A Stage, It Had Better Be Well Designed in This Issue

blueprintsVolume XXV, No. 1 National Building Museum

If All the World’s a Stage, It Had Better Be Well Designed in this issue:

Shakespearean Theater It’s Not What You Think A Michael Kahn Interview

An Actor’s Perspective on Theater Design with Holly Twyford

Architecture& Dance Winter 2006–07 From the Executive Director

Reinventing the Globe (and Blueprints) in this issue “A pretty plot, well chosen to build upon!” This quote from William Shakespeare’s Henry VI hangs on a construction site a block away from the National Building Museum. Now under construction on that plot is the Harman Center for the Arts, which will provide much-needed additional space for Washington’s popular Shakespeare Theatre Company. The new theater’s opening, scheduled for fall 2007, is sure to draw renewed atten- tion to one of the foremost figures in literary history.

Actually, 2007 promises to be a banner year for the Bard in the nation’s capital, thanks to the upcoming Shakespeare in Washington festival, organized by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts with the cooperation of dozens of other cultural institutions. The festival is a multi-disciplinary initiative, involving a number of organizations not directly associated with literary drama. The National Building Museum, for its part, will present an exhibition addressing architecture, theater, and set design, called Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean National Building Museum Blueprints Editorial Board Theater for the 21st Century. For this show, we have com- Editor-in-Chief missioned five architects and designers to re-think G. Martin Moeller, Jr. Catherine Crane Frankel Shakespeare’s own famous stage and create a new Director of Exhibitions and Collections Managing Editor venue for our time; I invite you to come and see the Julia Neubauer imaginative results. Until your next visit, enjoy this Scott Kratz Vice President for Education Designer issue of Blueprints, featuring articles addressing the Jennifer Byrne various intersections among architecture and Bryna Lipper Director of Marketing and Communications theatrical performance. Blueprints is the quarterly magazine G. Martin Moeller, Jr. of the National Building Museum. Senior Vice President and Curator Subscriptions are a benefit of And speaking of reinventing, you’ll notice that Museum membership. we redesigned Blueprints. We’re including more Julia Neubauer Editor/Writer images in full color, a variety of new content, be- Blueprints ©2007 hind-the-scenes Museum news, and more. We also Chase W. Rynd All rights reserved organized a new editorial board of staff members to Executive Director ISSN 0742-0552 Shar Taylor help direct and coordinate our various publications Paper contains 50% recycled content Vice President for Development (both printed and electronic), so be on the lookout for including 25% post consumer waste. other improvements to our communications vehicles in the coming months. And let us know what you think—email us your comments at [email protected].

Sincerely, The National Building Museum explores the world we build for ourselves—from our homes, skyscrapers, and public buildings to our parks, bridges, and cities. Through exhibitions, education programs, and publications, the Museum seeks to educate the public about achievements in architecture, design, engineering, urban planning, Chase W. Rynd and construction.

The Museum is supported by contributions from individuals, corporations, foundations, associations, and public agencies. 2 4 8 14 21

If All the World’s a Stage, It Had Better Be Well Designed Inspired by the upcoming exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century (January 13–August 27, 2007), this issue of Blueprints considers the integral relationship between architecture and theater. In various articles, a renowned director, an actor, and a theater historian offer sometimes divergent views on ideal settings for Shakespearean plays and other dramatic works, while an architect with a fondness for dance explores the connections between the human body and built form. Complementing these thematic articles are various Museum news items, a feature highlighting an artifact from the Museum’s collection, and the ever-popular Mystery Building challenge.

Shakespearean Theater: Museum News It’s Not What You Think • Museum exhibition leads to commission for Michael Kahn, artistic director of the Shakespeare Danish artist Theatre Company, explains why he had no interest in • Families flock to Museum for annual festival 18• Reception and dinner mark inauguration of 2replicating the famous Globe Theatre when commissioning the new Sidney Harman Hall. new Museum chair • Board welcomes new trustee from overseas An Actor’s Perspective on Theater Design • Thanks to Museum donors

Holly Twyford, winner of three Helen Hayes Awards as outstanding lead or supporting actress in Wash- Collections Corner above: The set for the dance ington-area plays, discusses how the design of piece Spillout!, consisting A-maize-ing capital added to collection. of an armature covered in 4theaters and sets influences dramatic performance. elastic bands, which the dancers engage during the performance. Photo Lessons from the Study of 20 by Gary Gold. Historic Theater Architecture Mystery Building Why is it that some theater spaces seem to bring “I see a ship!” out the very best from relatively mundane produc- 8tions, while others can deaden even the most spirited performances? Theater historian Franklin J. Hildy 21 shop! seeks answers from the past, with an emphasis on the Elizabethan era. Shakespeare’s Globe: An Interactive Pop-Up Architecture and Dance: Open this book to reveal Intersections and Collaboration an amazing pop-up model of the Globe, just as it Architect and dance enthusiast Frances Bronet may have appeared in talks about her work on performance projects and Shakespeare’s time. Then 14teaching strategies that bring together these two grab the accompanying disciplines. play books and bring to life scenes from a dozen of Shakespeare’s most popular plays, including Romeo & Juliet, Macbeth, and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Perfect for ages 8 and up.

$18 Museum members/ $19.99 nonmembers. Visit the Museum Shop during Museum hours or call 202.272.7706. u Winter 2006-07 blueprints An Interview with Michael Kahn by Martin Moeller

hakespearean Theater:It’s Not What You Think Michael Kahn has led the Shakespeare Kahn is currently leading the Theatre Company in Washington, DC, Shakespeare Theatre Company into for 20 seasons as artistic director, a new era with the creation of the creating what The Wall Street Journal Harman Center for the Arts, a two- Scalls “. . .the nation’s foremost venue performing arts center (including Shakespeare company.” He is also the new Sidney Harman Hall, currently the founder of the Academy for under construction, and the existing Classical Acting at The George Lansburgh Theatre) that will expand Washington University and the former the company’s offerings while creating Richard Rodgers Director of the Drama opportunities for artists from around Division at Juilliard. His Broadway the world to perform in Washington, credits include a Tony Award nomination DC. He is also serving as curator of the for his production of Show Boat. Shakespeare in Washington festival, top: Michael Kahn, artistic which was conceived by Michael Kaiser director of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Courtesy of the John F. Kennedy Center for the of the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Performing Arts. opposite: Rendering of a performance at the new Sidney Harman Hall. Courtesy of Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc. continued top page 4 u

blueprints Winter 2006-07 It’s Not What You Think

Learn more about the new Sidney Harman Hall by visiting the National Building Museum’s exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century. The design for the theater is presented through architectural renderings, a model, and a computer animation explaining the flexible stage design.

Winter 2006-07 blueprints Shakespearean Theater: It’s Not What You Think continued

Martin Moeller: What were the motivations behind the city-wide Shakespeare festival?

Michael Kahn: The idea began in a conversation that Michael Kaiser [president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts] and I had, about how this city is so culturally rich, and in many ways people don’t know about it. People know that Washington is the seat of power and also the home of extraordinary monuments and history, but I don’t think they really understand the depth of cultural life here. So we talked about a festival of Shakespeare, and Michael asked that I curate it. I began to see it as a city-wide festival, including not just the major performance venues, but as many of the city’s cultural institutions as possible. The idea was to celebrate Shakespeare not just as a playwright, but as perhaps the most influential person in all the other arts, because so many operas, music, ballet, painting, books, poetry, and dance have come out of people’s responses to Shakespeare.

MM: To what extent do you think the design of a given theatrical space influences the character of the performances within it?

