Coming in 2015

These aren’t the only buildings nearing completion that we’re keeping an eye on, but we’ll save the rest for our special “Year in Architecture” Insight coming in a few weeks.

The Broad
Diller, Scofidio + Renfro
Los Angeles, California
Opening Autumn 2015

At the end of October The Broad – an initiative of longtime art collectors and philanthropists Eli and Edythe Broad – announced it would be opening its doors in fall 2015 with free admission. Located across the street from Frank Gehry's Walt Disney Concert Hall and the MOCA, the Broad will expand downtown Los Angeles's cultural offerings with its 120,000-square-foot (11,150-sm), $140 million building for the couple's nearly 2,000 artworks. DS+R's design is clad in a veil that they describe as "porous and absorptive, channeling light into its public spaces and galleries."

Grace Farms, "The River"
SANAA
New Canaan, Connecticut
Opening Autumn 2015

On Tuesday the Grace Farms Foundation announced it will be opening its new building, "The River," designed by Japan's SANAA, the Pritzer Prize-winning duo of Kazuyo Sejima and Ryue Nishizawa. Located on 75 acres in the same Connecticut town as the Philip Johnson Glass House, the 86,000-square-foot (8,000-sm) building is "designed to blend almost transparently into woodlands, wetlands and meadows with a landscape design by SANAA in collaboration with OLIN," per a statement from Grace Farms. The sinuous design is meant to further the Foundation's goal of experiencing nature, fostering community, pursuing justice and exploring faith.

Toyo Ito & Associates, Architects
Taichung Metropolitan Opera House
Taichung, Taiwan
Opening November 2015

We have been keeping an eye on the construction of Pritzker Prize-winning architect Toyo Ito's complex design for the Taiching Metropolitan Opera House for a couple years now. Arguably his most ambitious project to date – both formally and structurally – the boxy exterior only hints at the linked, curving organic spaces inside that house three performance halls: a 2,000-seat theater, an 800-seat theater, and a 200-seat black box. Justifiably, the project will certainly get its share of fanfare when its grand opening happens, as reported by Architectural Record, in November 2015, but for the time being the building is the subject of an exhibition at TOTO Gallery MA in Tokyo.

Faena Forum
OMA - Office for Metropolitan Architecture
Miami, Florida
Opening December 2015

On Tuesday the New York Times reported that the "new Miami Beach arts center designed by Rem Koolhaas is to open in December 2015." Founded by Argentine hotelier and developer Alan Faena, the 50,000-square-foot (4,645-sm) Faena Forum will become, per the Times, "the centerpiece of the Faena District in Miami Beach, six blocks of new mixed-use development designed by Mr. Koolhaas, Norman Foster and Brandon Haw." The design, actually headed by OMA NY partner Shohei Shigematsu, is split into two parts: a cylinder that houses gathering spaces and a cube with a hotel and meeting rooms.

Renzo Piano Building Workshop
Whitney Museum of American Art
New York, New York
Opening 1 May 2015

And finally, today the Whitney Museum of American Art set a date for the opening of its Renzo Piano-designed building located next to the southern terminus of the High Line in the Meatpacking District: 1 May 2015. Among the numerous galleries for its permanent collection and special exhibition, the Whitney's 200,000-square-foot (18,575-sm) building will house the largest column-free museum gallery in New York City as well as a free lobby gallery and terraced outdoor galleries facing the High Line.