World-Class Architecture

A distinguishing feature of the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts is the architecture of its buildings. Two of the architects who have designed the Center's venues—Norman Foster and Rem Koolhaas—are winners of the Pritzker Architecture Prize, the most prestigious award an architect can receive.

Foster + Partners

Architects of the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and Annette Strauss Artist Square, London-based Foster + Partners is known for its work on such projects as the Great Court of the British Museum in London; the Hong Kong International Airport, one of the world's largest airports; the new German Parliament Building in Berlin; and the new Hearst Headquarters in New York City, the city's first Gold LEED® certified building. Other cultural projects include the competition-winning design for the National Portrait Gallery courtyard at the Smithsonian, Washington DC; Avery Fisher Hall at New York's Lincoln Center; the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, the Carré d'Art Nîmes; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston expansion.

Founded by Norman Foster, Foster + Partners, an international practice with project offices in more than twenty countries, has received 440 awards and citations for architectural excellence and has won more than 70 international and national competitions. Lord Foster has been the recipient of the Pritzker Architecture Prize (1999), the Praemium Imperiale Award for Architecture (2002), and the American Institute of Architects Gold Medal for Architecture (1991), among many other honors. In 1990 he was granted a Knighthood in the Queen's Birthday Honours, and in 1999 was honored with a Life Peerage, becoming Lord Foster of Thames Bank.

The lead architects for the Margot and Bill Winspear Opera House and Annette Strauss Artist Square are Spencer de Grey, deputy chairman, and James McGrath, partner. In addition to his work with the Dallas Center for the Performing Arts, Spencer de Grey is responsible for many of Foster + Partners' cultural projects, including the master plan and first phase of the MFA, Boston expansion; the Great Court at the British Museum; Avery Fisher Hall; and the National Portrait Gallery. He also led the Commerzbank Headquarters project in Frankfurt.

REX

REX is one of the architects for the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre. Partner-in-charge Joshua Prince-Ramus, a founding partner of OMA New York, redefined the company as REX in 2006.

Other cultural projects by REX include Museum Plaza, a 62-story mixed-use skyscraper housing a contemporary art center in Louisville, KY and the Oslo City Library and Stenersen Museum in Norway. The firm is also currently working on the new headquarters for Vakko and Power, Turkey’s preeminent fashion and media companies, in Istanbul; the University of Louisville’s College of Business campus in KY; the Forward Residence in New York, NY; and a line of public furniture for Belgian furniture company Quinze&Milan. REX was also a finalist in the design competition for Governors Island in New York, NY.

Prince-Ramus’ past projects with OMA include the Seattle Central Library, an 11-story, glass and steel building described by Herbert Muschamp as “the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review” in The New York Times; the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum, a gallery for masterworks from The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and The State Hermitage Museum of St. Petersburg, Russia; and the Guggenheim Las Vegas Museum, a temporary exhibition space in the Venetian Resort-Hotel-Casino.

The work of Prince-Ramus and REX were identified as one of “The 20 Essential Young Architects” by ICON magazine in April 2008 and one of the 20 most influential players in design by Fast Company in 2005. Prince-Ramus is member of the TED Brain Trust and was the Eero Saarinen Visiting Professor at the Yale School of Architecture in 2007.

Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA)

One of the architects of the Dee and Charles Wyly Theatre, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a Rotterdam practice led by partners Rem Koolhaas, Ole Scheeren, Ellen van Loon, Reinier de Graaf, and Floris Alkemade. Among many international awards, Koolhaas received the Pritzker Architecture Prize (2000); the Praemium Imperiale (Japan, 2003); the RIBA Gold Medal (UK, 2004); and the Mies van der Rohe, the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, (2005). He was also the subject of retrospectives at the Museum of Modern Art in 1995 and the Neue Nationalgalerie Berlin in 2003.

OMA maintains offices in Europe (OMA Rotterdam), Asia (OMA Beijing), and North America (OMA New York). OMA has extensive experience in designing performance spaces, including the Casa da Musica in Oporto, Portugal and a new home for Second Stage Theatre in New York City. OMA completed projects include the Seattle Central Library, the Seoul National University Museum of Art, the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art, the Illinois Institute of Technology Campus Center, the Prada Beverly Hills “Epicenter” Store, the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin, Germany and the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas.

OMA made its reputation with a series of groundbreaking entries in major competitions: Parc de la Villette, Paris, France; ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany; Tres Grande Bibliotheque and Two Libraries for Jussieu University, Paris, France. During these formative years, OMA also realized ambitious projects, ranging from private residences to large scale urban plans, such as Euralille, a 70-hectare business and civic center in northern France, which serves as a hub for high-speed trains.

Michel Desvigne

The Center's 10-acre Elaine D. and Charles A. Sammons Park is designed by landscape architect Michel Desvigne. Desvigne is the recipient of numerous awards, including the French Academy Architectural Medal (2000) and the Civic Trust Award (2002) for the Greenwich Millennium Project in London. Since founding his office in 1988, Desvigne has regularly collaborated with internationally renowned architects such as Rem Koolhaas, Jean Nouvel, Renzo Piano and Norman Foster. His recent projects include the Burgos Boulevard in Spain and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis (both projects with Herzog & de Meuron), the Bordeaux right riverbank, a master plan for the Var Valley on the French Riviera (with Xaveer de Geyter and OMA urban planners) and a Japanese garden for the Keio University in Tokyo. Desvigne studied at the Natural Sciences facility in Lyon and at the Ecole Nationale Superieure du Paysage at Versailles, where he earned his diploma in 1984. More recently, he has been responsible for workshops at the Architectural Association of London and has been an invited professor at Harvard University and the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio in Switzerland.

JJR

JJR, a Chicago-based, multi-disciplinary landscape architecture, planning and civil engineering firm, is collaborating with Michel Desvigne on the Center’s site plan under the direction of senior vice president Deb Mitchell. Mitchell has served as president of both the Landscape Architecture Foundation and the American Society of Landscape Architects. JJR recently received the ASLA Honor Award for its work on the Oshkosh Riverfront Development in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. JJR’s San Francisco Federal Building and plaza received a Sustainable Leadership Award from CoreNet Global in 2007.