ZAHA HADID >>

The new Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art is the first U.S project designed by London architect Zaha Hadid. The Contemporary Arts Center is located in the heart of Cincinnati, Ohio downtown, which is a developing cultural and entertainment area, known as the Backstage District.

The Contemporary Arts Center opened its groundbreaking building to the public on May 31, 2003, extending its 63-year tradition of encouraging viewers, artists and art to interact in new ways within a presenting space. Its mission is to make the Hadid’s provocative building a catalyst for its pioneering programming to become one of the most centrally-located contemporary art institutions in the nation and presenting fresh, compelling and challenging art and ideas into the very heart of the city.

The CAC is dedicated to presenting new developments in painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, performance art and new media. It does not have a permanent collection, because the center’s focus is on organizing changing exhibitions and performances, it offers its audiences entirely new experiences with each programming cycle. The new building will feature galleries of varying sizes and ceiling heights to accommodate the varied shapes, scales and media of contemporary art, enabling the building to engage in a dialogue with its work. These galleries are expressed as floating objects over the lobby and carved out of a single concrete block connected by zig-zag ramps. The view into the galleries from the ramps is erratic and unpredictable. These varying galleries connect and interlock like a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, made up of solid structural elements and open spaces.

“This new building will make the contemporary arts center the most accessible institution of its kind in the nation, moving contemporary art away from the fringes and literally bringing it into the life of our city and its residents,” said charles desmarais, alice and harris weston director of the CAC.

Hadid’s design revolves around its urban context and its architectural programming. The aim of the building is to draw in pedestrian movement from the surrounding areas and create a sense of dynamic public space, the entrance, lobby and lead-in to the circulation system are organized as an "Urban Carpet." Starting at the corner of Sixth and Walnut, the ground curves slowly upward as it enters the building, rising to become the back wall. As it rises and turns, this Urban Carpet leads visitors up a suspended mezzanine ramp through the full length of the lobby, which during the day functions as an open, daylit, "landscaped" expanse.