Office for Metropolitan Architecture

OMA was founded in 1975 by Rem Koolhaas, Elia and Zoe Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp as a collaborative office practicing architecture and urbanism.
The office gained renown through a series of entries in major competitions: Parc de la Villette, Paris, France (1982), ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (1989), Tres Grande Bibliotheque and Two Libraries for Jussieu University, Paris, France (1993). During these formative years OMA also realized ambitious projects, ranging from private residences to large scale urban plans: Villa dall'Ava, Paris, France (1991), Nexus Housing, Fukuoka, Japan (1991), the Kunsthal, Rotterdam (1992) and the House in Bordeaux (1998). In 1994 OMA completed Euralille, a 70-hectare business and civic center in northern France comprising the European hub for high-speed trains.
Since 2001 OMA has completed numerous projects including Casa da Musica in Porto (2005), the Prada Epicenter in Los Angeles (2004), the Seattle Public Library (2004), the Leeum Samsung Museum of Art (2004), the Netherlands Embassy in Berlin (2003), the IIT Campus Centre in Chicago (2003), and the Prada Epicenter in New York (2001). OMA has also been engaged in several museum projects including the Whitney Museum in New York, the Los Angeles Country Museum of Art and two Guggenheim Museums in Las Vegas (2001).
The work of Rem Koolhaas and OMA has won several international awards, including the Pritzker Architecture Prize 2000, and was the subject of a retrospective exhibition held at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1995: Rem Koolhaas and the Place of Public Architecture.