Kathleen Doane

Late one Wednesday afternoon, just two and a half months before the new Lois and Richard Rosenthal Center for Contemporary Art is to open, a small group of local media gathers for a first look. I can’t wait to get inside this building I’ve been hearing about for nearly seven years. I am especially eager for my first glimpse of the “urban carpet,” the concrete floor that is one of London architect Zaha Hadid’s primary design elements, created to pull people off the street into the museum. As I slap on a hard hat and step through the construction debris field that is the main lobby, the carpet is beneath my feet, running toward the rear wall.