In front of a packed house at Columbia University, David Adjaye presented three projects. One of his already well known Museum of African American History and #Culture in DC. One, the upcoming Studio Museum in Harlem which carves a new building in an old space on 125th St. But the one that was most exceptional from a design standpoint were the three religious structures he is designing known as 'the abrahamic family house', which will be located on Abu Dhabi's Saadiyat Island comprised of a church, a mosque and a synagogue. These are structures that look back to sixties palaces like the Music Center of LA and Lincoln Center, white clad buildings with golden interiors, but as they are adjacent to the projects that have had difficult trajectories (Gehry, Nouvel, Foster, Hadid's no longer), they will--as Adjaye hopes--stand as symbols for a new way of working in the Emirates.