The Ordos 100 may sound like a doomed Da Vinci Code cabal, but it's actually a new residential development in the Inner Mongolian city of Ordos. The "100" is the number of emerging architects from 27 countries that were each invited to design a villa on lots ranging from a quarter to a half acre for a client known as Jiang Yuan Water Engineering Ltd. And did we mention that the project's master plan is by Mr. Bird's Nest Himself, Ai Weiwei, and that Herzog & de Meuron selected the participating architects?

You'll be hearing more about the ambitious project later this fall, when the Architectural League of New York spotlights the local chosen ones with an exhibition of the designs by the 11 New York-based architects working in Ordos. Among the participating firms are our old friends Lewis.Tsurumaki.Lewis, Lyn Rice Architects, and Toshiko Mori Architect. According to curator Gregory Wessner, the League's director of exhibitions, the show will explore the unique process of the undertaking and provoke a conversation about the role that design is playing in the development. "New York Architects and the Ordos 100" is slated to run from October 11 through November 26 at the Urban Center, which is considerably easier to get to than Inner Mongolia.