Architect Louise Braverman from New York has designed the new Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso, a sustainable art museum slated to be built in 2010 in the northern Portuguese town of Boticas. The museum will exhibit the artwork of the renowned living Portuguese artist, Nadir Afonso. Formerly a practicing architect who early in his career worked for Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir Afonso has been both making art and writing about aesthetics for decades. His foundation will donate 80 works of art to the center. The museum is divided into two distinct but connected parts, an urbane cultural structure and a park covered below-grade exhibition hall. The urban face of the building consists of an above grade double height entry hall with a second story balcony providing entrance to the auditorium that together with a multipurpose space, gift shop and office contribute to the civic stature of this growing portuguese town. A large ceramic tile mural created by Nadir Afonso will itnroduce pedestrians to the work of the artist. The below grade exhibition space, carved out of the natural granite ledge hillside and covered with a slope, sustainable planted green roof park, functions as a connection to the town. The design of the Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso is integrally intertwined with the urban development of the town of Boticas for it will create a cultural extension of the emerging town center. Strategically located at the intersection of newly built national highways, the museum is poised to become a global destination that will expose the art of Nadir Afonso, to a much larger audience as well as serve as a cultural and economic engine for the local economy and surrounding region.