MK: I think it always has. Shakespeare’s plays would not have been written the way they are if the theaters of the era had had proscenium stages. Shakespeare’s plays are written almost cinematically, and that really comes from the idea that you’re not changing the scenery. So there’s an extraordinary fluidity that you didn’t get once the proscenium was created, and as a matter

Interview with Holly Twyford by Martin Moeller An Actor’s Perspective on Theater Design Holly Twyford has been acting professionally for over a decade, appearing in more than 40 productions in the Washington area, plus others in New York, Boston, Philadelphia, and Santa Cruz. Twyford has been nominated for nine Helen Hayes Awards for Washington-area theater and won three, including two Outstanding Lead Actress Awards—for her portrayal of Juliet in Romeo and Juliet at the Folger Shakespeare Library and as Evelyn in the Studio Theatre’s The Shape of Things—and an Outstanding Supporting Actress Award for her performance in The Two Gentlemen of Verona. She has appeared in independent films, including John Waters’ Pecker, and on television in Homicide: Life on the Street. She recently assisted Joe Banno in the direction of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Folger.

blueprints Winter 2006-07 of fact, once scenery was created. Shakespeare’s plays would probably be an hour shorter if he didn’t have to describe the setting, the climate, the time of day. And of course, some of his most extravagant poetry is in his description of scenic effects, of place, of weather. If there had been scenery, he wouldn’t have needed to do that, so some of the most beautiful passages about night, or winter, or flowers, or fields—you just wouldn’t have them.

When theaters got scenery, writers didn’t write about place anymore. People wanted to go to the theater to see what they considered historical reality. They would see painted sets of Rome, and they would feel that they were seeing Rome. Shakespeare didn’t care— people, and they think, “Oh, good, if I see Shakespeare opposite: Rendering of he just talked about it. With the 20th century, with the like it was done originally, then it’s culturally okay.” It’s the exterior of the Harman invention of things like thrust stages, open stages, and Center for the Arts. not in any way disturbing. arena stages, we began to move closer to an original Courtesy of Diamond + Schmitt Architects Inc. Shakespearean idea, which is that it’s really just a floor MM: And, of course, we don’t really know how it was and actors, and the creation of imagination by actors above: Rendering of the done. What we do know is that the audiences in those and by lights. mezzanine “terrace” at the days were probably pretty boistrous—eating, talking, Harman Center for the Arts. and often drunk. Note the National Building MM: I understand that you instructed the architects Museum, visible in the of Sidney Harman Hall to avoid any attempt to evoke, background at center left. MK: Well, if you go to the Globe [replica] in England, it’s Courtesy of Diamond + Schmitt even indirectly, the character of the Globe or other fun, immersing yourself in a form of theater that the audi- Architects Inc. Elizabethan theaters. ence hasn’t seen, standing and talking during it, and now snapping photographs and that sort of thing. But, without MK: I am not particularly interested in original prac- being rude, that strikes me more like a Maryland Renais- tices. I don’t really know how the actors acted in sance Fair than a major theatrical experience. I think it’s Shakespeare’s time, and to be honest with you, I don’t wonderful that the Globe’s there, but I don’t consider care. Nor am I ever interested in recreating the [Globe]. that the way that Shakespeare should be done. I think that is a distancing device—it’s comfortable for continued top page 6 u

Martin Moeller: I assume that the physical of an Elizabethan stage [that really] takes you character of a given theatrical space directly back, and there’s something exciting about influences an actor’s performance. How that for any actor, I would think. consciously do actors react to different venues? MM: One of the hallmarks of the typical Elizabethan theater was the intimate relation- Holly Twyford: I think it’s pretty conscious. If ship between the actors and the audience. you go to the first reading of a play and there are actors who have never worked in that HT: It was very participatory. At the Folger, in theater before, watch their faces when they the area that we call the Main House on the walk into that space for the first time, and you floor, those seats would not have been there can see all of the wheels turning: “Okay, how [in the Elizabethan era]. Those would have can I use this? What do I have to do to reach been groundlings [people who paid a penny the audience in this house?” If it’s theater each in order to watch the performance while in the round, for instance, it’s something standing in the unsheltered center of the the- completely different from what you have to do ater]. Those people would have been eating, on a proscenium stage. “Is there a balcony? drinking, throwing things, and shouting! Do I have to pump it up a little bit, to make sure that the folks in the cheap seats are get- MM: Theater in those days was a rowdy ting everything?” There are lots of technical business, but that hasn’t stopped many adjustments that have to be made. people over the past century from pursuing the idea of recreating an “authentic” or That goes to the director, too. Somebody “accurate” Elizabethan theatrical experience. directing at the Folger Theatre, for instance, How do you feel about that movement? Holly Twyford as the servant Speed in has to be very careful, because the sightlines Shakespeare’s The Two Gentlemen of Verona, are extremely challenging. But it’s very fun to continued bottom page 6 u at the Folger Theatre in 2004. Photo by Carol Pratt. watch actors’ faces walking into the Folger for the first time, because it’s a wonderful replica

Winter 2006-07 blueprints Shakespearean Theater: It’s Not What You Think continued

MM: What were your primary goals for the new theater? MM: How did the design of the new theater develop over time? MK: First of all, the goal of the Shakespeare Theatre Company was to not let the architecture tyrannize the MK: Originally the theater was going to be in another director. I’d like to be able to transform the architecture part of the building. It wasn’t going to be on the street; to be able to illustrate or most illuminate what I think the it wasn’t going to be seen. And Jack, by reorganizing play has to say and how I want to say it. So in the initial some of the structure, convinced the base building discussions with Jack Diamond [of Diamond + Schmitt architects [SmithGroup] that this building would be Architects Inc., the firm responsible for the design of better if the theater were on the ground, in the front. the theater], we said, “Okay, we could have an open We actually assumed that we would have to be on the stage—a room in which we could do the play without side and you wouldn’t see us from the street. So the scenery. We could also turn that into a thrust theater architect completely transformed that, and I think to by moving some of the seats, or if we really wanted everyone’s huge satisfaction. scenery, we turn that room into a proscenium.” So we have a proscenium, and a thrust stage, and an open MM: Are there any plans to redo the Lansburgh stage, which gives us a real opportunity to use scenery, Theatre once Sidney Harman Hall opens? to not use scenery, to just use lights and props or to do full sets, to put the audience in different places. MK: We don’t own the Lansburgh—I think at the moment, it will stay as it is. The designers of the Lansburgh We were also interested in making the theater available [Graham Gund Architects, now known as GUND to other organizations for dance, chamber music, opera, Partnership], in making a sort of very modern version of and spoken word performances, so the acoustics of the the horseshoe at the Globe, really made a truly intimate house became very important and had a great deal to theater that is wonderful for Shakespeare. One of the do with how the room is built. So both the desire for it important things I said to Jack Diamond was, even to be very transformable for plays but also acoustically though the new theater is twice as big, the relation to perfect for other kinds of art—those have really been the audience and the actor cannot be any further away. the two defining things about how the space was created and what it’s made out of. MM: Is the Shakespeare Theatre Company exploring any new strategies for presenting plays?

An Actor’s Perspective on Theater Design continued

HT: If you are going for accuracy, that’s great, came down—they were symbolizing the but it’s not necessarily going to be a theatrical trees, of course, and so the design really did experience or an artistic experience—it’s sort of embrace the existing columns. different. It depends on what you want to get out of it. I think that one pitfall of having When I was acting in The Desk Set at the a replica of an Elizabethan theater is that it is Studio, the designer did this great, almost not always easy to work with. [At the Folger,] Art Deco set for it. It made you stand in a there are two big pillars in the middle of the certain way. If you’ve got a beanbag chair in stage, and there are places where the king or your scene, you’re going to act in a certain queen might have sat, presumably so he or way around the beanbag chair. All of those she could be seen, but now you can’t seat an elements contribute. audience member there because they can’t see what’s going on. MM: How do all of the design components come together in a typical production? MM: From your perspective as an actor, how well do you think set designers generally HT: Directors meet with all of the designers respond to the constraints and opportunities far before the first read-through of a play, long of specific theaters and plays? before they even assemble a cast. You want to make sure that whoever is designing the sets, HT: Any self-respecting designer would surely the lighting, the sound, the costumes, and the embrace what is there. For example, I would director are all on the same page and telling say that Aaron Posner’s production of As You the same story. The director might say, “I’m Like It did a great job of using the columns interested in this period of design, and I want [at the Folger]. In the first act, the design to incorporate the darkness of this play,” or, Holly Twyford as Viola in Twelfth Night, at the actually called for more columns on stage. “I want to incorporate the fantasy side of this Folger Theatre in 2003. Photo by Carol Pratt. Then when [the characters] were in the forest play.” The designers will go off and come back in the second act, all those other columns and say, “Here are some sketches.” It’s back

blueprints Winter 2006-07 MK: I think we will all find ourselves becoming involved that we made the choice of the architect that we did in one way or another with new technology. We are was because I felt so simpatico with Jack, who was ac- talking about plays incorporating interactive things with tually very interested in listening to what I thought might people at home—for example, setting little cameras on be possible. I know a lot about architects, and there are actors so people at home can actually watch Hamlet some brilliant architects who don’t necessarily talk to from different characters’ perspectives, and during the the client, and the client often gets a fantastic building, performance they can choose how they want to look but we needed somebody who really could connect below: Rendering of the au- at the play. We have talked about doing, say, Antony with the visions that we had and move them forward. ditorium of Sidney Harman Hall set up for a banquet. and Cleopatra, in which the Rome scenes would be Jack has done that in a wonderfully collaborative way. Courtesy of Diamond + Schmitt filmed at another stage, and the Egypt scenes would It’s been a pretty extraordinary relationship. • Architects Inc. be on our stage, and audiences in both cities would be connected to the play. We have a lot of ideas about how things could change with the use of technology in our spaces. It’s probably a couple of years into our future—first we want to get the new theater up.

MM: Has your experience with the Sidney Harman Hall influenced your thinking about the physical environment for plays?

MK: We interviewed quite a lot of architects to talk about ideas, but before I even met them I had to think about what a 21st-century Shakespeare theater might be like. I am sure that many other people have lots of other feelings, and I think your exhibition is actually going to make me go, “Why didn’t we do that? Why didn’t we think of that?” But it was a very interesting exercise for me to say, “I have my freedom here, within the confines of the footprint of the building. What could happen?” It was interesting because one of the reasons

An Actor’s Perspective on Theater Design continued

and forth. They work and they mold, so that by behind you, and to the sides. And the Folger, Nowadays, it can be one extreme or the other. the time you get to the first read-through, there obviously—it has such a personality. And Look at Stop Kiss by Diana Son. There were is a complete model from the set designer, the Studio Theatre has a fantastic intimate 26 scenes. Do you actually create sets for all with at least 90 percent of the questions feeling to it, which I really love. On their thrust of those? When I was in it, they actually did answered as to what’s going to go where. stages you get to be right up with [the audi- create separate sets in various spots on the ence]—you can see faces clear as a bell and stage. Other productions of that play have I do know lighting designers who write cues there’s something fun about that. And I did do been more abstract. later in the process, because they have to a production of Romeo and Juliet outside, in depend on the actors. There was one play I did a redwood glen, at Shakespeare Santa Cruz MM: In a way, as an actor, you are ultimately with an actress who had beautiful blond hair, [in California]. Performing Romeo and Juliet the set designer’s client. In that capacity, and I remember afterward someone saying, actually under the stars—that was pretty what sage advice might you give to an “Wow, that lighting designer really loved her.” He remarkable. aspiring designer? used the fact that her character was this sweet, wonderful, kind person, and he lit that blond MM: Have you noticed major changes in HT: Set designers, like architects, are dealing hair so that you saw an angel. And that’s a attitudes about theatrical settings and set with a building—they have to think about perfect example of contributing to tell the story, design over the years? engineering, practicality, and all within a because that’s what we’re all trying to do. budget. So it’s architecture, it really is. HT: History is cyclical. In the early days, you The design of the set affects everything. MM: Do you have a favorite theater in which often had only one set for the whole play. Ultimately, the job of the designer is the to perform? Arguably, in the Elizabethan era, you didn’t same as the job of the actor, the director, and even have any sets. Then, of course, setting everybody else: remember to tell the story. • HT: I can’t even say. They’re all so differ- the play got more elaborate. But then in the ent. I love the Arena Stage—specifically modern era, there was also a certain fashion what is now called the Fichandler Stage for minimalist plays with no sets to speak of, there—because I love playing in the round. like Waiting for Godot. There’s something about trying to reach out to everyone who is in front of you, and

Professor Franklin J. Hildy is director of graduate studies for the Department of Theatre at the University of Maryland and co-author, with Oscar Brockett, of History of the Theatre, the most widely used text in the field. He is a member of the architectural advisory committee for the Trustees of Shakespeare’s Globe in London and convener of the Working Group on Theatre Architecture for the International Federation for Theatre Research. He has published extensively on the historic theatres of Europe.

Lessons from the Study of Historic Theater Archit ecture

blueprints Winter 2006-07 hy is it that some theater spaces are able to bring out the discussed “actor/audience relationship” these theaters created. very best from even the most pedestrian of productions, But I quickly came to realize that this was only a small component W while others can suck the life out of the most spirited of of a more important question, “How does theater architecture con- performances? This is a question that has intrigued me since I struct audiences?” That is, what is the relationship the architecture was a graduate student, and while I cannot claim to have found the allowed the audience to have with itself, or perhaps more precisely, definitive answers, my research has led to some interesting concepts how does the theater architecture influence the relationship that that might be worthy of consideration. the various components of that social grouping we call “an audience” have with each other, as well as with the performers they Given that I am a professional theater historian who occasionally have assembled to watch? Good theater spaces facilitate the success- works as a theater consultant, it should not be surprising that ful interchange of energy between the actors and the audience, but these concepts are based on historic research. For over 20 years I they also facilitate the generation of energy within the audience have been examining theater buildings, especially historic theater itself. In my early work as a theater consultant, I gained a good deal buildings, from Taiwan to Ireland and from Sweden to Malta. I’ve of practical experience in understanding some of the dynamics of combed over Minoan “theatrical areas” on Crete, Greek theaters in this interchange of energy. But I soon realized that to attempt any Turkey, Roman theaters in Israel and Jordan, 16th-century theaters reasonable speculation about what made a successful theater, in Italy and Japan, 17th-century theaters in Spain and Germany, I needed to explore successful theaters of the past. 18th-century theaters all over Europe, and 19th- and 20th-century theaters just about everywhere. My original concern in examining these buildings was to try to understand the nature of the much continued page 10 u

Detail from Long View of London from Bankside, by Wenceslaus Hol- lar, 1647, showing the Globe theater (mislabeled as “Beere bayting h.”) at left center. By permission of the Folger Archit ecture Shakespeare Library, Washington, DC.

Many of the images accompanying this article appear in the exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century.

Winter 2006-07 blueprints Lessons from the Study of Historic Theater Architecture continued

There are numerous lessons to be learned from the study of historic theater buildings. I like to refer to this work as “applied theater history” because of its implications for modern theater. Among those lessons that seem most relevant for this article are three maxims I have developed for architects who may be involved in the construction of theater spaces.

