SOM's San Francisco office has transformed an abandoned cinema into a multipurpose performance and community venue for the American Conservatory Theater, a prominent arts organisation in the Bay Area (+ slideshow). More about SOM recasts old San Francisco movie house for new role as a nonprofit theatre
Officials in Massachusetts have announced plans for a pair of new museums designed by New York studio Gluckman Tang in the state's northwestern region (+ slideshow). More about Gluckman Tang designs museums for art and model trains in western Massachusetts
Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava's science museum with a skeletal roof that projects over a public plaza has opened in Rio de Janeiro (+ slideshow). More about Museum of Tomorrow by Santiago Calatrava opens in Rio de Janeiro
Beijing studio MAD has completed an opera house in the Chinese city of Harbin, featuring an undulating form that wraps two concert halls and a huge public plaza (+ slideshow). More about MAD's sinuous Harbin Opera House completes in north-east China
These new images by photographer Danica O Kus provide a tour around the exterior of Philharmonie de Paris, the concert hall designed and disowned by French architect Jean Nouvel (+ slideshow). More about New photos offer a closer look around Jean Nouvel's Philharmonie de Paris
London-based Heatherwick Studio and Canadian firm Diamond Schmitt have been selected to replace Foster + Partners on the overhaul of Lincoln Center's David Geffen Hall, home to one of New York's leading orchestras. More about Thomas Heatherwick to redesign home of New York Philharmonic orchestra
China's rush to build thousands of new museums is leading to cultural buildings "with no vision and mediocre collections", according to architects and curators in the country (+ slideshow). More about China "can't buy culture" with museum boom, say critics
French studio Atelier Fernandez & Serres has completed a cultural centre outside Nantes featuring pale stone walls and sloping roof planes that echo the forms of neighbouring houses (+ slideshow). More about Pale travertine walls frame Cour et Jardin cultural centre by Atelier Fernandez & Serres
The Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles reopened this week following an extensive renovation, featuring a new wavy steel and aluminium facade designed by Kohn Pedersen Fox (+ slideshow). More about LA's Petersen Automotive Museum reopens with KPF-designed metal-ribbon facade
A crucifix and bell are set into two hollows in the swollen brick facade of this chapel, which was designed by Wandel Lorch Architekten for a site in Hamburg's docklands (+ slideshow). More about Wandel Lorch completes chapel with bulging brickwork in Hamburg docklands
Construction is well underway on OMA's drum-shaped Faena Forum cultural centre in Miami Beach, which was influenced by the Guggenheim Museum in New York according to the project's lead architect. More about OMA's Frank Lloyd Wright-inspired Faena Forum takes shape in Miami Beach
The hexagonal pyramids on the roof of this museum are now covered in a layer of grass, helping the building settle into its marshland environment in the Netherlands (+ slideshow). More about Studio Marco Vermeulen adds grass blanket over rooftop pyramids of Dutch island museum
Children and adults learn the skills of boatbuilding inside this harbour-side stone structure that Scottish firm Brown + Brown has updated with a contemporary wooden roof. More about Brown + Brown transforms derelict stone buildings into boatbuilding workshop
Brightly coloured stripes cover one face of this bulky concrete community complex in Lille, which was designed by architect Julien De Smedt to host facilities for the "three ages of mankind" (+ slideshow). More about Julien De Smedt's angular concrete youth centre in Lille features a colourful striped wall
Polish architect and sculptor Mirosław Nizio has unveiled the first photographs of a mausoleum he is building to commemorate the victims of Polish village massacres during the second world war (+ slideshow). More about Second world war memorial mausoleum nears completion at Polish massacre site
Shift Architecture Urbanism has built a spherical cinema, a cube-shaped gallery and an elevated walkway to create a complex of design, science and technology museums in the Netherlands (+ slideshow). More about Trio of geometric forms by Shift Architecture Urbanism form new Dutch museum complex
German studio KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten's glass-covered design for the Shenzhen Art Museum and Library complex in China beat proposals from a number of star architects. More about KSP Jürgen Engel Architekten wins competition to design Shenzhen Art Museum and Library
This "floating" art and literary museum by American studio OLI Architecture is housed in a grouping of textured concrete blocks, which are elevated over a lake in China's Zhejiang Province (+ slideshow). More about Mu Xin Art Museum by OLI Architecture sits over a lake in eastern China
Railway sleepers form the walls of this extension to a library in Azkoitia, Spain, which is located at the town's former railway station. More about Estudio Beldarrain uses reclaimed railway sleepers to extend Spanish library
The roof of this extension to a Copenhagen cultural centre is shaped like an elongated S, and it appears to ramp up over the roof of one of the buildings it adjoins (+ slideshow). More about S-shaped extension links two sides of Copenhagen's Mariehøj Kulturcenter