A new facility for the VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre, designed by Terry Pawson Architects, has opened in Carlow, Ireland. Photo: Helene Binet Extra Large Image

Appleton · 2009.0930
The Richard and Margot Warch Campus Center has been completed at Lawrence University in Appleton, Wisconsin. Designed by KSS Architects of Princeton, New Jersey, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the $35 million, 107,000-square-foot (9,940-square-meter) center is expected to achieve LEED Gold certification. Uihlein-Wilson Architects of Milwaukee served as architect of record.

KSS recently completed design of another project: the interiors of a new Princeton office for Dechert LLP, an international law firm. Elegant, light-colored finishes, such as marble tile floors and wood and glass workstations, balance bold-colored furniture and wall fabrics.

Carlow · 2009.0926
In Carlow, Ireland, a new building (pictured above) that houses VISUAL Centre for Contemporary Art and the George Bernard Shaw Theatre has opened. Terry Pawson Architects of London designed the £18 million, three-story, 3,730-square-meter (40,100-square-foot) arts center, located in the center of Carlow Town on the grounds of St. Patrick's College.

The building is an assembly of different-sized volumes clad in opaque glass, raised on a concrete plinth. The largest gallery lies at its center, with smaller galleries and the 350-seat theater arranged around it. The opaque glass harmonizes with the neutral gray of the local limestone, and is illuminated at night. The entrance opens into a foyer of cast concrete and dark timber.

Tokyo · 2009.0924
British Iraqi architect Zaha Hadid has been named the 2009 laureate of the Praemium Imperiale architecture award by the Japan Art Association. Born in Baghdad in 1950, Hadid graduated from the Architectural Association in London and became a partner at the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) before establishing her own firm at age 30. She operates her London studio with partner Patrick Schumacher and a staff of 250.

Hadid is the only woman architect to have received the Pritzker Architecture Prize. Her built works include the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art (2003) in Cincinnati, Ohio; the Bergisel Ski Jump (2002) in Innsbruck, Austria; the Vitra Fire Station (1993) in Weil am Rhein, Germany; the Terminus and Car Park (2001) in Strasbourg, France; and the Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre (2006) in Fife, Scotland. Her ongoing projects include the London Aquatics Centre for the 2012 Olympics.

Liège · 2009.0918
The new Liège-Guillemins TGV Railway Station, designed by Santiago Calatrava, has opened in Liège, Belgium. The working platforms are exposed, protected by a flowing roof that evokes the form of the nearby Cointe Hills. The station is designed to accommodate high-speed trains.

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