Williams Tsien's design was chosen over those of 60 other firms; the four other finalists were Vienna's Hans Hollein, Tokyo's Fumihiko Maki and Americans Thom Mayne and Daniel Libeskind.
Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects is run by the husband-and-wife team of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien, whose designs include Johns Hopkins University's Mattin Student Art Center and New York's American Folk Art Museum, which won the Arup World Architecture Award as "Best Building in the World" in 2002.
According to The New York Times, the design features a glass and stone building with several quadrangles, narrow rectilinear windows and a tower described as a "beacon of light."
