Shaping the Great City explores the role of city-building throughout the Austro-Hungarian Empire, both before and after its dissolution, and expands architectural history by bringing to the fore a rich variety of modernisms. In the years surrounding World War I, these strains of modernism both reflected and shaped the many national and multinational identities of the Habsburg lands.

To evoke a sense of the cultural and political ferment of Central Europe between 1890 and 1937, the exhibition is organized on the model of bustling streets and busy public places in which projections of slides and early films mingle with architectural drawings and models, photographs, posters, and books.

Curators: Dieter Bogner, Austrian State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs; Monika Platzer, Architekturzentrum Wien; and Eve Blau and Nicholas Olsberg, CCA.
Exhibition design: Coop Himmelb(l)au, Vienna.
Graphic design: Ulbl+Jakely+Thönen, Vienna.
Co-organizers: The Austrian State Ministry for Education and Cultural Affairs, Vienna; the International Research Centre for Cultural Studies, Vienna; and the Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles.