The Pritzker Prize-winning architectural team of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron has been chosen to design a $642 million museum for modern and contemporary art known as M+ in Hong Kong, according to Bloomberg News.

The design, an inverted T-shape, would be more than twice the size of the Tate Modern in London, a previous project by Mr. Herzog and Mr. de Meuron. The museum, scheduled for completion in 2017, is envisioned as a centerpiece of a cultural district in West Kowloon that is to eventually include 17 arts spaces. Mr. Herzog and Mr. de Meuron, who worked with the artist Ai Weiwei in designing the main stadium for the Beijing Olympics, which came to be known as the Bird’s Nest, beat out competitors who included Renzo Piano and Toyo Ito.

The horizontal section of the T-shape will offer 183,000 square feet of exhibition space, while the vertical bar, devoted to offices, storage and education, is to have an LED lighting system that can showcase artwork. The museum has already received a donation of 1,463 works from Uli Sigg, the Swiss businessman and collector of Chinese art.

by Patricia Cohen

via NYTimes