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David Adjaye's red concrete art museum, Ruby City, to open in San Antonio in October

2019-04-02T15:06:00-04:00

David Adjaye's ruby-red art museum in San Antonio, Texas is set to open to the public in October 2019. It is the Ghanian-British architect's first project in Texas. Famous for his behemoth buildings, Ruby City—which is described by Adjaye himself as a "very shy building"—offers a quiet stop in between his career-defining National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, DC and his next two projects, the U.K Holocaust Memorial and the National Cathedral of Ghana.

Ruby City. © Dror Baldinger. Courtesy of Ruby City and Adjaye Associates.

Nevertheless, the blushed building offers itself as a crown jewel to a Texan city looking to reactive itself after decades of sprawl. The art museum is designed with this urban future in mind and will be part of a growing campus, the brainchild of philanthropist and heiress to the Pace Foods fortune Linda Pace, whose meditation garden, Chris Park, and exhibitio...

Steven Holl's Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU to open April 21

2018-04-17T15:14:00-04:00

Steven Holl Architects' new Institute for Contemporary Art (ICA) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) will open to the public on April 21, 2018. The ICA's new building named the Markel Center will debut with its inaugural exhibition Declaration, an exploration of contemporary art’s power to respond to pressing social issues. This will be Virginia's first art institution dedicated exclusively to exhibiting contemporary art.

Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU Markel Center at night. Image: Iwan Baan.

Aerial view of the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Image: Iwan Baan.

The building features dual entrances opening to the city’s arts district on one side and VCU’s Monroe Park campus on the other, providing a connection between the two.

View of the Royall Forum at the Institute for Contemporary Art at VCU. Image: Iwan Baan.

Steven Holl Architects activated the 41,000 square feet of space with an open design to create flexibility. With an inviting 33-foot-high central forum, ...

FRCH Design Worldwide upgrades Zaha Hadid's Contemporary Arts Center lobby in Cincinnati

2015-03-23T17:40:00-04:00

After moving a few times in Cincinnati throughout the later half of the 20th century, the Contemporary Arts Center relocated into its current home at the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Arts in 2003. Designed by Zaha Hadid, who won the commission in the late 1990s, the building is the first U.S. contemporary art institution designed by a woman. Shortly after the building opened, Herbert Muschamp of The New York Times hailed the building as "the most important American building to be completed since the end of the Cold War.” The non-collecting museum has housed temporary exhibitions, installations, and performances.

Hadid envisioned the CAC building as an "urban carpet" that draws in pedestrians to experience the interior space by walking on a gently sloping meandering path. Aiming to connect the building's monochromatic exterior with its "playful" interior, FRCH added a cafe, lounge, and seating area in hopes to create a livelier and welcoming lobby for visitors. "We...