Celebrating two decades of the Contemporary Arts Center’s iconic Zaha Hadid-designed home

Since 2003, the dynamic Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) building in downtown Cincinnati—designed by the legendary Iraqi-British architect Zaha Hadid—has inspired visitors and connected the museum to the city around it.

By the time she passed away in 2016, Hadid was one of the world’s most well-known and awarded architects. But 20 years ago, when her ambitious design was selected to house the CAC’s permanent home, she was still an emerging artist.

“People said, ‘That building can’t be built,’ and she said, ‘Oh yes, it can,’” says Shawnee Turner, the CAC’s director of interpretive learning and visitor experience.

Among the museum’s distinctive features are the “urban carpet” concept—the sidewalk outside the building curves up and eventually becomes part of the building—and the set of zigzagging stairs that carry the visitor up the rear wall.

Christina Vassallo, who joined the CAC as executive director earlier this year, points to these stairs—and the views they offer of Cincinnati—as one of the highlights of the building.

“There are these gorgeous views you get of downtown Cincinnati, and it reminds you that you’re not in a vacuum of an artist’s mind—you are in touch with the world outside, beyond these exhibitions,” Vassallo says. “Through architecture, she is placing what we put on here in the museum in dialogue with the rest of the world.”

As executive director, Vassallo is excited to “amplify the vibrancy” of the CAC. She plans to spend the next several months rebuilding the museum’s curatorial department with an eye towards implementing a new strategic planning process.

“I’m looking forward to using that process as a way to test some of our assumptions about what our audience is, what it is that they need, and being able to ensure that our programming is responsive to that,” Vassallo says.

The CAC’s summer programming includes several nods to the building’s 20th anniversary, including a June 17 meetup of the Cincinnati chapter of Urban Sketchers and a July 27 screening of the film Zaha Hadid… Who Dares Wins. At the end of the summer, the anniversary celebrations will culminate with a special exhibition celebrating the building.

Opening Sept. 22, the exhibition, called “A rehearsal on legacy with Zaha Hadid,” will be guest curated by the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao’s Maite Borjabad, who trained as an architect before becoming a curator. Alongside Hadid’s sketches and paintings, it will feature a selection of archival materials from the process of the building’s creation and commissioned work from contemporary artists.

Over the years, artists have been excited, inspired and maddened by the space, often responding to Hadid’s architecture in their work. In 2017, the artist Ugo Rondinone transformed the fourth- and fifth-floor galleries into a rainbow of reflecting light and color. Another artist, Do Ho Suh, was inspired by the museum’s distinctive stairs for his 2016 exhibition “Passage.”

“[Hadid] wanted this building to be a work of art and to be experienced by each individual that came into it,” Turner says. “It forces you to be here, be present, be mindful about what you’re doing and where you’re going.”