Maxim One: There is no place Maxim Two: Black is not a color Maxim Three: The space occupied for dead space in the live that should ever be found in by an audience during perfor- theater. Wherever one looks in a the audience space of a theater. mance is known as “the house” historic theater auditorium there The same modernist aesthetic to theater people—there is a are signs of life or the potential that called for the neutralizing reason for that! Admittedly this for life. Within each audience of space in theaters eventually is a less tangible lesson and one member’s range of vision while argued for a theater space that I have yet to fully understand. watching a play, there are other would be an “empty canvas” for But there is something about suc- audience members to look at. In the creation of theater art. But cessful theater spaces that makes places where no audience can be stage lighting had achieved such each member of the audience feel conveniently located there are prominence that this empty like they belong there, no mat- fake boxes that suggest the pos- canvas could not be white, as it ter how opulent or Spartan the sibility that other audience mem- is for the painterly arts, so black interior decoration scheme might bers could appear there. Even was selected. be and no matter how physically doors, like those found at the end comfortable or uncomfortable the of every aisle in Wagner’s famous By the late 1960s “black box the- audience seating might be. And Festspielhaus in Bayreuth, Ger- aters” were being championed as this is true no matter what the many, suggest the potential for the ultimate creative space. But size or shape this audience space life to arrive at any moment. In black is not a neutral color and might take, or what relation- locations where the architecture this concept led not to increased ship to the performers it might does not allow for such features, creativity but to a very limiting establish. there are statues, paintings, deco- “black box mode” of playwriting, rative motifs of plants, or some directing, and acting. Theaters How this feeling is conveyed to other signs of life, and this exists must have the ability to become an audience is one of the greater virtually everywhere that might psychologically “warm “or “cool” mysteries of successful theater ar- catch a playgoer’s eye. spaces depending on the drama chitecture. But labeling this space Sketch of the interior of being presented. You never see merely as the “auditorium” on the Swan theater, by Arendt Following World War II, however, black in the original color scheme an architectural plan may well van Buchell, ca. 1596-97, after an original drawing economics, combined with the of a historic theater because black prevent an architect from giving by Johannes de Witt. The proliferation of cinemas, inspired can never be a warm color. You the proper amount of thought to Swan was a forerunner of some theater practitioners to should never see black in the that mystery. the Globe, which most likely had a similar stage design. ask that the modernist aesthetic spaces occupied by an audience Courtesy of the University of neutral space be applied to today. Library, Utrecht. theater architecture. This, it was argued, would put all the audience’s focus onto the stage. There were numerous very articulate justifications for this approach, but ultimately it worked against the social nature of live theater. Live theater’s social nature turns “There is no place for out to be one of its most essential characteristics. dead space 1 in the live theater.”

10 blueprints Winter 2006-07 A production of Measure As with all historic research, there are limitations It is very rare to be able to study a historic theater “in for Measure in the “Fortune Fit-up,” a temporary stage to the kind of exploration I do into historic theaters. performance,” that is, while a play is going on within erected at the Royalty Historic theaters which have remained intact have too it. On those occasions when performances are done in Theatre in London in 1893 often done so because they were not successful and a historic theater building, however, it is remarkable in an effort to re-create the character of Elizabethan were quickly abandoned but for some reason were not how even a modern audience—one which cannot theaters. Courtesy of the taken down. Successful theater buildings were often see with the same eyes as the audience for which the Victoria & Albert Museum destroyed by fire and rebuilt in a new form. Those that theater was originally built—still experiences the Picture Library, London. did not burn have been continually redecorated and energy interchange that is such an essential charac- modernized so that a great deal has to be done in order teristic of a successful theater building. Perhaps this to re-envision them as they once were. And some of the is why so many theaters have been so painstakingly most successful theater architecture no longer exists restored over the years and why there are so many in even a single example. The open-air theaters built attempts now to recover lost theaters, especially in in London between 1567 and 1623, for example, were the United States. part of a remarkable golden age of English theater, yet not a single one of those unique structures survived Dennis Kennedy, in Looking at Shakespeare, has pointed “There is no place for the turbulent middle years of the 17th century. To out that theatrical productions are “manufactured study these theaters we have to reconstruct them, or for a highly specific geographical and sociopolitical perhaps a better term might be “recreate” them. This audience” and over time “they will lose their sig- dead space is what we did for the Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in nificant connection to the culture they invoke” and London in 1997, a project I have worked on since 1984 therefore must be reinterpreted. The same can be said and am still working on 22 years later. (It is also what of theater buildings, and indeed such observations are in the live theater.” was done for Shakespeare’s Blackfriars Theatre in often used to underscore the futility of projects like Staunton, Virginia, home of the American Shakespeare the reconstruction of Shakespeare’s Globe in London. Center and what will soon be done for the replica of an We cannot be Elizabeths, they argue, so how can we 18th-century theater in Colonial Williamsburg.) appreciate Shakespearean staging practices? But what are the parameters of those reinterpretations Kennedy says we must do? If the past has no relevance to the present we should be writing new plays, not reinter- preting old ones, we should be building new theaters,

continued page 12 u Winter 2006-07 blueprints 11 Lessons from the Study of Historic Theater Architecture continued “The space occupied by an audience during performance is known as the house to theater people —there is a reason for that!” not restoring or recreating old ones. But if there is When it came to the staging of Shakespeare, this something in these old plays or these old buildings antiquarianism arrived just in time. In spite of the that is worth conveying to those living in the pres- numerous changes in fashion, modern dress retained ent, we must translate that something into terms a the ornamentation, color, flow, and stateliness that, contemporary audience will understand. And surely if it was not a perfect match for the splendor of we want the translators who are undertaking this task Shakespeare’s language, could at least hold its own to be competent in both the contemporary language against it. But as the industrial age took hold, cloth- and the language of the source. The examination of ing, especially men’s clothing, became increasingly existing historic theaters (or the recreation of lost stark with hard edges, decreasing amounts of detail, ones) and their use for the exploration of original staging practices used for the great works of dramatic literature, make us better translators. It forces “Black is not a color that should ever be us to learn the source language in a systematic and disciplined way—and found in the audience space of a theater.” in minute detail. It requires that we 2 recognize that learning a language is not just a matter and less and less color. Actors using modern dress in of knowing the words, it is also a matter of learning the 1780s could just manage to look as if they should the grammar and syntax, and in theater, learning the be speaking the elevated language of Shakespeare; by ways in which space gives meaning to text. It may 1830 they would have only managed to look foolish never be possible for us to become fluent in the theatri- trying to do so had antiquarianism not come to the cal language of a bygone era—and who could tell us if rescue in providing the spectacle of historic costume. we were?—but this does not mean we cannot develop a good working knowledge of the theatrical language Almost as soon as the “antiquarian” approach to the of a period like that of the age of Shakespeare. staging of Shakespearian plays became popular, however, there were those who rebelled against it. Just as If we look at just one major example we can see how the Pre-Raphaelites in painting had set themselves the study of the past might inform both architectural in opposition to the materialist art of the Industrial and performance decisions in our thinking about Revolution, there were those in the theater who set new theaters. Since Shakespeare’s day it had been the themselves in opposition to pictorial illustration. practice to costume plays in modern stage dress, gen- Some opposed pictorial illustration because they erally a heightened form of what audience members might could not afford it. Others opposed it see on the streets around them. From the Restoration because the logic of using authentic onward in England, it was also the practice to stage these plays using stock perspective scenery. But in 1773, the great London actor-manager Charles Macklin costumed the main characters in his production of Macbeth in dress that was intended to illustrate the period of the story. This was quite a departure from standard practice and it was duplicated only sporadi- cally. In 1824, however, the famous actor-manager Charles Kemble took the next step by staging King John in full period costume with full period sets. But it was not until the actor William Charles Macready took over the management of Covent Garden in 1837 that “historic costumes” and historic sets became the vogue for Shakespearean productions. This was known as “pictorial illustration,” sometimes referred to as “antiquarianism.” Only a few companies could afford to fully follow this fashion but it gradually became a standard to which most companies aspired.

