ROSENTHAL CENTER FOR CONTEMPORARY ART
The Rosenthal Center was founded in 1939 in Cincinnati, a place where the south and the north of the USA meet and a place of lively culture. In 2003 the Center finally moved into its own premises – outstandingly striking premises, it has to be said right at the outset. The Center for Contemporary Art does not hold a permanent collection, but instead has all the more space for temporary presentations, including its own performance art room and instal- lations. Besides the exhibition rooms of many different sizes and proportions, the building also has seminar facilities, offices, workshops, a shop and a café. The ground level is designed as a transparent structure and acts as an „Urban Carpet“ to connect with the public space, enticing pedestrians into the building and guiding them into the gallery areas. These in turn float above the bright lobby as if they‘ve been cut from a huge block of concrete. The façades have been made with absolute precision from precast concrete parts; with their recesses and protrusions, they resemble a three-dimensional jigsaw puzzle. The narrow east side in particular is shaped like a sculptural relief. By contrast, the „Urban Carpet“ with its polished, wavy surfaces creates a very different impression, including the ramp that leads upwards in a zigzag path through a narrow open space. The Rosenthal Center is not only Zaha Hadid‘s first building in the United States, it is also the first US museum to be designed by a female architect. The New York Times described it as „the most important American building to be completed since the Cold War.“
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