MOCA’s new home, scheduled for late 2012 opening, will be located at the corner of Euclid Avenue and Mayfield Road in the Uptown District of the University Circle neighbourhood. The nearly 34,000 square feet structure is designed to provide MOCA with a permanent home for the first time in its 42-year history.
The new MOCA is arranged as a multi-storey building exposed on all sides. It appears as an inventive massing of six geometric facets, with some flat and others sloping at various angles. Multiple entrances are integrated to ensure maximum flexibility. The prismatic form of the structure is veiled in mirror black stainless steel panels. These are arranged along diagonal girds to follow the diagonal load bearing structure of the external envelope. This unique façade has been integrated to reflect its urban surroundings, changing in appearance with differences in light and weather. Window glazing has also been tinted to blend with the reflective skin so that during the day the building will resemble a unified volume, while at night interior lights create a dynamic pattern on the dark surface.
Three of the building’s six facets will feature a public plaza with one of them clad in transparent glass. This will offer a public gathering place and also serve as MOCA’s “front yard,” and will be the site of seasonal programming.
Each floor is designed to be highly versatile and can be subjected to a variety of configurations. The blue inner surface, which swathes the different spaces, offers consistency across the various museum programmes. The top floor’s main gallery features a blue surface soaring high to form a deep blue ceiling evoking the sky in contrast to the traditional idea of the gallery as white, sealed cube. The new MOCA’s third floor houses administrative offices, spaces for classes, lectures, and other educational programmes.
The new MOCA building is Foreign Office Architects’ (FOA) first major building in the US and its first museum commission. In addition to Foreign Office Architects, the design team for the new Museum includes executive architects Westlake Reed Leskosky, headquartered in Cleveland.
