Situated on the banks of the Ohio River across from Kentucky, at the crossroads of the North and the South, Cincinnati is a place of traditions, new ideas, lively public discourse, and cultural vitality. Today, perhaps more than ever, the arts are shaping the city’s future. The city recently allocated $2.2 million dollars to support capital projects of arts institutions. Three of its major arts institutions are opening new and renovated buildings in the year ahead, and the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center is set to open in 2004.

The Contemporary Arts Center is leading the way with the May 2003 opening of the new Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, the institution’s first free-standing building and an important architectural contribution to the downtown landscape. Also in May, the Cincinnati Art Museum will open its Cincinnati Wing, a newly renovated gallery space showcasing more than 500 paintings, sculptures and costumes designed of, by or for Cincinnati residents. In winter 2004, the Taft Museum of Art will re-open after the first renovation and expansion in 70 years to the former Taft family residence-turned-museum, home to an extraordinary collection of European and Asian fine and decorative art.

To celebrate the debut of the Contemporary Arts Center’s new home and the concurrent events that are invigorating the city’s arts community, Cincinnati’s Fine Arts Fund is organizing the Festival of the New, a dynamic program of arts events, performances and exhibitions, from late May through October 2003. The Fine Arts Fund is the oldest and third largest united arts campaign in the country. Founded in 1927, the Fund plays a central role in supporting the arts in Cincinnati by streamlining fundraising efforts and providing a stable base of support for the city’s arts organizations. In 2003, the Fund raised over $10 million to provide annual operating support to its member organizations-the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Ballet, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, May Festival, Playhouse in the Park and the Taft Museum of Art-along with associate members and other small to mid-sized arts groups.

Adding to the urban dynamism and civic pride fostered by the activities of Cincinnati’s arts community, 2003 will also mark the bicentennial of Ohio and the completion, in March, of the Cincinnati Red’s new river-front stadium, the Great American Ballpark. Opening nearby in the summer of 2004, the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center will provide residents and visitors with a forum to celebrate courage, cooperation and perseverance. Focusing on the heroic legacy of the Underground Railroad, the Center will document the struggle to abolish slavery in the United States.

The CAC’s new Rosenthal Center, designed by Zaha Hadid, is one of several spectacular additions in the last decade to build upon Cincinnati’s long tradition of architectural innovation. The Frank Gehry-designed Vontz Center for Molecular Studies at the University of Cincinnati’s Medical Center has won numerous of prestigious design awards since its completion in 1999. Across the street from the Rosenthal Center, Cesar Pelli’s Aronoff Center for the Arts provided downtown Cincinnati with a state-of-the-art new performing and visual arts complex when it opened in 1996. One of the most contentious yet acclaimed works of architecture completed in the mid-1990s, the Aronoff Center for Design and Art, encompassed both an addition and renovation of existing facilities for the University of Cincinnati’s College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning (DAAP). These recent commissions extend a history of enlightened patronage and appreciation for architecturally-significant buildings in Cincinnati that traces back to the Federal period following the War of 1812.

The Contemporary Arts Center is a forum for the exchange of ideas and a gathering place for people of all cultures and ages. It presents an ever-changing menu of visual and performing arts that feeds the cultural vitality of Cincinnati. The museum is not defined by a collection and a set approach to art. Rather, it is a changeable site that is open and receptive to the creative diversity of artists from around the globe.

The architecture of the new Contemporary Arts Center building redefines the boundaries between art and life in various ways. The building itself is as original and enigmatic as a piece of abstract or conceptual art. Like a work of art, it has its own strong formal logic. In this case, the formal logic informs the spatial logic of a piece of civic life.

The Center should act as a socializing force in Cincinnati. The building engages with the community, hopefully helping to broaden the audience for contemporary art. It will play an important role in developing local art enthusiasts into an involved community. In addition, the Center is an important civic space-like a public living room-inserted in the heart of downtown. The openness of the ground level and the penetration of light into various parts of the building make the passer-by aware that there is something exciting going on inside. The ground floor surface bends upwards at the back of the building creating a strong continuity with the vertical circulation space cutting through the building. This surface is the “urban carpet” that articulates the public accessibility of the building.

With a system of ramps prominently positioned throughout the building, visitors will be able to see each other moving through the space and interacting with the art. In this way, the architecture facilitates the viewing of art as a collective experience. The stair connects the ground level (the lobby) to the top level (the UnMuseum), facilitating the ease of movement from one part of the space to another.

The fundamental concept is a jigsaw puzzle of diverse exhibition spaces: long, short, broad, or tall spaces, each with different lighting conditions. This concept is expressed in the exterior configuration so that from the outside, you can read the volumes of the building. Inside, each volume is defined by material changes in the ceilings and the floors, so the viewer is constantly aware that the next level will be slightly different. We sought to create as many spaces congregated together as possible to allow greater variety and support the presentation of two or three shows at the same time. Collectively, the space gives a clearly recognizable identity to the Center, ensuring that the experience of viewing art here will be distinct from any other venue.

Rather than presuming that flexibility depends on blandness, the building offers diverse conditions to choose from, each with a particular character. This creates a more engaging experience for the visitor. I believe architecture can be a catalyst for instigating and influencing the process of making, as well as viewing, art. I hope the space will instigate a new sense of possibility.

The Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center For Contemporary Art

In May 2003, the Contemporary Arts Center will relocate to its first free-standing home, the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, designed by architect Zaha Hadid. The move to this groundbreaking new building marks a milestone for the 64-year-old Center - building upon its history as a pioneering force in contemporary art. The building’s dynamic design will facilitate radical new programming opportunities for the Center, promising an even more engaging experience for the local, regional and international audiences it serves.

The Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art supports the Contemporary Arts Center’s distinct mission as a non-collecting institution dedicated to presenting an ever-changing cycle of temporary exhibitions, site-specific installations and performances. The building’s rich spatial possibilities and the adaptable configurations of the galleries accommodate the unpredictable scale and media of the works of art exhibited. The building also supports the Center’s role as a dynamic public gathering space and civic institution through amenities such as a children’s education facility (the UnMuseum®), art preparation areas, a museum store, a café kiosk, public areas and offices.
Location: 44 East Sixth Street, Cincinnati

Groundbreaking
May 2001
Completion May 2003 (Grand Opening Party May 31; Public hours begin June 7, 2003)
Total Project Cost $35.7 million (including land acquisition, endowment and $20.2 million construction costs)

Director Charles Desmarais, Alice & Harris Weston Director
Leadership J. Joseph Hale, Jr., Chair, Board of Trustees and Campaign Cabinet
James E. Rogers, Co-Chair, Campaign Cabinet
Design Architect Zaha Hadid
Zaha Hadid Architects

Major Design Features Urban Carpet: The “Urban Carpet” facilitates an uninterrupted flow from the streetscape outside, into the Center’s split-level public lobby, and to the galleries above. On the ground level, cuts in the floorscape invite views and lead visitors down stairs to the lower level and the performance space. Both horizontal and vertical, floor and wall, the “Urban Carpet” extends from the public sidewalk into the Center and curves upward at the back of the building, so that the ground plane and back wall form a continuous surface. An open shaft at the back of the building permeates all six floors connecting the city, the lobby and the galleries above. A ramp-stair at the back of the building zigzags horizontally against the Urban Carpet wall, transporting visitors and allowing multiple views into the galleries and out onto the surrounding cityscape.
Jigsaw Puzzle: The “Urban Carpet” partially frames the gallery spaces above, which are expressed as a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle of interlocking solids and voids suspended above the lobby. The unique geometry, scale and varying heights of the gallery spaces offer organizational flexibility to accommodate and respond to the size and media of the contemporary art that will be displayed.
Materiality/Sculpture: The Center’s corner location led to the development of two different but complementary facades. The building’s exterior, comprising stacked horizontal blocks of glass, metal and concrete dramatically cantilevered toward Sixth and Walnut streets, express the dense composition of galleries and public and administrative spaces within. The lightness of the glass at the ground level, topped by the heavy, raw concrete and metal blocks that float above, give the building a seemingly weightless, sculptural quality. The south façade reveals the programmatic uses inside: gallery floors are expressed in concrete and metal, and administrative and public spaces are glass, inviting views into the building and to the urban landscape outside. Individually, these forms reflect the scale of the city plan and collectively, a compressed vertical abstraction of the cityscape. In effect, the building is an assemblage of spaces that are shaped by and connected to the dynamism of the surrounding urban fabric, resonating with the Center’s role as a mediator between the world of contemporary art and the public realm of the city.

Building Footprint 11,000 sf
Total Square Footage 87,000 sf;Total Gallery Space 23,800 sf (including the UnMuseum)
Interior Breakdown Lower Level: Performance space 2,300 square feet
Lobby: 1,600 sf; Workshop: 1,000 sf; Catering Kitchen: 540 sf; Entry Level: Lobby 4,000 sf
Reception: 150 sf; Museum shop: 950 sf. Second Floor: Galleries 6,100 sf.
Third Floor: Offices 4,000 sf. Fourth Floor: Galleries 5,400 sf; Offices: 1,730 sf; Board Room: 800 sf; Terrace: 350 sf. Fifth Floor: Galleries 4,900 sf; Members’ Room: 520 sf.
Sixth Floor: UnMuseum education facility 7,400 sf; Interior Storage: 5,600 sf.

Zaha Hadid Architects Project Architect:
Markus Dochantschi; Project Team: Ed Gaskin (Assistant Project Architect), Ana Sotrel, Jan Hübener, David Gerber, Christos Passas, Sonia Villaseca, James Lim, Jee-Eun Lee, Oliver Domeisen, Helmut Kinzler, Patrik Schumacher, Michael Wolfson, David Gomersall; Competition Design Team: Shumon Basar, Oliver Domeisen, Jee-Eun Lee, Terence Koh, Marco Guarinieri, Stephane Hof, Woody K.T. Yao, Ivan Pajares, Wasim Halabi, Nan Atichapong, Graham Modlen; Study Models: Chris Dopheide, Thomas Knüvener, Sara Klomps, Bergendy Cook, Florian Migsch, Sandra Oppermann, Ademir Volic (presentation model)
Local Architect KZF Design Incorporated, Cincinnati
Donald L. Cornett, Mark Stedtefeld, Dale Beeler, Amy Hauck-Hamilton, Deb Lanius

Owner’s Representative
David P. Crafts, Trustee, Contemporary Arts Center
Construction Manager Turner Construction Company
Craig Preston, Bill Huber, Bob Keppler
Structural Engineers THP Limited, Inc., Cincinnati
Shayne Manning, Murray Monroe, Andreas Greuel, Jason Jones
Acoustic Consultant Ove Arup and Partners , New York/London
Neill Woodger, Andrew Nicol, Richard Cowell,
Services Consultant Heapy Engineering
Ron Chapman, Gary Eodice, Kirby Morgan, Fred Grable
Security Consultant Steven R. Keller & Associates
Steven Keller, Pete Rondo
Theatre Consultant Charles Cosler Theatre Design, Inc.
Charles Cosler
Lighting Consultant Office for Visual Interaction, Inc.
Jean Sundin, Enrique Peininger

website www.zaha-hadid.com

©copyright Archphoto-Zaha Hadid

©copyright photographs Hélene Binet