Architect Joshua Prince-Ramus to headline Seattle Design Center event May 8, 2013

Internationally renowned architect Joshua Prince-Ramus, who with design partner Rem Koolhaas designed the landmark Seattle Central Library, will present "Critical Naivete" at Seattle Design Center's Premiere Northwest-a trade conference for the region's interior designers and architects.

"Unprejudiced by convention, we expose solutions that transcend those we could have initially or individually imagined," Prince-Ramus has said of his firm's "Critical Naivete" process. "Sometimes we discover uncharted territory; sometimes we rediscover forgotten territory that has renewed usefulness; sometimes we reaffirm conventions with assured conviction."

Prince-Ramus was the founding partner of OMA New York-the American affiliate of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture/Rem Koolhaas-and served as its principal until he repositioned the firm in 2006 as REX, a think-tank of 25 designers from diverse cultural and educational backgrounds. While REX was still known as OMA New York, Prince-Ramus was Partner in Charge of the Guggenheim-Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas and the Seattle Central Library, hailed as Time magazine's 2004 Building of the Year and by Herbert Muschamp in the New York Times as "the most exciting new building it has been my honor to review in more than 30 years of writing about architecture." In 2005, the Seattle Central Library was awarded the top honors bestowed by the American Institute of Architects, the American Council of Engineering Companies, and the American Library Association.

"Our goal with Premiere Northwest is to showcase the new and innovative," said Seattle Design Center marketing manager Craig Cross, "and certainly Joshua is celebrated for his ingenuity. Of course, it's been great to provide an opportunity for the man who designed one of Seattle's landmark structures to visit the city again. We're very excited to hear about his work."

Official Website: http://www.seattledesigncenter.com/eventsAndCalendar/upcomingEventsPage.aspx?EventID=439