OMA/Shohei Shigematsu

In June 2016, the museum selected the award-winning architectural firm OMA to expand and refurbish its historic campus. The project is OMA’s first art museum in the United States. Shohei Shigematsu, Partner at OMA North America, and the OMA team have partnered with the museum and the community to develop a shared vision for the Buffalo AKG Art Museum. 

Shohei Shigematsu (third from left), Peggy Pierce Elfvin Director Dr. Janne Sirén (center), Director of Facilities Jamie Robideau (right), and the OMA team at the Topping Out Ceremony for the new Jeffrey E. Gundlach Building designed by OMA on July 7, 2021. Photo: Jeff Mace for Buffalo AKG Art Museum

About OMA

The Office for Metropolitan Architecture (OMA) is a leading international partnership practicing architecture, urbanism, and cultural analysis. With offices in Rotterdam, New York, Beijing, Hong Kong, and Dubai, OMA has created buildings and masterplans around the world that insist on intelligent forms while inventing new possibilities. OMA New York was established in 2001 to oversee projects in the Americas. Completed work includes the Seattle Central Library; the IIT Campus Center in Chicago; the Prada Epicenter in New YorkMilstein Hall for the College of Architecture, Art and Planning at Cornell University; and the Pierre Lassonde Pavilion, a new building for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. The Albright-Knox AK360 project will be the firm’s first museum in the United States.

Shohei Shigematsu, Partner at OMA North America, has led the firm’s diverse portfolio in the Americas for the past decade. Shigematsu’s designs for cultural venues include a new building for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, a multi-purpose venue for Faena’s Miami Beach district, and an event space for the Wilshire Boulevard Temple in Los Angeles. He has collaborated with multiple artists, including Cai Guo-QiangMarina AbramovićKanye West, and Taryn Simon. Shigematsu has also designed exhibitions for Prada, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Park Avenue Armory in New York. His urban and public space designs around the world include a new civic center in Bogota, Colombia, and a post–Hurricane Sandy urban water strategy for New Jersey, as well as a food hub in Louisville, Kentucky, and a mixed-use development in Los Angeles. As a design critic at the Harvard Graduate School of Design, he is conducting a research studio titled Alimentary Design, investigating the intersection of food, architecture, and urbanism.