12 blueprints Winter 2006-07 “The space occupied by an audience during performance is known as the house to theater people —there is a reason for that!” 3

versions of the texts suggested the use of authentic stories by moving their action always forward, has staging practices as well. For them the historic ac- revealed the value of putting the actors in the same curacy they wanted to see in performance needed to volume of space with the audience, has offered new come from the period in which the play text was writ- insights into what I have identified as the difference ten, not the period in which the play’s story was set. between audience participation and the authori- While the Pre-Raphaelites idealized what they saw zation for audiences to respond, and has made us as the purer vision of Gothic and early Renaissance rethink the nature of audience comfort in a theater art, those who rebelled against pictorial illustration space. (No one believed, when we were promoting in theater saw this same purity in the performance the London Globe project, for example, that 500-700 styles that had existed in Europe prior to the advent people would pay to stand at every performance, but of the proscenium arch stage. This movement, known they do.) The new generation of recreated Elizabe- as the Elizabethan Revival, brought with it period than spaces will allow us to explore the relationship “Black is not a color that should ever be costumes that were once again in tune with the between language and costume and music in ways language of Shakespeare’s plays and the thrust stage, that have never been done before. And the search found in the audience space of a theater.” which was in tune with the kind of staging that had for original staging practices can instill a discipline made Shakespeare’s plays so powerful in the theater. that could well lead to an entirely new approach to Later generations would retain the thrust stage, but theater in our “anything passes for art” culture. once “modern dress” for Shakespeare’s plays was rediscovered in the 1920s, would lose the understand- All this should remind us, when we ing that there is a relationship between the style of need such reminders, that theater is language and the style of dress in any given age in about more than text—it is also about any given culture. actors and buildings and costumes and music and movement styles and a The Elizabethan revival and the recreation of myriad of other details that make up Elizabethan theaters it inspired have preserved essen- its complete system of signs. And it has Exterior of Shakespeare’s tial parts of our cultural history and allowed theater taught us that when we are dissatis- Globe, a replica of the original Globe built in artists to influence the present by taking a careful fied with the status quo, we are not London and finished in look at the past. The quest to understand Elizabethan limited to our own resources to begin 1997. Photo by Franklin J. Hildy. staging practices has helped us to tell compelling new approaches; we can look back at what others have learned about how theater can work and benefit from their experience even though we are not the same people as they were. The more detailed and thorough our examinations of the past are, the more of its complexity we can see and the more sophisticated the solutions they can inspire. I cannot agree with those critics who say that it is somehow harmful, misguided, or irrelevant to look at theater history. I sus- pect there are few things that can be more informative. •

Winter 2006-07 blueprints 13 An Interview with Frances Bronet by Martin Moeller

Architecture Dance Intersections & & Collaboration

Frances Bronet is an educator and practicing designer who holds multiple degrees in architecture and engineering from McGill and Columbia universities. Currently dean of the School of Architecture & Allied Arts at the University of Oregon, she previously spent two decades on the faculty at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.

Bronet has a longstanding interest in dance, and has written extensively about the myriad intellectual and physical relationships between dance and architecture. She has been involved directly in the creation of a number of performance pieces exploring these connections. Recent works include Beating a Path and Spillout!, both developed with choreographer Ellen Sinopoli, of the Ellen Sinopoli Dance Company in Albany, New York.

14 blueprints Winter 2006-07 Spaces are occupied— “ they gain meaning from being inhabited.”

opposite: Dancers engaging an elastic-clad structure in Spillout!, a performance piece by architectural educator Frances Bronet and choreographer Ellen Sinopoli. Photo by Gary Gold.

above: Shadows cast by the dancers and the structure in a performance Architecture Dance of Spillout!. Photo by Gary Gold.

Intersections Martin Moeller: How did you become spaces we occupy, things are completely The captain, on the other hand, would no doubt interested in the relationship between predictable—the road goes a certain way; have returned to his ship to draw it again. &dance and architecture? this space leads directly to that space. & Collaboration Must that always be the case? Latour speaks of this as a process of “mak- Frances Bronet: It probably has multiple ing” what will later become “ready-made.” layers. First, I was a dancer myself. I was Through Ken Warriner, I was introduced to a The captain’s work begins a long process of always interested in dance, even though it philosopher at RPI, John Schumacher, who various ships bringing things back home until wasn’t part of my professional curriculum as wrote the book called Human Posture: The they accumulate enough to act at a distance. an architect. Secondly, I was looking for a way Nature of Inquiry. Together we explored the The action at a distance is all the more tricky as it becomes ready-made: the making is to get my students to understand that spaces difference between what we called “ready- forgotten, and the action at a distance is are occupied—they gain meaning from being made space” and “space in the making,” inhabited. put in a black box. Right from the start of his borrowing from Bruno Latour’s concept of book, Latour makes it clear that he is going in ready-made science versus science in the At RPI [Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute], one the back door of science, the door of science making. The idea was that when the context of my colleagues, Ken Warriner, developed in the making, at a point when context and of the science shifts, will the configuration of the notion of “variable commitment”—the content are still unmistakably fused together. the experiment and outcome change as well? question being, could space actually be Similarly, context (in this case, inhabitants) has transformed by the way that people occupy This is what we wanted to explore—where an opportunity to actually transform space. it? Let’s say you build an apartment building, context and content are one. and for the first three years one apartment is MM: Can you elaborate on the connection Now [in architecture] we generally make occupied by a single person, who then mar- between Latour and architectural space? boundaries that are fixed. The pieces that I ries and has children, and later the children have developed with Ellen Sinopoli challenge become close to a neighboring family living FB: Bruno Latour’s Science in Action was a the apparent inevitability of that. In Beating a upstairs. Are there ways that those apartment seminal textbook. One example in the book Path, we were trying to make a space acted as units could be transformed based on the way turns on a 1787 mission to sail far away from a beaten path. For example, if you cross-coun- that these people lead their lives? home and bring back a record of one’s travels try ski, you as one person will not make much so that the next person will know what lies difference in the landscape, but if a thousand I started wondering if there were concrete ahead. When the captain of this mission runs people do it, then you have beaten a path. and much more immediate ways to think across a native person far from home, the about space and movement. We know that crucial difference between their lives is that the MM: How did you conceive and build the great basketball players are always antici- latter simply lives at a place that the captain physical armatures for Beating a Path? pating what space will be open next. They must find a way somehow to “bring back.” The are working in a context of space in move- native people can help him find his way, say, by FB: Both pieces evolved from the nature of ment—space defined by how the players drawing something in the sand, but they could the movement of dancers. In Beating a Path, create openings. By contrast, in most of the not care less when the waves wash it away. we lined up a space (a storefront in continued page 16 u Winter 2006-07 blueprints 15 Architecture and Dance: Intersections and Collaboration continued

