A NEW HEART FOR AN OLD FACADE

Designed by Washington DC's premiere Beaux Arts architect, Jules Henri de Sibour, The Investment Building was completed in 1924. After a long period of decline, it was recently gutted, and its two monumental limestone facades are now the outward skin of a reinvigorated block of the American capital city. To bring light deep into the "new" building, architect Cesar Pelli has designed a multifaceted central atrium. Next week William Lebovich will show us why he believes this to be Washington's best interior since the Pension Building opened in 1887.

BARCELONA MUSEUM HONORED AFTER 25 YEARS

The Fundació Joan Miró is an art museum in Barcelona, Spain that was completed in 1975 by Spanish-born architect Joseph Lluis Sert and his Lexington, Massachusetts firm of Sert Jackson and Associates. The building has just been named the 2002 recipient of the AIA 25-Year Award as a tribute to its enduring significance. The museum was designed as a center for the study of contemporary art, with a variety of proportioned spaces of differing sizes and lighting conditions. Next week, ArchitectureWeek will take a closer look at this remarkable building.

OLD-FASHIONED WATERCOLOR MEETS HIGH-TECH ANIMATION

When presenting design ideas to clients, architects are often torn between two options: should they show off their technical abilities with a sleek and flashy animation? Or should they demonstrate the preliminary nature of the design by portraying it in an imprecise watercolor painting? Animator Adam Kruvand, working with architects at HOK, has combined both worlds and made an animation out of watercolor images. Next week Alison Sailors will explain how he did this, and we'll see a clip of the result.