During his years in the Peace Corps, Steven Ehrlich absorbed the lessons and imagery of African vernacular architecture and then he designed an open-air university theater workshop in Nigeria while he was teaching there in the mid 1970s. Now he has returned to the source with a competition-winning design for a symbolic gateway to Abuja, the new capital of Nigeria.

In contrast to the village-like character of his theater workshop, the new project is a soaring abstract form that was inspired by the traditional bow harp and the looms on which Nigerians weave colorful fabrics......read more