Concerned that contemporary waterfront projects tend to lack compelling design, Van Alen Institute, New York, initiated Architecture + Water . This exhibition brings together five architectural projects that are not merely eye-catching structures that happen to be situated by the water, but that also embody a rethinking of the character and form of the surrounding landscape. The projects–Yokahama’s International Port Terminal (Foreign Office Architects); Blur Building, Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland (Diller + Scofido); Quattro Villa, The Hague, Netherlands (MVRDV); Lake Whitney Water Treatment Plant, Hamden, Connecticut (Steven Holl Architects and Michael Van Valkenburgh and Associates); and Blackfriars Station, London (Alsop Architects)–fully engage today’s waterfronts and demonstrate the powerful integration of function and design. Models, drawings, and additional media convey the response of these design firms to the new programs and new expectations of the 21st-century waterfront city.