The design of the Akron Art Museum is intended both as an attractor for the public and a landmark building for the city and the region of Akron, Ohio. The integration and physical overlap of various functions with one another provides the distinctive environment necessary for the staging of community events. This dramatic stage set is achieved by the introduction of a continuous surface that links together the outdoor and indoor event spaces, rising from the intimate courtyard between the original building and the new extension to the higher levels of the extended sculpture garden and culminating in the sculpture terrace and the roof landscape. The continuity of landscape between all event spaces results in a 'figure of eight' spatial configuration, legible in the void generated above the outdoor lobby space.