Yokohama…London…Spain…CLEVELAND!

The Yokohama International Port Terminal is a design sensation—alive with bustling urbanity and seaside tranquility. The BBC Music Box in London has been described as the most exciting and innovative interpretation of the BBC—ever. What do these two places have in common? Foreign Office Architects (FOA), the London-based, husband-and-wife design team, credited by Design Museum with “defining a new language to reflect the speed, ambiguity, and uncertainty of contemporary life.”

In Foreign Office Architects, MOCA perceives a brilliant creative partner. During this pivotal time of urban renewal in University Circle, transformation of the Euclid Corridor, and proliferation of daring new buildings punctuating the architectural landscape of Ohio, MOCA hopes to claim center stage within a vibrant urban mecca, in a building designed by FOA.

Farshid Moussavi and Alejandro Zaera-Polo, alums of the Harvard Graduate School of Design, founded FOA in 1992. They have carried out projects in fourteen cities worldwide, are known for combining technical innovation with design excellence, and for integrating functional, environmental, and socio-cultural factors.

In a recent interview, Moussavi explains: “Foreign Office Architects is delighted that its first major project in the US, and its first museum anywhere, is the design for a new building for MOCA Cleveland. Developing a concept that will accommodate diverse art forms, include ample and inviting public space, work within and contribute to an exciting urban area, and maintain high environmental standards—all while ensuring that the building will serve the needs of generations to come—is an exhilarating prospect. We are grateful to MOCA for selecting us for this important project.”

MOCA first announced plans for a new building and the accompanying search for an architect in late 2005. Executive Director Jill Snyder and nine representatives of the Museum’s Board, along with stakeholders from the community, comprised the Architect Search Task Force. In spring 2006 the search was narrowed from 32 to six firms, and then finally, to three. The decision to choose FOA came after a visit to the Yokohama Pier and the firm’s London offices, unambiguously persuading the selection committee that they had found their ideal candidate.

MOCA’s new facility will professionalize the way we operate and diversify our ambitious exhibition and programming goals. Capacity for new media, educational and multi-arts programming, as well as enhanced visitor amenities are key components of our expansion. Additionally, our proximity to Case, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and other arts and culture institutions, will enhance our capacity for community collaboration.

While conceiving of designs for MOCA’s new facility, FOA remains engaged in a broad spectrum of international projects, including retail sites in the UK and Turkey, office complexes in London and Barcelona, social housing in Madrid, and a university complex in Logroño, Spain. With their use of dramatic form, innovative materials, and fascination with the interplay of architecture, landscape, and nature, FOA is commanding attention as an exciting new force on the international stage and surely promises to build for MOCA a museum that expresses its mission in dramatic new form.