Nouvel's scheme for a "classical museum" (possibly a branch of the Louvre) features a huge, flattened dome over an open-air arrangement of smaller buildings. It's like a village, shaded with a space dome. We think it's gorgeous.

The Performing Arts Center will be part of a multi-billion dollar cultural district with other buildings by Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel, and Tadao Ando. In her own words, Ms. Hadid, describes the structure as a “biological analogy” whose primary components (branches, stems, fruits, and leaves) are then “transformed from these abstract diagrams into architectonic design.”