by Michael J. Crosbie

Think of the architecture of Tadao Ando, and images of sleek, smooth concrete are sure to fill the mind's eye.

The Church of the Light near Osaka, where the Pritzker Prize-winning architect's practice is based, is a hymn in concrete, its polished surfaces reflecting the shards of light that jab through the building's cruciform fenestration. Likewise, for the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts in St. Louis, Missouri, Ando uses the concrete in such ways as to still the material's surface like a quiet pool of water.

Ando's newest project in the United States is in New England, in one of that region's prototypical places: Williamstown, Massachusetts, home of the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute, which has just unveiled Ando's Stone Hill Center.

It is the first-built of two buildings that Ando has designed for the Clark, and will prove through its understated materials and diminutive size (32,000 square feet, or 3,000 square meters) to be the more reserved of the pair.   >>>

Discuss this article in the Architecture Forum...

SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Stone Hill Center in Williamstown, Massachusetts, was designed by Tadao Ando. Photo: Richard Pare © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Extra Large Image SUBSCRIPTION SAMPLE Ando's design for Stone Hill Center incorporates a tall concrete wall in the shape of a 7, enclosing a courtyard adjacent to the building. Photo: Richard Pare © Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute Extra Large Image   Click on thumbnail images to view full-size pictures.