 |
Saturday, 13 August 2005 | Elif Sungur
OMA to Design Museum Plaza in Louisville
A local team of developers has retained the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), a world-renowned architectural firm led by Rem Koolhaas and Joshua Prince-Ramus, to build a new landmark for Downtown Louisville. Museum Plaza, which will house a new contemporary art museum and residential condominiums, will be a work of art itself and serve as an icon, which extends and connects the arts and entertainment corridor in Louisville.
Museum Plaza is the vision of Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown, who are committed to revitalizing downtown Louisville and already restoring five historic buildings.
"Downtown Revitalization is a passion of mine and important for developing the future of Louisville," said Wilson. "Museum Plaza will add to the excitement of the efforts already underway to transform the skyline of Downtown Louisville."
Louisville developer, Steve Poe, an owner of the Downtown Louisville Marriott, is also part of the development team for Museum Plaza. They are working with OMA. Mr. Prince-Ramus leads their New York office and will be responsible for the design of the building.
OMA is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism and cultural analysis. The firm's completed American projects include the Seattle Central Library, the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum, the IIT Campus Center in Chicago and the Prada "Epicenter" Stores in New York and Los Angeles.
"When we select a project, the most important factor is the vision and passion of the client," said Prince-Ramus. "We are excited about the constraints and challenges of the Museum Plaza."
Museum Plaza will be the focal point of an enhanced arts and entertainment corridor connecting the Kentucky Center for the Arts, the Muhammad Ali Center, and a variety of entertainment centers and recreational opportunities for residents and tourists to enjoy, including the Frazier Historical Arms Museum, The Louisville Slugger Museum, and the Kentucky Museum of Art and Craft. Museum Plaza will also connect people through a better public infrastructure north of Main Street from Ninth to the Belvedere and Waterfront Park.
Museum Plaza will be located in the heart of the West Main Street Historic District, adjacent to the Muhammad Ali Center. It will house a new contemporary art museum dedicated to displaying innovative art of all mediums created by leading living artists. Initial plans also include residential housing, commercial office space, a parking garage and a large public plaza.
The James N. Gray Company of Lexington, Kentucky, is providing Kentucky-based architectural services to assist OMA in the initial phase of the project.
A website has been established to help the public participate in this project. They can provide feedback at http://www.museumplaza.net.
About OMA:
The Office for Metropolitan Architecture is a leading international partnership practicing contemporary architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. Amongst many international awards and exhibitions, OMA received the 2000 Pritzker Prize and was the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in 1995 and the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin in 2003. To accommodate the diversity of the company's projects worldwide, OMA maintains offices in Rotterdam, New York, and Beijing. OMA is led by seven partners--Rem Koolhaas, Joshua Prince-Ramus, Ole Scheeren, Ellen van Loon, Floris Alkemade, Reinier de Graaf, and Victor van der Chijs--and employs a staff of over 140 across its three offices.
A span of recent building activity has solidified OMA's reputation for realizing projects for both public and private clients that draw upon the firm's conceptual foundations without compromising innovation, built quality, or cost efficiency. Within the sixteen month period from September 2003 to January 2005, OMA completed seven major building projects on three continents.
|
|
|
