The billionaire founder of a 41-year-old, $575-billion-AUM, 1,400-plus-employee (as of June 30) fund firm is planning to build an art museum in Texas, and the project recently cleared a key hurdle with local government.

David Gilbert Booth Dimensional Fund Advisors Executive Chairman, Co-Founder

Earlier this month, Community Impact reported that, on August 3, the Austin Environmental Commission unanimously agreed to amend a planned unit development (PUD) for the Bull Creek District property of David Booth, founder and executive chairman of Dimensional Fund Advisors (DFA, which has been based in Austin for 15 years). The amended PUD, contingent on Booth and his developers meeting six agreed-upon conditions, allows the zoning district to be changed from residential to civic or cultural use.

Booth's plan, according to environmental program coordinator Leslie Lilly, is to build an art musuem memorializing his legacy. Daniel Woodroffe, the project's landscape architect, has spent a few years working on native habitat restoration on the property (which is at the Lake Austin and Bull Creek Water supply Suburban Watershed district), and the developers are working on new pathways, walkways, a pond, and more.

"He's in his mid-70's and he would like to preserve his art for the future," David Armbrust, a real estate attorney working for Booth, reportedly said of the DFA chief. "So we're here, really building a museum for the future, which I truly believe will become an international destination given the quality of the artists that are there."

The art musuem project developments come four years after Booth signed the Giving Pledge. Over the years, he has donated to both of his alma maters and to UT Austin. 

Edited by: Neil Anderson, Managing Editor


Stay ahead of the news ... Sign up for our email alerts now
CLICK HERE