Mario Botta to Design Bechtler Museum of Modern Art

Mario Botta may be the modern architect Charlotte has been looking for.

The 62-year-old Swiss designer, famous for buildings in Europe and Asia, has been asked to design the proposed Bechtler Museum of modern art uptown.

To a city in love with neoclassical architecture, he brings a respect for the past, and, more than that, a deep understanding of it.

Yet the short man with bushy gray hair and a wry smile is very much of his time.

His 35-year career and a recent visit to Charlotte offer a certainty:

His design will bring together strong geometric forms bathed in natural light.

And it will feature the surest element of great architecture -- space that seems timeless and inevitable.

'If you can't find a context, perhaps with a building you can make one," Botta said through an interpreter, speaking of uptown's towers and parking lots, devoid of history.

Such is Botta's stature that when he spoke at UNC Charlotte's College of Architecture, there was mention of his museum becoming a pilgrimage site.

Not known for wide-eyed comments, UNCC professor David Walters said, "Are we really going to get one of your buildings in Charlotte?"

It would be only the second project in the United States by Botta, an architect who ranks with Frank Gehry and Santiago Calatrava.

Botta also designed the San