Faces to watch

Jacques Herzog, Pierre de Meuron

Architects

It might seem absurd to give the “Faces to watch” label to a pair of 54-year-old architects whose Switzerland-based firm is one of the best-regarded in the world. But 2005 will be a debut year of sorts for them in the United States, where their only public work until now has been the Dominus winery in Napa Valley. In April, Herzog & de Meuron’s extension to the Walker Art Center will open in Minneapolis. And in October, a new De Young Museum in San Francisco will replace the quake-damaged original with a building sheathed in copper.

Snohetta

Architects

Winning the right to design the museum building at Ground Zero has dragged this Norwegian firm into the American spotlight. A primary reason Snohetta edged more than 50 competitors is that it has experience working on sites with complicated histories: Its library in Alexandria, Egypt, opened two years ago near the site of the legendary original. Founded in 1989 by Craig Dykers and Kjetil Thorsen, Snohetta is also at work on an opera house in Oslo and the Turner Contemporary, a museum in Margate, England.

David Adjaye

Architects

The Ghana-born, London-based Adjaye, just 37, has graduated from the trendy boutique projects that made his reputation to surprisingly big commissions, including a cool, boxy new contemporary art museum in Denver. A hotel on Sunset Boulevard is in the works too.