Explore moCa's Design

The Kulas Overlook at the top of the Kohl Monumental Stair features a clerestory window (a high section of the wall that contains windows above eye level) spanning the museum. It provides art lovers and the curious with a birds-eye view into the Mueller Family Gallery.

To be present to support the needs of artists, the curious, and art lovers- a responsive design that accommodates quick changes was employed. 

Gund Commons features a garage door that divides the ground floor into two unique and smaller programmable environments. The galleries are column-free and allow for temporary walls; the ceilings are exposed and built with supports for hanging heavy objects.

Often compared to a diamond, moCa Cleveland’s eccentric exterior form is optically radiant. Designed in-the-round, the building has no backside. Its eight canted (slanted) edges create a structure that starts as a hexagon and culminates as a square. 

moCa's interior consists of dark blue walls that serve as a striking feature of the building and articulate its exterior form from within. Meant to bathe visitors in a field of color, the blue interior frames the visitor in space. 

The most impressive element at moCa are the artists and their work. Coming in a close second architecturally is the Kohl Monumental Staircase. An engineering feat to behold, this cascading staircase houses two stairs, one atop another.

Made from over 100 tons of concrete and metal, the stair appears as one single white steel sheet. The exterior stair allows visitors to have a social experience, lingering at numerous viewing platforms while traversing up and down.

The enclosed fire stair winds around like a labyrinth. Functioning as a “tube of light.” Stair A is painted yellow with yellow-gelled fixtures. Built with embedded speakers and four channels, moCa uses this alternative environment as a gallery to feature sound art.