41 Cooper Square
New York City; opens Sept. 15
Thom Mayne, the Pritzker Prize–winning head of the Los Angeles firm Morphosis, is getting to be architecture's skin man. Some of his most fascinating buildings are outfitted in shimmering, perforated metal skin. It gives them a scintillating exterior and operates as a sunscreen to reduce demand for air-conditioning in the summer. This dashing new project, Mayne's first in New York City, is a collection of classrooms, laboratories and galleries at the Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art that manages to be both muscular and delicate. Intersecting slashes on its façade confer instant East Village street cred, while an intricately corkscrewing central stairwell provides the interior with a cockeyed grandeur.