downtown Troy, New York), and had no idea One of our other ideas was to completely using elastic bands, and I thought, “Could I what we were going to do, except I had de- erase the boundaries between dance and use this to create a structure?” I called indus- cided that we would attempt designing with- architecture, so that the human bodies and the trial rubber band companies and explained out drawings and at full scale right from the architectural bodies all moved. We had a roll- the idea, and none of them would guarantee start—how the Greeks laid out their temples. ing platform, so when the dancers would run that no one would get killed! In a University of To begin, we found a piece of cardboard and one way, the floor would move the opposite Oregon design studio, students interpreted a pipe lying in the street. The dancers rolled way. The audience stood right around them, the linear elastic elements, and used bicycle on cardboard over the pipe, then they moved and I hoped that the audience would move inner tubes (and in Eugene these are very up to plywood, and eventually that became as the dancers approached them. The irony easy to come by—not so easy in Troy, New a trapezoidal platform, made of glass, lit by is that, on the opening night, the audience York!). For Spillout!, we began with ripping hundreds of mini-Christmas lights to look like closest to the performance area didn’t move, our former sheets from Beating a Path to see a uniform surface of light. So [the design] they were so intent on watching the human if lines of spandex would be a good vehicle evolved out of experimentation. bodies, and the moving floors hit them! It was for performance. Ultimately, we took 700 a lesson for me. We really have given up haptic yards (54 inches wide) of spandex fabric, The choreographer wanted the dancers to use experience in our daily lives—everything is and then had a mattress company cut and every surface, including the ceiling. There was prescribed, at least in the U.S., so that a fully stretch them. There were 1,000 spandex also a column in the space where we attached mobile environment can easily throw us off. I strips on the structure, and we had to one-by-twos as a makeshift ladder for them wonder if this is the same in places like Beijing hand-weave them into the frame. to use. The dancers had trouble climbing this where an amazing dance-like chaos seems to painful and awkward set of rungs. By the time reign in roads and other public spaces. MM: What role did light play in these pieces? we manufactured a beautiful, maneuverable ladder, they had already learned how to use MM: And how was Spillout! conceived? FB: In Spillout!, we anticipated how shadows the impromptu device made out of one-by- would be cast on the existing buildings, and twos to climb the column. What seems incred- There was a similar motivation of the unfold- the silhouettes do create a completely other ibly obvious now: it turned out that their bodies ing project—we started with a very simple world. In fact, you can spend the entire hour were able to adapt in minutes to what would structure. In one aspect of Beating a Path, we of the performance watching the two-dimen- take us weeks to produce. It became clear why had developed a wall of full, stretchy spandex sional projections on the walls, which include we make ready-made space. It is harder, more sheets that the dancers pulled, pushed, the vibrating lines of the elastic and the time-consuming to manufacture built space emerged out of, hid behind, and one of my hovering multi-scaled figures. Ellen Sinopoli than just to move your body. How can we work colleagues said that whole performance could wanted at one point to have the dancers fly these simultaneously? have been about that. Six months later I was out from the structure. By this time, the set in Naples [Italy], and saw a small installation was almost fully conceived and constructed,

16 blueprints Winter 2006-07 and we decided that the fly-out could happen movement, such as action artists and perform- only through shadows. Until the last couple ers, and tried to study them and see how they of weeks, we had not rehearsed the piece at occupy space. The goal was to try to come up night. When the lights went off, the dancers with a kind of space that allows the perform- really had to know the relationship between ers the greatest possible freedom to do what the space and their bodies in order not to hurt they do—to develop a true “reciprocal space” themselves. And the wall itself appears solid that was structured. when lit primarily from without; one wall fully dissolves when it is lit from within, and the The question became, if the students de- entire structure almost totally dissolves when signed something starting with a particular lit from above. dance company, and then a different dance company came to use it, would [the new MM: During these collaborative projects, company] use it in the same way? For this One of our... did the architecture side and the dance side project, the most successful project would generally see eye to eye? be something that was not only stunning ideas was to visually, but also experientially very powerful FB: One of collaborative dilemmas was that and flexible, not suggesting a singular or even “ I loved the wall appearing impenetrable, as a predictable use. completely sheet of blue lines, but that stopped us from seeing the total movement of the dancers. One group’s project, for example, made a erase the Dance trumped. In modern dance, it is possible spectacular image, but three different com- for many people to collaborate, and deliberately panies came in and they used the set almost boundaries keep their disciplines separate, and whatever identically. In this case, the project was there- emerges, emerges and the audience makes fore a failure in that the students had created sense of it. In our pieces, I don’t think the cho- a “ready-made space” rather than a “space in between reographer and I had exactly the same views the making.” all the time. In my case, I was really trying to dance and explore the idea of how there can be reci- There was another project that was perhaps a procity between space and dance. I was not little bit clumsier from a formal standpoint, but architecture. interested in symbols. But I think the dancers it challenged the way everyone used space. began to see themselves metaphorically, for The dancers, in fact, vanished in the rooms example, one dancer started to see herself as a created in the space, and they discovered different animal for each piece. that they had to use their voices in order to discover each other. ” Then there was the music. William Harper, the composer for Spillout!, knew that [the Of course, I’m not saying that this is the way choreographer and I] were both working to design everything. This was an experiment within a modern paradigm, and he decided setting up challenges to traditional, hierarchi- to go postmodern. His work is really heavily cal space. It was a first year design studio, derivative from contemporary culture; it is not so it was an early opportunity for students to what I would have conceived, but he decided design at full scale and work with people who he wanted to push against the minimalism actually would be experiencing the spaces of the piece. Ralph Pascucci, on video, saw they created. How do we provide options the wall as a screen. David Yergan used his for occupation without giving up formal and lighting to magnify the dancers. One of the spatial visual quality? most difficult parts of this collaboration for me was the distance. The project of space-in-the- MM: How did your students react after partici- making is one which may require day-to-day pating in your dance-oriented design studios? intervention and iteration; my being on the west coast and communicating electronically FB: I have heard from some students who said with the team in Troy changed the nature of that these exercises helped them understand the process and hence the outcome. space. I have many students who worked with me in these design studios who came back MM: How have you incorporated these ideas to work with me on the commissioned dance into your teaching? projects. A number saw how disciplines col- liding opened up possibilities. Having done FB: When I started to do this with my students, the studios about once every five years, I still it was a very intense way in a short period of think it is a great way to open up architec- time to get them to understand full-scale con- ture—to get students to think about the struction, the relation of body and space, other social and the physical simultaneously. • cultural and situational players, etc. opposite left: A shadow cast by a dancer perched on top of the structure in Spillout!. Photo by Gary Gold. As an experiment [for one design studio], the assignment was to create “space in the mak- above: Dancers moving within and above the Spillout! structure. Photo by Gary Gold. ing.” They worked specifically with people in

