Well into its fourth decade, the Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA), founded by Rem Koolhaas in 1975, remains one of the most influential and successful practices of its kind. OMA describes itself as a firm operating within the traditional boundaries of architecture and urbanism that applies architectural thinking to domains beyond. The firm s impact on the way we live is undeniable. OMA has transformed our understanding of the city and our evolving relationship with art, shopping, sustainability, and other quintessentially twenty-first-century preoccupations. The works presented here elaborate on OMA s philosophy even as they expand its portfolio geographically. Featured projects (helmed by partners Shohei Shigematsu and Jason Long) include residential skyscrapers in New York and San Francisco, mixed-use developments in Tokyo and Fukuoka, and the master plans for Facebook s Menlo Park campus, alongside more intimate spaces such as the studio for renowned Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang. Permanent structures, such as Milstein Hall at Cornell University, the new galleries of Quebec s Musee National des Beaux-Arts, the Japan flagship of Coach, and the expansion of the New Museum in Manhattan, contrast vividly with temporary interventions such as the Manus x Machina exhibition at the Met Costume Institute and the soaring concrete columns of An Occupation of Loss.
