Construction is underway on the campus of Bowling Green State University (BGSU). If all goes according to plan, the Wolfe Center for the Collaborative Arts will be finished in 2011. The timing seems perfect, given that the university recently dubbed the arts its first “Center of Excellence.” This gorgeous building by up-and-coming Norwegian-based architectural firm Snohetta will most certainly bring attention to and validate the importance of the arts programs.

Morphosis Architects' new academic building for The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art in New York City consolidates the college’s three schools -- art, architecture, and engineering. Known as 41 Cooper Square, the building was completed just over a year ago. And it's still turning heads. However jarring, Morphosis's design creates a vertical campus, providing opportunities for chance encounters and cross-disciplinary collaboration.

The University of Technology Sydney, Australia (UTS) solicited design proposals for a new building to house its Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology as part of the school’s Broadway Building Design Competition. The school was in search of an architecture firm that could design a “gateway” building that referenced the urban context and the City Campus Master Plan while supporting a large population of students and faculty and reducing the school’s environmental impact. In July 2009, UTS announced the winning design, submitted by Australian architectural firm Denton Corker Marshall, from over 60 international entries. Selected by UTS representatives, the City of Sydney, and the New South Wales (NSW) Department of Planning, the design for the Information Technology and Engineering (ITE) Building was chosen for its aesthetic appeal, as well as its functionality and sustainable qualities.

Scheduled for completion in 2016, the South Terminal Redevelopment Program of the Denver International Airport (DIA) will juxtapose new buildings by Spain's Santiago Calatrava with the famed Jeppesen Terminal by Fentress Architects. Calatrava, from Valencia, has designed four principle elements: a new hotel and conference center, transit station, civic plaza, and rail bridge, which will all be physically integrated. In his Architectural Statement, Calatrava pays homage to the Jeppesen Terminal, notable for its tensile fabric roof: “My goal in designing adjacent to such a prominent iconic structure has been to preserve the character and integrity of the original terminal while complementing it with a design that presents an independent identity of equal quality."

At first glance, Cincinnati, Ohio, appears to be a typical Midwestern city. A closer look reveals a sophisticated community of architectural trendsetters. Beginning in large part with a transformative vision for the University of Cincinnati campus in the late 1980s, Cincinnati is now home to a major concentration of signature contemporary architecture. One of the architectural treasures of Cincinnati is the Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, home of the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC). Designed by Pritzker Prize award winner Zaha Hadid and opened in 2003, the Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art allows CAC to serve its organizational mission to unite art and people in a provocative architectural environment.

Recently unveiled are plans for a new building to house the Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland (MOCA Cleveland). London-based Foreign Office Architects (FOA) is the design firm for the project, and Westlake Reed Leskosky acted as the architect of record. Currently the museum is tucked away on the second story of the Cleveland Play House complex; the new facility will give MOCA Cleveland 44% more space as well as a commanding presence at a prominent intersection in University Circle.

The New Museum is not exactly new anymore. Upon its completion in 2007, the blocky, mesh-clad structure generated some controversy: a rainbow-hued "Hell Yes!" affixed to its facade rebelliously declared its arrival on the Bowery, the main street of the eponymous neighborhood in lower Manhattan. SANAA's eye-catching design for the the 33-year old New Museum oscillates between the Bowery's infamous past and its inevitably gentrified future.

When Denver’s commercial real estate industry outlines criteria for developing a successful project, it typically starts with whether the site provides any views of Colorado’s Rocky Mountain Front Range to the west of the city. It follows, of course, that these units hold a value premium, as owners will pay more for this look at the mountains, a source of comfort and inspiration and an iconic representation of Colorado’s strong sense of identity.

The Denver Art Museum may well be the most prominent expression of Denver’s cultural heart. Daniel Libeskind’s 146,000 sq. ft. extension to the museum, The Frederic C. Hamilton Building, was a joint venture with the Davis Partnership and houses Modern, Contemporary, Oceanic, and African Art collections. The original museum, which opened in 1971, was Italian architect Gio Ponti’s first American commission and boasted an exterior of Italian tile and the innovation of stacking its galleries vertically, which sought to combat the “museum fatigue” that resulted from traversing the long horizontal layout typical of museums at the time.

Since 2000, the City of Columbus has been proactively embarking on the revitalization of the Downtown area, including the renovation of several office buildings, as well as the construction of new condominiums and an amphitheatre. The Downtown Columbus skyline will soon be changing again due to the addition of a revolutionary design structure—the new Main Street Bridge. The bridge that previously stood in its place, running along the Scioto River, was closed in 2002 due to deterioration, 65 years after it opened in 1937. Construction, which was initially scheduled to be completed in June 2009, is now scheduled to be completed this August.

Frank Gehry's second architectural venture into New York City is also his tallest building yet. Spiraling 76 stories and enveloping 1.1 million square feet, Beekman Tower dominates the nearby Woolworth building in downtown Manhattan. Under construction since 2006, the newest addition to the city's distinct skyline is expected to open early next year, and it proves that Gehry's signature, sculptural vocabulary translates successfully into skyscraper form.

Love it or hate it, Marcel Breuer's granite-clad Whitney Museum of American Art has loomed over 75th Street and Madison Avenue in New York's Upper East Side for over 40 years. After repeated attempts to expand and add much needed gallery space, the Whitney has officially announced it is headed downtown. Renzo Piano designed a new building for the Whitney in the hip Meatpacking District adjacent to the High Line, an abandoned, elevated railway that has been converted into a highly publicized park.