IN LIGHT OF THE PAST DECADE'S proliferation of expensively built (or renovated) spaces for contemporary art--and perhaps also because the deconsecrated church next door is now a bar--Nottingham Contemporary prompts reflections on the shifting fortunes of public architecture in Europe. Opening November 14, the new kunsthalle, designed by the British firm Caruso St John Architects, occupies a prominent site in the heart of this central English town. The structure reaches heavenward like its neighbor, but the gold-covered boxes at its top resemble shipping containers more than spires. This gesture creates a sense of largesse while avoiding monumentality--perhaps the characteristic of the building's design that best correlates with its true inspiration, according to the architects, in the warehouses of Berlin and New York.
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Such a mercantile source makes good historical …
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