The Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, has commissioned Zaha Hadid
to design a $25 million, 65,000-square-foot new museum building on a prominent
downtown Cincinnati corner.  Founded in 1939, the CAC is one of the oldest and
most active museums of contemporary art in the US.

Hadid, "architecture's new diva" (according to Joseph Giovanini), is a
London-based theorist and architect who serves on the faculties of Harvard and
Columbia Universities. Her most famous building thus far is the Vitra Fire
Station in Weil am Rhein, Germany.  The new Contemporary Arts Center will be
her first American building.

Other finalists in the 8-month search were Daniel Libeskind of Berlin and
Bernard Tschumi, Dean of Architecture at Columbia University.

The project marks the first occasion of an American museum designed by a
woman.  In fact, it is also one of the first public projects of any kind
designed solely by a woman (though there are several important male/female
partnerships).  What ones can people think of?  A few YMCAs in California by
Julia Morgan--any commissions more significant in scale and public function?

There's a great deal of material on the CAC search process,
semi-finalists (Jean Nouvel, Toyo Ito, Eric Owen Moss, Rem Koolhaas, Wolf
Prix, Herzog & DeMeuron, Steven Holl, Diller & Scofidio, and Anton Predock),
and on the CAC itself at http://www.spiral.org

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