Three American firms have been short listed in an international competition to design a Pop Music Center in Taipei, Taiwan. The three finalists are Studio Gang Architects of Chicago; Reiser + Umemoto of New York, and Office dA of Boston. They will go on to compete in the competition’s second stage, which will conclude with the announcement of a winner on 29 January 2010. The finalists’ designs were selected from among 114 entries from 33 countries. Honorable mentions also went to Morphosis, Toyo Ito, JDSArchitects, and J.M. Lin Architect, P.C.

Hosted by the Taipei City Government Department of Cultural Affairs, the competition asked firms to design a pop music venue and urban performance center that promotes and celebrates Taiwan’s role as a global center of pop music performance and production.

To be located on an approximately 7.65 hectacre site in Nangang District Taipei City nearby the MRT Kunyang Station, the center is to include an indoor performance hall with 4500-6000 seats, an outdoor performing space with 15,000 standing seats, exhibition space for reputed musicians, a digital library, a medium and small indoor exhibition and performing live house, industrial communities and incubation space, etc.

The competition’s jury is chaired by Lars Lerup, architect and Dean of the Rice School of Architecture, Houston, Texas (USA) and also includes Brett Steel, Director of the Architectural Association, London, England (UK); Michael Speaks, Dean of the College of Design and Professor of Architecture, University of Kentucky (USA); Chris Yao, Principal of Artec Associates, Taiwan (R.O.C); Shu-Chang Kung, Principal of AURA Architects and Associates, Taiwan (R.O.C); Monica Kuo, Dean/Chair Department of Landscape Architecture, College of Environmental Design, Chinese Culture University Taiwan (R.O.C); and Wei-Gong Liou, Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology and Soochow University, Taiwan (R.O.C).

Sharon McHugh
US Correspondent