zaha m. hadid : the lois& richard rosenthal center for contemporary art, cincinnati

zaha m. hadid : contemporary art museum ..........................................................................................................................................................................

......................... shop .................. competitions .............. education ................ interviews ................... snapshots ................... history .......... contemporary

the lois& richard rosenthal center
for contemporary art, cincinnati

1998 zaha hadid won the competition for the new CAC building.
the 85,000-square-foot center for contemporary art will be the first
americam building designed by zaha hadid, and the first american
art museum to be designed by a woman.
zaha hadid came to the start of construction ceremony on
may 24, 2000. she received the biggest round of applause from the
crowd. a symbolic foam model of the center was built,
a prototype of the innovative staircase and samples of materials
were on show.
and as we are in the usa... refreshments, free souvenirs
and a sale of event-merchandise, including t-shirts and frisbees
were organized.
completetion should be in late spring 2003.

conceptually the existing plan of the city curves upward,
making the ground plane and the back wall a continous surface.
'there is no break between the center and its surroundings'
hadid stated. 'we took the street grid of the city and pulled it into
the center, so that it seems as if the ground is rising to become
the back wall. we call this the urban carpet: a continuous
surface between the street outside and the wall inside.
it mediates between the city, the lobby, and the galleries beyond.
during the day the lobby should be a kind of public square -
an open, day-lit, artificial park. without paying an admission fee
people can walk in and find out what's going on in here.'

in contrast to the urban carpet, which is a series of polished,
undulated surfaces, the galleries are expressed as if they had
been carved from a single block of concrete and were floating
over the lobby space.

the south facade forms an undulating, translucent skin, through
which passersby see into the life of the center.
offices provide the facade with human animation.
the east facade is expressed as a sculptural relief.
it provides an imprint, in negative, of the gallery interiors.
'there are actually two distinct but complementary facades.
the south facade, along sixth street, will integrate itself with the city
by offering an animated and irregularly inhabited skin.
we hope to achieve the impression of a collage, offering a strange,
layered texture of activity and art in constant flux.
at night, the light from the windows could be very beautiful.
it could be animated with all kinds of different lighting programs.'

CAC
http://www.spiral.org