DUBLIN HABITAT

In crafting a modern setting within a historic context, the Irish firm of Douglas Wallace Architects has struck a delicate balance between respectful homage to the past and a stylish adventure into the future. In the new Habitat store in Dublin, they have converted an 18th-century Bank of Ireland and a 1960s office building into a large retail establishment for the city center.

PIANO TONE

The High Museum of Art in Atlanta, Georgia now bears the signatures of two living masters. Richard Meier designed the original in 1983; the expansion by Renzo Piano opened in November, 2005. The new addition reinforces Piano's reputation as a designer of cultural palaces that are distinctive without being ostentatious — and spare without an overly minimalist chill.

ART URBANE

The contemporary art museum increasingly shares responsibility for the well-being of its parent city, supporting tourism and its consequent revenue, and galvanizing local redevelopment.

So the Figge, a new museum by British firm David Chipperfield Architects, on the banks of the Mississippi River in Davenport, Iowa, not only envelopes its collections in a luminous and strictly orthogonal embrace, but it stands as a glowing emblem for the regeneration of Davenport's riverfront downtown.

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