The design for a new Harvard-owned building at 90 Mt. Auburn Street moved one step closer to completion last week, as the world-famous Austrian architect in charge of the project flew to Cambridge for an intense three-day planning session.

In meetings, the architect, Hans Hollwein, and the Boston firm with which he is working, addressed neighbors' critiques of a structure that passersby are sure to notice.

Hollwein is dean of the Vienna Academy of Arts and a recipient of the prestigious Pritzker Prize for architecture. He designs are known for fitting within the aesthetic and historical settings of a neighborhood, while at the same time, striking many as fairly radical.

The conventional brick building that is now at the address houses

Skewers Restaurant and the Harvard Provisions Company.

Hollwein's design would bring put an undulating copper facade in front of the structure. The front wall would be made of glass, and the other sides would be coated in bronze-colored metal. A courtyard would be accessible from both Mt. Auburn and J.F.K Street.

"[Hollwein] has done things on this site that are very creative and really quite brilliant," said Lee D. Cott, the principal architect for Bruner, Cott and Associates, the collaborating firm.

Harvard officials have already presented preliminary plans for 90 Mt. Auburn Street to the Harvard Square Defense Fund, the Cambridge Historical Commission and the Joint Neighborhood Council.