architect for the Boston Museum of Science and the Grand Rapids Public Museum. With an arcade of Texas granite wrapping around a copper-domed rotunda, the 175,000-square-foot museum gives the impression of a Roman bath.