Snøhetta (company)

Snøhetta (Norwegian pronunciation: [ˈsnø̀ːˌhɛtːɑ]) is a Norwegian architectural firm headquartered in Oslo, Norway.

Background

The company was formed in 1987 by Norwegian, Kjetil Thorsen, and a group of young architects. They named it Snøhetta after the tallest mountain in the Dovrefjell National Park. In 1989 they joined forces with New York architect, Craig Dykers, to enter the competition to design a replacement for the Library of Alexandria (the winning design for Bibliotheca Alexandrina wasn't completed until 2001).

Awards

Snøhetta has received the World Architecture Award for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the Oslo Opera House, and the Aga Khan Award for Architecture for the Bibliotheca Alexandrina. Since its completion in 2008, the Oslo Opera House has also been awarded the Mies van der Rohe Award, the EDRA (Environmental Design Research Association) Great Places Award, the European Prize for Urban Public Space, In 2010, through Kjetil Trædal Thorsen’s lead, Snøhetta’s works’ coherence with their environment was awarded the Global Award for Sustainable Architecture, both from an international point of view, for their large scale projects, and at a local, small projects scale.

Notable works

Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt (2002)
Wolfe Center for the Arts at Bowling Green State University in Bowling Green, Ohio (2012)
National September 11 Museum, New York City (2014)
Toronto Metropolitan University Student Learning Centre in Toronto (2015)
King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), Dhahran (2016)
Expansion of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2016)
Lascaux IV International Centre for Cave Art in Montignac, France (2016)
Redesign and renovation of Times Square, New York (2017)
Calgary Central Library, Alberta, Canada (2018)
Under, underwater restaurant in Lindesnes, Norway (2019)
Blanton Museum of Art (2023)
Joslyn Art Museum, Omaha, Nebraska (2024)
Museum of Sex, Miami, Florida (2024)
Qasr Al Hokm Metro Station, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia (2024)
Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library, near Medora, North Dakota U.S. (expected completion date in 2026)