Architect to Watch

Allison Williams, whose father was an urban planner for the city of Cleveland, has designed large projects, such as the Virginia headquarters of Freddie Mac, and the international terminal at the San Francisco airport, and more recently the upcoming African-American Cultural Center of Greater Pittsburgh."Williams's criteria for what makes great architecture can be summed up in one word: 'timelessness.' Only by having a building reflect current society and life, she says, will it retain its meaning in the future. Williams regards many of the new buildings today as faddish--a self-conscious layering of historical styles, from neoclassical to neo-Gothic to neo-everything that may be fashionable now but won't be for long."

Thanks to Connie Chung