“Austria West”

This exhibition, filled to the brim with photographs, plans, video documentation, books, and models, offers a fantastic cross-section of recent avant-garde architectural projects in the Voralberg and Tyrol regions of western Austria. These mountainous areas are strewn with buildings that emphasize straight lines, expanses of glazed windowpane, and meticulous attention to detail; perhaps best known to art world denizens (though not included in this show) is the area’s crown jewel, Peter Zumthor’s Kunsthaus Bregenz, which has been home to dozens of contemporary art exhibitions since its inauguration in 1997. Presenting houses, apartment complexes, office buildings, grocery stores, fire stations, hotels, and bridges by over two dozen firms, the show also provides solid contextualization for Raimund Abraham’s design for the ACF’s midtown headquarters. Elegant simplicity, material and ecological conscientiousness, modesty of scale, and deference to the awe-inspiring landscape link these diverse projects; a stand-out is Margarethe Heubacher-Sentobe’s House for a Pianist and Composer, 1995–96, which appears to offer its owner a live/work space perfectly suited to her craft, complete with placid views of an Alpine slope. With so many projects, it’s difficult to get a full understanding of any individual building; what does come across is a portrait of a region duly rewarded for its faith in (mostly young) architectural visionaries.