Winter 2006-07 blueprints 17 museum news Museum Exhibition Inspires Fall Festival Fun! by Ellen Jacknain Custom Artwork by Martin Moeller This year’s Festival of the Building Arts went “green” as visitors When Karl and Carrol Benner focused on sustainable design and building to comple- Kindel visited the National Build- ment The Green House exhibition. Over 4,000 children and ing Museum’s exhibition A Building adults spent the day at the Museum on Saturday, October 7, Tradition: The Work of the Prince’s participating in 26 different building projects. Throughout School of Traditional Arts [November the day professionals demonstrated their skills, talked with 5, 2005-January 8, 2006], they were visitors, and offered opportunities to explore their trades. looking forward to seeing mosaics, Wielding hammers, laying bricks, thatching a roof, and Arabesque drawings, stained glass, plastering a wall were among the activities offered at this and other intricate works by stu- year’s family festival. The Home Depot provided an array of dents and faculty from the school kids’ do-it-yourself projects, including bird houses and CD established by the Prince of Wales racks, to be constructed at the festival and taken home. to encourage exploration of the artistic traditions of Islam and other With the green theme in mind, visitors received a cultures. They were not expecting Go Green Passport that encouraged them to visit The Green to find the solution to a 15-year-old House exhibition and participate in eight different green design problem in their own house. activities, including building model green roofs and designing green houses. After learning about the benefits While touring the exhibition, of building with bamboo from the American the Kindels came across a cast Society of Interior Designers and about glass panel by Danish artist Martin green roofs from Capitol Greenroofs, Møller (no relation to the author of LLC, visitors received a bamboo shoot this article!). They quickly decided and plant cuttings to take home. that a translucent work such as Further encouragement came in Møller’s—richly textured but not the form of a green gift from the overly ornate—would be the perfect Museum—a magnet with five piece to insert into an existing tips on ways to go green at opening between their kitchen home. • and dining room, providing visual separation and interest without The 2006 Festival of overwhelming the rooms or the Building Arts was pre- blocking too much light. They sented by the Associated General Contractors of America. The Na- agreed to commission Møller to tional Building Museum thanks create a custom piece for them. all organizations, as well as the many individual and company The Kindels communicated their desires and requirements exhibitors, for participating via email to the artist, who produced a panel based on, but in this successful festival. different from, the one displayed in the exhibition. It is made Through this signature event, of clear, slumped glass (cast glass that is slowly heated until it the Museum aims to introduce flows into a prepared mold), and features Arabesque patterns. visitors of all ages to the building Møller cast two pieces from the same mold, which turned out to trades and building arts by offering be fortunate since the first piece was broken during shipment. demonstrations of crafts and building skills, many of which include hands-on To be safe, the Kindels arranged for Møller to escort the second components; special children’s activi- piece personally. ties; and displays of construction machinery. Since leaving the Prince’s School of Traditional Arts, Møller has opened a workshop in Denmark and is currently experimenting with many different types of glass art. •

right: Learning about wood- carving at the Festival. Photo by F.T. Eyre. above: The finished cast glass panel by Martin Møller, as installed in the house of Karl and Carrol Benner Kindel. Photo courtesy of Karl and Carrol Benner Kindel.

18 blueprints Winter 2006-07 Reception and Dinner Honor Outgoing and Incoming Chairs by Elika Hemphill

On October 18th, the Museum hosted nearly 100 close friends for a special reception and dinner in the Great Hall. The event toasted outgoing Board of Trustees chair Carolyn Schwenker Brody, and served as the inaugural event for incoming chair Michael J. Glosserman. Many guests had ties to the institution dating back more than three decades, including former board chairs Kent Colton, Robert McLean, and Herbert Franklin (who is also a founding trustee), as well as founding trustees Dr. Cynthia Field and Beverly Willis.

During the reception, guests were treated to a display of an impressive assortment of items from the Museum’s collection. The objects included busts and molds dating to the renovation of the Pension Building, a newly acquired column capital from the Renwick Gallery (see “Collections Corner” in this issue), and a leather-bound photographic album documenting the construction of Cincinnati’s Union Terminal Station in the 1930s.

Executive director Chase Rynd thanked the past board chairs for the strong foundation they laid for the Museum, welcomed incoming chair Michael Glosserman, and then directed the spotlight toward Carolyn Brody. Rynd remarked on Brody’s successful tenure as chair, calling her “a wonderful spokesperson for the Museum, but also a steady and thoughtful leader, and a good friend,” under whose watch many significant accom- plishments occurred, including three Honor Award galas that raised in excess of $1 million each in support of Museum operations. top: Lily McLean, outgo- Following dinner, Michael Glosserman spoke of the Museum’s ing Museum chair Carolyn future, highlighting a number of exciting projects that are Brody, and former Museum chair Robert McLean III. already under way, including a major education initiative Photo by Richard Confalone. that will bring some of the Museum’s well regarded curriculum-based programs to new audiences across the above: Incoming Museum chair Michael J. Glosserman, country. The incoming chair’s forward-looking remarks trustee Deryl McKissack, served as a fitting conclusion to an elegant evening. • and other guests. Photo by Richard Confalone.

Hardouin Joins Museum Board

The Museum is pleased to welcome as a new trustee Philippe Hardouin, senior vice president, group communications at the Lafarge Group. Hardouin has nearly three decades of professional experience in communications, branding, public affairs, and publishing. He joined the Lafarge Group in 2001 after holding executive positions at companies including Vivendi Universal, AlliedSignal, Digital Equipment Corporation, Alcatel-Alsthom, and others. Previously, in the 1980s, he founded his own publishing company, L’Equinoxe. He holds a master’s degree in economics from the University of Grenoble, France.

Philippe Hardouin

Winter 2006-07 blueprints 19 museum support The Museum thanks the $50,000 and above $5,000-$9,999 $1,000-$2,499 Chase W. Rynd following individuals, companies, Ann Satterthwaite, AICP EPA/Energy Star Associated Builders and Howard K. Cohen and associations and agencies for Robert W. Truland Contractors, Inc. Nancy Berkinshaw-Cohen gifts of $250 or more received United Way of the $25,000-$49,999 Bender Foundation Construction Industry Round from August 1–October 31, National Capital Region Mr. and Mrs. Charles A. Table 2006. These generous gifts American Society of The Charles A. Veatch Company DeBenedittis Criterium Engineers provide essential support for the Civil Engineers Wagner Roofing Company The Lee and Juliet Folger Fund Cynthia R. and Charles G. Field Museum’s exhibitions, education Carolyn and Kenneth D. Brody Gilbane Building Company FXFOWLE Architects programs, and endowment Colonial Parking $250-$999 Joseph F. Horning, Jr. Marilyn and Michael Glosserman funds. Some of the contribu- Hanley Wood JCM Associates, Inc. Hillier Architecture Mary Achatz tions listed below are in partial The JBG Companies LandAmerica Commercial The Home Depot Foundation Carolyn Alper fulfillment of larger pledges. National Endowment for the Arts Services International Union of The American Institute Louis Dreyfus Property Group Bricklayers and Allied of Architects $10,000-$24,999 Perkins + Will Craftworkers Arent Fox PLLC Mr. and Mrs. Thomas N. Royal Netherlands Embassy S. Kann Sons Company Agnes Artemel Armstrong III U.S. Department of Labor Foundation Thomas M. Ballentine The Beech Street Foundation - Employment and Training KINCH Construction Linna M. Barnes and The Beverly Willis Administration A. Eugene Kohn, FAIA, RIBA, JIA Christian J. Mixter Architectural Foundation Leadership Washington, Inc. Bironco, Inc. Beyer Blinder Belle $2,500-$4,999 Jacqueline and Marc Leland Calvert S. Bowie, AIA Architects & Planners Lily and Bob McLean Centex Construction American Institute of Cushman & Wakefield The Honorable Henry Meigs II William F. Clinger, Jr. Architecture Students Forest City Washington Mortgage Bankers Association Mr. and Mrs. Donald Coupard Finnish Cultural Institute Holland & Knight/ Diana R. and Charles A. Nathan Devrouax & Purnell Architects in New York Whayne S. Quin The National Trust for Historic & Planners Grunley Construction Co., Lafarge North America Inc. Preservation Joan Eisenstodt and Joel Levy Kenneth M. Grunley, President The MARPAT Foundation, Inc. Oehme, van Sweden Carmen T. Schlinke Epstein Patton Boggs LLP McGraw-Hill Construction & Associates Whit Fletcher Joseph L. Ritchey The Related Companies, L.P. Kay and Robert Oshel Elika Hemphill and Richard RTKL Associates Inc. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Parsons Brinckerhoff Confalone Jessica and Henry Townsend Sunrise Foundation Representative of the Electrical William L. Hopkins and Trizec Properties, Inc. Thornton Tomasetti, Inc. Construction Industry Richard B. Anderson Leonard A. Zax Rippeteau Architects, P.C. Island Press

collections corner by Chrysanthe B. Broikos Corinthian Corn Capital Corinthian Corn Capital Added to Collection from the Corcoran Art Gallery, now the Renwick Gallery, Washington, The National Building Museum’s latest addition to the permanent collection, a uniquely American interpretation D.C., 1861 Brownstone of a Corinthian capital from the façade of the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, (brown sandstone). Gift in marks a number of firsts. Not only is the work the first carved stone artifact in the Museum’s collection, memory of Merry Slocum Bean. but it is also the first classical column capital. Most significantly, the capital is from a designated National Historic Landmark, a priority category in terms of the Museum’s collecting criteria.

