Zaha Hadid designed the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art museum in downtown Cincinnati, which opened in 2003. Hadid is the first woman to design a major museum in the United States.
The obvious color contrast in the Deconstructivist layered exterior continues inside with a very loose and slipping arrangement of material. The CAC rather fits into the texture of the urban downtown, with no attempt to stand above or degrade the city architecture.
The ground floor invites the young and poor, a non-elitist “urban carpet” that leads through dynamic stairways to various levels of temporary art exhibits and curves into the very fabric of the form. The circulation carves voids out of the mass of the building.
At $27.5m, the price was hefty, but has proven vital to the revitalization of a sorely depressed downtown.
Video: 2009 exhibits, More Info, More Info , More Info
(Specialrobotdog – flickr/creative commons license)
(puroticorico– flickr/creative commons license)
(puroticorico– flickr/creative commons license)
(puroticorico– flickr/creative commons license)
(Payton Chung– flickr/creative commons license)
(Payton Chung– flickr/creative commons license)
(puroticorico– flickr/creative commons license)
