page_title: Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
section_title: Farshid Moussavi
hierarchical_section_title: Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland / Architecture / Farshid Moussavi
caption_attribution_description: English: The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland
context_page_description: The Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland is a contemporary art museum located in the state of Ohio, United States. The moCa is the only contemporary art venue of its kind in the Cleveland region. The organisation was founded by Marjorie Talalay, Agnes Gund, and Nina Castelli Sundell in 1968 and has undergone several name and venue changes in the years following its 1968 founding. Originally known as The New Gallery, the museum was rebranded as the Cleveland Centre for Contemporary Art in 1984. The gallery has operated under its current branding as the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland since 2002.
context_section_description: The architectural design integrates the museum within the surrounding Uptown and encourages an interaction through the building’s façade. From the ground floor the moCa is accessible along all sides of the façade with the main entrance positioned facing east and overlooking Toby’s Plaza (designed by the American architectural firm James Corner Field Operations).The project reflects the ethos of the museum and as described by Moussavi is “designed to serve as a public ‘living room’ in a cosmopolitan Cleveland neighbourhood… (acting) as a catalyst for creativity and growth for the city”. The materiality of the building translates an idea of the creative motivations of the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland with Moussavi describing the reflective black stainless steel of the exterior as a decision to allow a play of sunlight and mirroring of the surrounding plaza. The designer relies on the use of reflective surfaces and shifting interior walls to create a physicalisation of the museum’s multiple identities, as both gallery and event space. The use of an electric blue wall and ceiling paint throughout the gallery spaces was chosen by Moussavi to enhance the display of the artworks. The consistent blue interior surfaces throughout the museum acts in a redefinition of the traditional ‘white-cube’ gallery setting.
caption: Reflections in the Iconic Exterior Facade
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