Cornhusks and tobacco leaves adorn the capital, which was designed by James Renwick, Jr. (1818-95) for the original home of the Corcoran Art Gallery (1859-61). Renwick was no doubt referencing the corncob-based decorative order that Benjamin Henry Latrobe had designed for the U.S. Capitol. Already well known as the architect of Washington’s Smithsonian “Castle” (1847-55) and New York’s recently begun St. Patrick’s Cathedral (1853-79), Renwick was commissioned by his long-time friend, William Wilson Corcoran, to design an art gallery for Corcoran’s private collection of paintings and sculpture.

Inspired by additions to the Louvre in Paris, the building was designed in the Second Empire style, and is considered one of the finest examples of the style in the United States. During the building’s restoration (1965-72) one of the original capitals was salvaged by a determined local artist, Merry Slocum Bean, who acquired the piece from the foreman in charge of disposing of the sandstone elements. Because of their deteriorating condition, the original stone capitals were replaced with molded replicas.

20 blueprints Winter 2006-07 Board of Trustees mystery building Chair Founding Trustees Michael J. Glosserman Cynthia R. Field Kleppinger Design Group Herbert M. Franklin John P. Kyle Secretary Edward T. Hall Nancy Stevenson Tim Lomax David C. Evans Beverly Willis Honorary Trustees John H. Marino, Jr. Treasurer Harold L. Adams Michael L. Marshall, AIA Robert H. Braunohler Howard M. Bender McCain McMurray M. Arthur Gensler Jr. Joan Meixner Elected and Voting Trustees Thomas J. Klutznick George H. Miller William B. Alsup III Stuart A. McFarland Sakura Namioka Frank Anton Robert McLean III Lawrence O’Connor and Thomas N. Armstrong III Elizabeth B. Moynihan Ashley Power O’Connor David S. Bender Marilyn Perry James W. Todd Susan D. O’Connor Deborah Berke William M. Brennan Mallory Walker Linda and Rob Obenreder Leonard A. Zax Joseph Palca and Kathy Hudson Carolyn Schwenker Brody Joan Baggett Calambokidis Laura Peebles Donald A. Capoccia Ex Officio Trustees Martin H. Porestsky Kent W. Colton The Honorable Alphonso Jackson Susan A. Retz, AIA and Dennis J. Cotter Secretary, U.S. Department of Charles Lovett Gilbert E. DeLorme Housing and Urban Development Hans Riecke Arecibo Observatory. Photo: Jörgen Städje, www.qedata.se. Christopher Dorval The Honorable Dirk Kempthorne Stan Schultz John P. Gleason, Jr. Secretary, U.S. Department of the Interior Julius Shulman Mike Goodrich Shirley and Albert Small Mystery Solved! Delon Hampton The Honorable James M. Inhofe Chairman, Senate Committee on Richard L. Sprott Gary P. Haney Philippe Hardouin Environment and Public Works Sustainable Design The last Mystery Building was a tough one, given the Robert W. Holleyman, II The Honorable Don Young Consulting LLC unusual viewpoint in the photograph, but there were Joseph F. Horning, Jr. Chairman, House Committee on Shar Taylor and Lisa Dickey several important clues in the text: key terms such as Gerald M. Howard Transportation and Infrastructure University of Maryland “curve” and “useful signals” were intended to make you Mercy Jiménez Lurita Doan College Park Frederick A. Kober Administrator, General Services Jeanne and Joseph Ventrone think of radio telescopes, while the mention of “tropi- A. Eugene Kohn Administration Washington/Alexandria cal sun” was a hint as to the specific location of this Deryl McKissack David L. Winstead Architectural Center structure. The pictured structure was, in fact, the radio Hollis S. McLoughlin Commissioner, Public Buildings Melissa A. Moss Service, General Services Admin- Margaret Watson and antenna at the Arecibo Observatory, near Arecibo, Robert A. Peck istration Paul Brown Puerto Rico. The photo was taken from beneath the Whayne S. Quin The Honorable Alan M. Hantman Marion E. Yeck main surface of the antenna, which is actually suspend- Stephen M. Ross Architect of the Capitol Robert Zuraski and Chase W. Rynd ed by cables from three concrete masts. Allen Weinstein Elizabeth Monnac Deborah Ratner Salzberg Archivist of the United States Stephen E. Sandherr The Honorable James H. Billington Matching Gifts A popular tourist attraction, Arecibo served as a setting Robert A.M. Stern Librarian of Congress Norbert W. Young, Jr. Fannie Mae Foundation for scenes in the James Bond movie GoldenEye. The Lawrence M. Small The Ford Foundation antenna itself is a spherical dish some 1,000 feet in Secretary, Smithsonian Institution diameter, making it the largest such radio telescope Richard Moe President, National Trust for in the world. Its surface is composed of almost 40,000 Historic Preservation perforated aluminum panels (which allow filtered Christine McEntee sunlight to pass through, as seen in the photograph). Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, The The antenna is used to analyze Earth’s atmosphere, American Institute of Architects other planets, and other astronomical bodies.

The Arecibo Observatory was correctly identified by four readers who picked up on our clues as efficiently as, well, a 1,000-foot dish antenna: Joe Jackson and Brent Kruse, both of Washington, D.C.; Lawrence Levine, of New Castle, DE; and Jeffrey L. Meck, of New Holland, PA. • this issue’s mystery u “I See a Ship!” ? Or is that a building? Can you identify this structure and its location?

Send responses to: Mystery Building, National Building Museum, 401 F Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001

Winter 2006-07 blueprints 21 now showing... Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean Theater for the 21st Century January 13-August 27, 2007

William Shakespeare is arguably the single most influential figure in English literary history. To this day, nearly 400 years after his death, quotations from Shakespeare’s plays pervade our language, and his plotlines are routinely adapted for movies, novels, and new plays. Nonetheless, contemporary directors, actors, and technicians often have difficulty presenting Shakespeare’s work in ways that will engage The curving forms in this hypothetical design for a Shakespearean theater modern audiences. Clearly, the design of by architect Michele Saee are derived the theater itself is an important part of the from the movements of actors on and off stage during a production. experience. With this in mind, the National Preliminary computer rendering by Building Museum has organized the exhibition Michele Saee Studio commissioned for the Museum’s new exhibition Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespearean front cover: Reinventing the Globe: A Shakespear- Theater for the 21st Century, which involved A performance ean Theatre for the 21st Century. of Spillout!, commissioning five talented architects and a piece exploring designers to develop hypothetical settings for potential intersections Exhibition images clockwise from top right: the presentation of Shakespearean plays. The of architecture The Green House: New Directions in results are highly inventive, thought-provoking, and dance (see Sustainable Architecture and Design page 14). Photo and often quite surprising. by Gary Gold. through June 3, 2007 Building Zone The Museum’s exhibition is part of the city-wide Long-term Shakespeare in Washington festival, organized by Cityscapes Revealed: the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Highlights from the Collection and the Shakespeare Theatre Company. Long-term Washington: Symbol and City Long-term

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