Indeed the main objection to Hadid's work, many say, is that what may be visually appealing on paper does not necessarily work in three-dimensions.
"It's a lot of pretty sculpture, pretty art, but how does it work?" asked Gwen Erskine, a Boston architect.
Professor of Economic Psychology Linda Pelzmann, a visiting scholar at Harvard, emphasized how important personal relationships are to Hadid's work.
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"Before Zaha does anything for you, she wants to know you," she said, discussing the interaction they had before Hadid designed Pelzmann's apartment just outside Vienna.
Hadid's upcoming projects include Contemporary Arts Centers for Cincinnati and Rome and a ski-jump in Innsbruck, Austria.