Architects Face Herculean Task at New Tate

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The Tate Gallery has named the six finalists in an international competition to design the new Tate Gallery of Modern Art in London. It is to be sited in the cavernous interiors of the redundant Bankside power station, on the south bank of the Thames opposite St Paul's cathedral.

The six architects are Renzo Piano (Italy), co-designer of the Pompidou Centre in Paris, David Chipperfield (the only British architect in the list), Herzog & de Meuron (Switzerland), Office for Metropolitan Architecture (Netherlands), Rafael Moneo (Spain) and Tadao Ando (Japan).

Of these, only David Chipperfield has built in Britain. Foreign architects, save for Americans brought here to …