Lawrence Biemiller, of The Chronicle, writes about the University of Cincinnati's Aronoff Center for Design and Art, which is about to be renovated - only 14 years after its construction. One big issue: What color will we paint it? Oh, and it's got some water problems, too. 

SCUPer Mary Beth McGrew, the University of Cincinnati's architect is interviewed for this piece, and there is also a photo of her (see below). She is the local hosts committee chair for SCUP's 2010 North Central Regional Conference, 2020 Vision: Planning for the Future, October 25–27, in Cincinnati. This and many other buildings will be featured in various campus tours. The program is outstanding, you can download a PDF of the final program here. Onsite registration for the event will be available.

More from the article:

The problem here is that the building, an icon of architecture's "deconstructionist" movement, is deconstructing itself—literally coming apart at the seams because moisture has penetrated the "exterior insulating finishing system," as it's called, that makes up much of the angled facade. Now its dull, weather-stained wall panels are peeling away from windows and rooflines, and boils and rot mar the edges of some walls in busy locations. Attempts to correct the moisture problem by adding weep holes to drain away water didn't help. Nor did students, some of whom took to tossing rocks at the walls to see if the rocks would stick. 

Other early applications of the same finishing system, which consists of layers of foam insulation and fiberglass mesh beneath a top coat applied in different textures and colors, have caused similar problems for numerous buildings, from houses to office towers, although not every structure that uses the system has had problems. Mary Beth McGrew, Cincinnati's university architect since 2006, says the system was chosen for the Aronoff Center because it was about $2-million cheaper than the colored tiles Mr. Eisenman originally envisioned. But selecting an unproven technology for a structure as complex as this one was not, in retrospect, a good idea, Ms. McGrew says.