The new Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art, under construction at Sixth and Walnut streets, downtown, features bending concrete, interlocking walkways and floating galleries.

        It's the latest example of a jarring and unrestrained form of architecture from London-based architect Zaha Hadid that an exhibit at the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C., aims to explain and make real.

        “Her work is very explosive. Things are laminating, shattering, breaking. The work is moving,” said Howard Decker, the Washington museum's chief curator. “This exhibit shows how her theory becomes reality.”

        Hundreds of sketches, models, computer images and photographs were selected from a show at the Yale University School of Architecture to showcase 11 projects. The Zaha Hadid Laboratory runs through Nov. 17, with a lecture by Ms. Hadid on Nov. 6.

        The projects vary from Ms. Hadid's well-known 1999 Mind Zone exhibit at the Millennium Dome in England to a parking lot in France, a ferry terminal in Italy, a ski jump in Austria and art museums in Cincinnati, Rome and Tokyo. All are at different stages of completion and show Ms. Hadid's progression from concept to construction to, in some cases, a finished structure.

        Born in Iraq in 1950, Ms. Hadid studied at the American University in Beirut and the Architectural Association in London before opening her own practice in 1979. She gained international fame for her controversial winning entry in the Peak International Design Competition in Hong Kong in 1983.

        But many of Ms. Hadid's designs remained on paper, making her theories difficult to imagine: Floors soared off in different directions while walkways wove through bold, fluid-like structures. Critics called her work inaccessible, while others likened her projects to a “controlled explosion.”

        Ms. Hadid's first project to be built was a fire station in Germany in 1993. Since then, she has won numerous commissions and increased the number of projects under construction. The Rosenthal Center will be her first U.S.-built project.

        The 85,000-square-foot building is scheduled to open May 31, 2003 at a cost of $34.1 million.

        “In each project I try to reinvent everything,” Ms. Hadid says in a dialogue that introduces visitors to the exhibit. “I keep testing the parameters. Architecture is the same as any art. You don't know what's possible until you try it.”

        Admission is free at the National Building Museum, which is dedicated to exploring and celebrating architecture, design, engineering, construction and urban planning.

        Information: www.nbm.org and The www.spiral.org.

Restaurant opening bittersweet
Can new restaurant succeed downtown?
Pigall's building dates from city's early days
Show biz people tell L.A. stories
'Survivor' producer eager for Cincinnati contestant
Jarvi, CSO create a little Nordic magic
Get to it
A table for fireworks could still pop up
MARTIN: Fresh approach to pizza
DAUGHERTY: How to be cool in high school
Kids Cafe nourishes minds
Collector's boyhood flame: Dinosaurs
KENDRICK: Audio description fitting for funeral
McGURK: Summer a blockbuster despite 9-11
Cincinnati Film Festival coming Oct. 3-11
DEMALINE: New Edgecliff moves to Newport
Hadid exhibit in D.C.
Hall and Oates best in the past