Building Designed for Architects

In a city where museum buildings often attract more buzz than the art inside them, it was only a matter of time before a museum about architecture sprung up.     The Center for Architecture, a new $3.8 million cultural institution being built on La Guardia Place in Greenwich Village, open on Oct. 7.  The 12,000-square-foot facility will house galleries, an auditorium and a library, and will be the new headquarters of the American Institute of Architects New York Chapter.     The opening will kick off Architecture Week, six days of public activities in New York, including a 16-hour, 80-speaker marathon about current trends in building; and “open-housenewyork,” a new annual event offering free acces to 50 sites throughou the city, from boardrooms to bedrooms, that are usually closed to the public.     “Since Sept. 11, the design-related organizations in the city have collaborated as never before.  We hope this facility will serve as a catalyst to further that spirit of mutual support,” says George Miller, president of the AIA New York Chapter.