NEW YORK
OMA in Beijing: China Central Television Headquarters by Ole Scheeren and Rem Koolhaas
Museum of Modern Art
Through February 26
The author of Delirious New York provides a sense of the delirium in Beijing as the approach of the 2008 Olympics spurs a wave of construction and innovation. Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas and crew are contributing to China's urban genesis through a loop-shaped tower on a 2.15-million-square-foot site. MoMA curators promise an “immersive installation” through which to explore the iconic structure, which proposes a dramatic alternative to the tall building formula. The complex will include a broadcast center, five-star hotel, park, and other facilities. Renderings and models convey the project as “one of the most visionary undertakings in the history of modern architecture.” Let the games begin.
LOS ANGELES
Skin + Bones: Parallel Practices in Fashion and Architecture
The Museum of Contemporary Art
Through March 5
Architectonic garments and buildings inspired by fabrics are only the starting point for a groundbreaking exhibition of 300 examples of avant-garde clothing and buildings by 46 designers. Architects include Shigeru Ban, Diller Scofidio+Renfro, Peter Eisenman, Foreign Offi ce Architects, Gehry Partners, Zaha Hadid, Herzog & de Meuron, Greg Lynn, Jean Nouvel, Rem Koolhaas, and Bernard Tschumi.
MIAMI BEACH, FLA.
Modernism in American Silver: 20th Century Design
Through March 25
More than 200 works of American silver, made between 1925 and 2000, include small-scale masterpieces by Eliel Saarinen, Robert Venturi, Michael Graves, and Richard Meier in this traveling exhibition organized by the Dallas Museum of Art.
MINNEAPOLIS
Streamline Design: The Essence of Speed
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Through September 28
The acquisition of a 1936 Tatra T87 automobile inspired this display of aerodynamicism in objects created by America's 20th century superstars: Norman Bel Geddes, Raymond Loewy, and Henry Dreyfuss. Also on view is the institute's newly completed expansion by Michael Graves.
NEW HAVEN, CONN.
Some Assembly Required: Contemporary Prefabricated Houses Yale University School of Architecture
Through February 2
Eight studios, including Resolution: 4 Architecture, Steven Holl, and Michelle Kaufmann, take prefabricated dwellings to the next level.
NEW YORK
James “Athenian” Stuart, 1713–1788, The Rediscovery of Antiquity
The Bard Graduate Center
Through February 18
Director and curator Susan Weber Soros sheds light on the English architect and designer behind The Antiquities of Athens (1762), the first systematic survey of ancient Greek architecture. The publication defined Greece for 18th century Britons and inspired the development of neoclassicism. Original gouaches, rare editions, and interior designs by Stuart will travel to the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
National Design Triennial: Design Life Now
Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum
Through July 29
For a third time, the Cooper-Hewitt has assembled a team of curators to assess contemporary design culture at the front lines. Leading artists and practitioners will point the way forward in disciplines as diverse as architecture, animation, robotics, graphic design, and medicine. Only the prosaic will be left behind.
Louis Comfort Tiffany and Laurelton Hall–An Artist's Country Estate
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Through May 20
An examination of the artist's utopian vision through the re-creation of his Long Island home, interiors, objects, and gardens built at the turn of the last century and—except for fragments, objects, and photos–now lost. The exhibit also includes the artist's collections of Japanese, Chinese, and Native American works of art.
Radical Lace & Subversive Knitting
Museum of Arts & Design
January 25–June 17
Rubber, lead, glass, and industrial wire shelving find their way into new interpretations of an old technique in this exhibition of 40 miniatures, architectural interventions, and video installations. Twenty-seven artists from seven countries display work in this provocative exhibition organized by chief curator David Revere McFadden for the museum's 50th anniversary.
PITTSBURGH
Louis Comfort Tiffany: Artist for the Ages
Carnegie Museum of Art
Through January 15
In its final venue, this traveling exhibition offers more than 130 masterpieces, including lamps, vases, windows, mosaics, and a bifold door from the Mark Twain House in Hartford, Conn., to demonstrate how Tiffany's experimentation anticipated many stylistic trends of the 20th century.
PROVIDENCE, R.I.
Urban America, 1930–1970
RISD Museum of Art
Through February 25
An exhibition of 30 prints, drawings, and photographs by American artists conveys a dramatic urban transformation, as gender roles, labor, migration, and racial diversity altered the cultural mix. Harlem, Providence, and New Orleans come under the lens.
SANTA MONICA, CALIF.
Strange New World: Art and Design From Tijuana
Santa Monica Museum of Art
January 13–April 21
Architectural proposals, digital art, music, and more create a portrait of Tijuana, Mexico, as a paradigm of the postmodern city, shaped by globalization, transnationalism, and a headlong, haphazard rush into the 21st century.
TEMPE, ARIZ.
New American City: Artists Look Forward
Arizona State University Art Museum
Through January 27
Local artists weigh in on the future of Phoenix, a city beset by astronomical growth despite the supposed limits of its desert setting. Best in show: Matthew Moore's field of not-so-sweet dreams, which he mowed into a mock subdivision.
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Reinventing the Globe: Shakespeare for the 21st Century
National Building Museum
January 13–June 30
As part of a citywide Shakespeare Festival, teams of architects, set designers, artists, theater professionals, and lighting designers invent sets and stages for a 21st century bard. Their creative process is revealed in models, drawings, renderings, and at least one actual set in which performances will take place.
The Green House: New Directions in Sustainable Architecture and Design
National Building Museum
Through June 3
Innovative green residences from around the world and a furnished modular house by California modernist architect Michelle Kaufmann provide a consumer-friendly picture of eco-design.
PITTSBURGH
Gritty Brits: New London Architecture
Heinz Architectural Center
January 20–June 3
In the so-called gritty East End of London, six emerging talents define postindustrial, multicultural architecture on an intimate scale. Featured with David Adjaye, who will make his U.S. debut with Denver's Contemporary Museum of Art, are Caruso St. John, FAT, Níall McLaughlin, muf, and Sergison Bates.
