A new architectural firm has been chosen to design Milstein Hall, the future home of Cornell University's Department of Architecture.

Barkow Leibinger Architects (BLA) was the unanimous choice of the Cornell committee that made the decision. One of BLA's principals, Frank Barkow, is a Kansas-born architect who was a visiting critic for Cornell's Department of Architecture in 1990-92.

BLA has won prestigious prizes for its design of the American Pavilion at Expo 2000 in Hanover, Germany, and the recently completed Biosphere and Flower Pavilion at the German Horticulture Show in Potsdam, Germany.

"BLA was the enthusiastic, unanimous choice of the committee," said Porus Olpadwala, dean of the College of Architecture, Art and Planning. "The firm's designs for offices, manufacturing facilities and other large buildings incorporate the same open, loft-like and flexible characteristics that we seek," he said. "BLA's work is clean and spare and yet contains considerable texture and color and pays significant attention to materiality and detail."

The firm, which has its main offices in Berlin, has worked on a range of industrial and cultural projects in the United States, Germany and Switzerland. It won the American Institute of Architects' Honor Award in 1999 for a customer training center and the Progressive Architecture 1998 Citation Award for day-care and youth centers, among other prizes. Barkow and Regine Leibinger, the firm's other principal, both hold master's degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Design and have been guest lecturers there.

The Cornell selection committee was chaired by University Architect Peter Karp and included Dean Olpadwala; Nasrine Seraji, chair of the Department of Architecture; Harold Craft, vice president for administration and chief financial officer; Henry Doney, associate vice president, facilities service; Randy Lacey, university engineer; Mina Amundsen, university planner; John McKeown, project director; and architecture faculty representatives Mark Cruvellier, Milton Curry and Val Warke.

The selection was made following interviews with four firms. A fifth pulled out because of other commitments. In addition to BLA, those making presentations included Tod Williams and Billie Tsien; Thom Mayne (Morphosis); and Smith Miller + Hawkinson. The first two were among those that were considered during an earlier competition for the building's design. Cornell and the winner of that competition, Steven Holl Architects, chosen in April 2001, mutually agreed to end their working relationship this past July.

Milstein Hall will have a strong architectural presence because of its location at a prominent entrance to the university on the northeast end of Cornell's arts quadrangle. Replacing the current Rand Hall, a utilitarian structure built in 1911, the new building will provide much-needed, state-of-the-art studio space and other related services and offices for the Department of Architecture, as well as a major auditorium and other classrooms. The design is expected to be completed in 2004 and construction to begin shortly after. The finished building is tentatively projected to open in fall 2006.

For more information about Milstein Hall's new design firm, see this web site: http://www/BarkowLeibinger.com .