Hunt Library Designer Wins Prize

Snøhetta, the lead designer for NC State’s planned James B. Hunt Jr. Library, won a European architectural prize. Also known as the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture, the award honored Snøhetta’s design of the National Opera House in Oslo, Norway. The opera house’s sloping roof rises out of the adjacent fjord so that the building itself is not clearly distinguishable from the water that fronts it.

Snøhetta is also known for designs for the Alexandria National Library in Alexandria, Egypt, and the National Sept.11 Memorial and Museum in New York.

Snøhetta is working with Pearce Brinkley Cease + Lee, the North Carolina-based executive architect for the new Hunt Library, to deliver a similarly iconic heart for NC State’s Centennial Campus. Scheduled to open in 2012, the research library will help fill a serious need for library seating.