The Richard and Lois Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art
Cincinnati, Ohio · 2003
Photo · Photo by Roland Halbe
A key precedent for deconstructivist urban infill, demonstrating how interlocking concrete and metal volumes can create a dynamic, sculptural corner landmark with a highly transparent public threshold.
- What we like about this project
- The way the massive concrete blocks appear to float effortlessly above a completely glazed, delicate ground-floor corner.
Materials
- cast-in-place-concrete
- black-aluminum
- glass
- steel
Visual identifiers
- cantilevered-volumes
- interlocking-masses
- concrete-facade
- glazed-ground-floor
- urban-corner
Style tags
- deconstructivism
- sculptural
- monolithic
- brutalist-influence
Visual tags
- deconstructivism
- sculptural-massing
- monolithic
- civic-architecture
- contemporary-art-museum
- Geometry
- An interlocking puzzle of heavy, rectilinear volumes. A dark, cantilevered mass is sandwiched between light-colored, textured concrete blocks that shift horizontally to create deep recesses and overhangs.
- Facade system
- Rainscreen cladding with large-format precast concrete panels and custom metal paneling over a structural steel frame.
- Structural guess
- Cast-in-place concrete cores with cantilevered structural steel trusses supporting the projecting volumes.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story cultural institution with a highly articulated, monumental scale that responds to the surrounding street grid.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with dramatic uplighting that accentuates the horizontal joints, cantilevered undersides, and the texture of the concrete panels.
- Atmosphere
- Dramatic and imposing, with the heavy concrete masses appearing weightless against the twilight sky.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban corner site in Cincinnati, flanked by traditional brick mid-rises and modern high-rise office towers.
- Spatial experience
- The building presents a highly sculptural, dynamic street presence where the solid volumes appear to float over a transparent, glazed ground floor lobby, drawing the public eye inward.
- Composition rhythm
- A complex horizontal stack of contrasting light and dark volumes, punctuated by a continuous band of glazing.
- Style reading
- Deconstructivist sculptural modernism
- Program
- Contemporary art museum and public gallery
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture
- Materials
- cast-in-place-concrete, black-aluminum, glass, steel
- Visual identifiers
- cantilevered-volumes, interlocking-masses, concrete-facade, glazed-ground-floor, urban-corner
- Style tags
- deconstructivism, sculptural, monolithic, brutalist-influence
- Visual tags
- deconstructivism, sculptural-massing, monolithic, civic-architecture, contemporary-art-museum
- Geometry
- An interlocking puzzle of heavy, rectilinear volumes. A dark, cantilevered mass is sandwiched between light-colored, textured concrete blocks that shift horizontally to create deep recesses and overhangs.
- Facade system
- Rainscreen cladding with large-format precast concrete panels and custom metal paneling over a structural steel frame.
- Structural guess
- Cast-in-place concrete cores with cantilevered structural steel trusses supporting the projecting volumes.
- Spatial scale
- Multi-story cultural institution with a highly articulated, monumental scale that responds to the surrounding street grid.
- Lighting
- Dusk lighting with dramatic uplighting that accentuates the horizontal joints, cantilevered undersides, and the texture of the concrete panels.
- Atmosphere
- Dramatic and imposing, with the heavy concrete masses appearing weightless against the twilight sky.
- Environmental context
- Dense urban corner site in Cincinnati, flanked by traditional brick mid-rises and modern high-rise office towers.
- Spatial experience
- The building presents a highly sculptural, dynamic street presence where the solid volumes appear to float over a transparent, glazed ground floor lobby, drawing the public eye inward.
- Composition rhythm
- A complex horizontal stack of contrasting light and dark volumes, punctuated by a continuous band of glazing.
- Style reading
- Deconstructivist sculptural modernism
- Program
- Contemporary art museum and public gallery
- Perspective
- Exterior Facade
- Discipline
- architecture