looks like things are moving along
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When the radical design for Museum Plaza was unveiled in February, it caused a stir in architectural circles worldwide -- the celebrity architect and urban thinker Rem Koolhaas was proposing an unusual skyscraper for Louisville.
In reality, Koolhaas had no role in the design. A young team of architects running his New York City office, headed by Joshua Prince Ramus, did all the work.
Now, Ramus, 36, and his co-workers, including Erez Ella, 35, are breaking from Koolhaas and his Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) to form their own firm -- Ramus Ella Architects, or REX.
The split, being announced today, is effective immediately.
Though Museum Plaza will lose the star power of the Koolhaas name, the developers said it will not affect the proposed 61-story high-rise.
Groundbreaking is planned for early next year.
The developers recently announced they've hired Minneapolis-based Mortenson Co., which built the Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, as construction manager.
"It's a nonissue to us," said Steve Poe, who is developing Museum Plaza with attorney Craig Greenberg and husband and wife Steve Wilson and Laura Lee Brown. "Our mission in the beginning was to find the new young, cutting-edge architect.
