Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, designed by Farshid Moussavi
Architect Farshid Moussavi's new home for the MOCA Cleveland is a slow-motion spectacular, unfolding gradually over four stories and approximately 34,000 sq ft
Photography: Dean Kaufman
The building envelope, a craggy carapace that is independent of the load-bearing floors, has six faceted sides, one of them a tall triangle of transparent glass that echoes the three-cornered building site...
... while the others are clad in panels of black stainless steel for a unique finish that is part funhouse mirror, part mood ring
With entrances on all sides, the double-height ground floor can be configured as a gallery, performance venue, or social hub
The contrast between inside and outside could have been jarring, but Moussavi proposed the bold move of lining the structural shell with colour: a midnight blue that suggests an inky, matte wink to Yves Klein ultramarine
'Artists gave us feedback about the intensity of the blue paint,' Moussavi explains. 'They said that if it was dark enough, it would recede and give this sensation of a boundless space'
The vertiginous staircase anchors the building
The ambitious exhibition schedule begins with 'Inside Out and From the Ground Up,' on view until 24 February 3013
The group show responds to the architecture of the new building through works ranging from Henrique Oliviera's 2012 'Carambóxido' (pictured), which thrusts a giant plywood-covered gourd through a gallery wall, to the shimmering canvases of Jacqueline Humphries
The building's windows are diagonal zips of glass
Even the office space is enlivened by the blue backdrop
The MOCA Cleveland's $27.2 million new home is sleek, surprising, and incredibly versatile