As museums have evolved as public institutions, they have become more than repositories for art. They are now meeting places for the community, tourist attractions,and a place for discussion and cultural exchange.

        Worldwide, museums have responded to an increased demand for space by constructing wildly expressive structures that have, as architect Frank Gehry suggests, a “persona.”

        A new exhibit at the Columbus Museum of Art and the Columbus College of Art & Design features key works by top international architects that provide a panorama of museum architecture designed at the close of the 20th century.

IF YOU GO

What: Museums for a New Millennium    When: Through Nov. 24v    Where: The Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St., Columbus    Admission: $6, students and seniors $4, free to children 5 and under; free to all on Thursday    Information: Phone: (614) 221-4848, www.columbusmuseum.org

        Museums for a New Millennium: Concepts, Projects, Buildings, presents drawings, photographs and original models of 25 architectural milestones. It is interesting and broad, spanning from Norman Foster's Carre'd'Arte in Nimes, France, begun in 1984 to our Zaha Hadid-designed Lois & Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art that will open next year.

        The models, sketches and computer-generated images are in many cases beautiful enough to consider as works of art. But the concepts and process behind the new museums — especially big crowd pleasers such as Mr. Gehry's Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain, and Santiago Calatrava's winged extension of the Milwaukee Art Museum — are intriguing.

        These two buildings illustrate the essence of the millennial museum. They demonstrate how architecture can significantly increase the celebrity and desirability of the building, its architect and the city. Not to mention increase a museum's audience.

        And that is what you are struck with as you prowl the Columbus museum's galleries: How a museum can define a city.

Old and the new

        The Milwaukee museum's expansion, the first Calatrava-designed structure in the United States, quickly became an important cultural attraction. Set on the city's scenic lakefront it features a striking glass reception hall, a suspended pedestrian bridge and a 90-ton moveable wing-like steel sunshade (brise soleil) that spans nearly a mile.

        What is engaging about the Calatrava project and others in the show is that it combines modern technology with old world craftsmanship.

        The materials are a combination of white concrete, glass, white Carrera, Italian marble and maple wood floors. In keeping with visitor demand for more leisure-oriented space — another global trend — the museum includes an auditorium, restaurant, expanded gift shop and outdoor terraces and gardens.

Giant transformation

        The Tate Modern in London required architects to transform the immense Bankside Power Station — a windowless brick box with a giant chimney — into a contemporary museum of art.

        This project is especially captivating because of the ingenious way the Swiss team of Herzog & de Meuron transformed this hulk of a building into a design showplace. Furthermore, the unique renovation was financed using national lottery money and created 2,000 jobs in the surrounding area.

        The architects were able to maintain the integrity of the original structure while making the former power station an appropriate venue to view art.

        This was accomplished through the addition of a two-story glass structure that is a glowing beacon at night and provides natural light and spectacular views of the river Thames during the day.

Utterly beautiful zigzag

        I was also struck by Daniel Libeskind's Judisches Museum (Jewish Museum) in Berlin. Intended to be a historical and cultural monument as well as a museum, the building's design was dictated by its purpose more than by its contents.

        In fact, the museum opened in 1999, a full year before it decided upon a concept for a collection or exhibition.

        The building is utterly beautiful, its fagade clad with zinc that starkly reflects the light. The design is jiggered along two double lines — the first is straight, although fragmented, the second, a zigzag form resembling a bolt of lightning, which could represent sudden illumination or destruction.

        Mr. Libeskind, who named the concept “Between the Lines,” sought to “make the invisible visible and to connect the history of Berlin with Jewish history.” Through the sharp right angles formed by the double lines there appears a deconstructed Star of David, a symbol of Berlin following World War I. The angular incisions in the fagade — some of which are windows — add to the dynamic of this sculptural building.

        One of the museum's most impressive elements is an exposed-concrete Holocaust Tower — a memorial within the memorial, an inner void. Light filters into the high, unheated tower through a vertical light slit on one side. According to the show's catalog, “total silence prevails, while on the other hand the sounds from the exterior are heightened.”

Fort Worth museum opens

        On Dec. 14, the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth designed by Japan's Pritzker Prize-winner, Tadao Ando, will open to the public. It consists of five glass and concrete pavilions with roofs that are supported by giant Y-shaped columns. The three gallery pavilions and an indoor/outdoor cafi appear to float on a large reflecting pool. And in true Texas style, it will be the second-largest museum building devoted to the display of modern and contemporary art in this country.

        Chief curator Michael Auping told ArtForum magazine this month that what the museum wanted was definitely not an “explosive icon as an advertising signifier from the outside, and then on the inside all pop-pop-fizz-fizz where your eyes aren't allowed to rest.”

        So Mr. Ando, who is self-taught, reverted to his beloved concrete box, but wrapped the walls in glass, creating an interesting juxtaposition of interior and exterior space.

"Successful synthesis'

        The new CAC building is labeled “a successful synthesis of art and space.” Curator Susan Greub of Art Centre Basel, Switzerland, organized the show a few years ago, so the CAC photos and models are out of date. But the catalog makes the point that since the revitalization of modern art by minimalism, conceptual, video and performance art architects have found a new freedom in the spaces they design for museums.

        While in the past architects had to concern themselves with a little white box to hang paintings in, now there were opportunities to eliminate a wall, vary the ceiling heights or increase the amount of glass.

        With the CAC, Ms. Hadid has attempted a halfway point between architecture and urban development. With trademark concepts such as the urban carpet (inspired by the classical loggia) and undulating levels and ramps, there is a sense of continuous flow from the outside in.

        Because the museum does not hold its own collection but rather exhibits shows from other institutions, what is on display fluctuates and is unpredictable. Ms. Hadid responded to this challenge with strongly articulated rooms she categorizes as rough and unpolished and seemingly carved from a single block of concrete.

        The somewhat inverted scale of the building — layers of floors “floating” above a park-like lobby space — along with transparent facades, creates the illusion of weightlessness while the shifting sizes of gallery space and sight lines allow visitors to see a show from above, below or from the side.

        Some of the projects in the show have created unease among artists as to their suitability to showcase art. In some cases the projects have underlined another trend — a shifting balance of power between architect and curator.

        Of course this is a trend dating back to Frank Lloyd Wright's 1943 design for the Guggenheim Museum in New York. The concept of ascending an ever-escalating ramp to navigate the collection found bitter opposition. But today the museum is a city landmark, although most of the collection is now shown in a discrete, rectangular wing.

A new wave hits the Emmys
Few viewers heed TV guidelines
DAUGHERTY: Everyday
KENDRICK: Alive and Well
Muslims still face questions, backlash
Prize possessions
CCM opera chief ends 'adventurous journey'
DEMALINE: The arts
New half of Amernet Quartet blending in well
October provides bountiful harvest for local film fans
Columbus exhibit showcases the architecture of museums
Nielsen's 'Sixth' caps night of Nordic music
MidPoint in middle of dining choices
Serve it this week: Winter squash
Get to it