Hasta La Ideas

A rendering of the main entrance and atrium of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (Foreign Office Architects)

Behold the newly released design for the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland: an approximately 34,000-square-foot, four-story structure that is the first stateside project for London- and Barcelona-based Foreign Office Architects. “As FOA’s first museum and first U.S. commission, this is an especially meaningful and inspirational project for us,” said FOA principal Farshid Moussavi. “Our design for MOCA Cleveland aims to provide visitors with a museum that is a dynamic public space in which to experience contemporary art in its infinite manifestations.” Freshly approved by the City Planning Commission, MOCA’s new home will be almost 50% larger than its current, leased facility (where the summer exhibitions include a mesmerizing look at recent work by Marilyn Minter). Cleveland-based Westlake Reed Leskosky is acting as executive architects for the $26.3 million project, which is expected to break ground this fall or winter.

FOA responded to the triangular site by designing a hexagonally based building that rises (rather mind-bendingly) to a square roof. Clad primarily in mirror-finish black stainless steel, the faceted facade of the new MOCA will reflect its urban surroundings, while at night, interior lights will create a dynamic pattern on the building’s surface. Inside, there’s a bold, sculptural staircase and an impressively flexible layout, with moveable walls and a gallery designed specifically for new media works. “Flexibility is key to a program that, like ours, embraces aesthetic, conceptual, and cultural diversity, and displays works in a great variety of mediums and genres,” said MOCA director Jill Snyder of the non-collecting institution’s appetite for variety. The MOCA project is part of a broader effort to revitalize Cleveland with the creation of the Uptown district, an eight-acre urban center that will also be home to the expanded Cleveland Institute of Art.

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