MESSAGE FROM THE EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

Bourke-White, capturing the inherent beauty of geometrical patterns in the building’s framework. Most stunning are his images of the finished concert hall, masterful compositions of light and shad- ow that assume a quality and meaning XHIBITIONS ABOUT ARCHITECTURE, drawing from, but distinct from, that CONSTRUCTION, and other very large- of the architecture. E scale endeavors are inherently prob- Also on view is Envisioning lematic, because their subject matter is Architecture: Drawings from The Museum often difficult or impossible to present in of Modern Art, New York. You must not physical form. True, a lucky curator might miss this stunning collection of works by occasionally enjoy the opportunity to pre- many of the 20th century’s greatest archi- sent, say, a reconstruction of a preserved tects (the National Building Museum will room from a historic house, but for the be the only venue for the full show in most part, buildings, landscapes, and North America). As the lead article in this engineered works defy temporary removal issue of Blueprints explains, in the early Chase W. Rynd to even the most hallowed halls of days of modernism, architects’ drawings museumdom. were often disregarded as mere tools Institutions such as the National toward the execution of specific design Building Museum must therefore rely projects. Fortunately, curators and others heavily on representations of our subject came to realize that many such drawings matter, rather than the things themselves, had value beyond that role. This wide- to communicate stories and ideas. Photo- ranging exhibition presents works that graphs, drawings, and models are our may be appreciated not just for the build- stock-in-trade—a circumstance that has ings they represent, but also for their own changed little despite the advent of elec- intrinsic qualities. tronic media and other new technologies. These two exhibitions demon- New production techniques may enhance strate that there are many ways to look the accuracy, realism, and visual impact at—and talk about—our built world. of these two- and three-dimensional docu- ments, but their fundamental purpose— to describe something other than them- selves—remains constant. Nevertheless, these works can often transcend their purely represen- Executive Director tational role to become works of art National Building Museum in their own right. This is clearly demon- strated in two exhibitions that are now on view at the Museum. Symphony in Steel: Ironworkers and the Walt Disney Concert Hall presents a series of compelling pho- tographs by Gil Garcetti, documenting the daring and skill of those men—and one woman—who built the complex steel structure for the latest tour de force by Frank Gehry. Some of Garcetti’s pho- tographs recall the work of Margaret

blueprints 1 FEATURE ACQUIRING ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING A MODERN COLLECTION

Acquiring Architecture Building a Modern Collection

by Matilda McQuaid

The National Building Museum is presenting the exhibition Envisioning RCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS ARE SURRO- Architecture and Design. Dramatic changes above / Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Architecture: Drawings from The Concrete Country House. Project, GATES FOR CONCEPTS and for physical have occurred in the collection during Museum of Modern Art, New York 1923; The Mies van der Rohe realities. Diverse in appearance and these years, and one fundamental shift has Archive, The Museum of Modern through June 20, 2004, in second floor A Art, New York, gift of the architect. galleries. The exhibition features meaning, they can range from quick been in the sense of the relevance of archi- Photograph: Digital Image 2002 sketches capturing an essential design idea tectural drawing. Once seen largely as doc- © Artists Rights Society (ARS), drawings by more than 60 architects, New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn including Frank Lloyd Wright, Ludwig to computer-generated drawings whose umentary support material, these draw- realism leaves little to the imagination. ings have risen to the status of primary opposite / Elizabeth Diller and Mies van der Rohe, Eero Saarinen, Ricardo Scofidio (Diller + Scofidio), and Rem Koolhaas. Some drawings are autonomous acts, hav- object and original work of art. Slow House, North Haven, New York. Project, 1988–90; The ing no need for the actuality of architec- An equally important shift has Museum of Modern Art, New York, ture; others are more practical in purpose, come in the works’ range of artistic expres- Marshall Cogan Purchase Fund and Jeffrey P. Klein Purchase Fund. In this article, excerpted from an as steps toward a built reality. Whether sion: they have quickly broadened in the Photograph: Digital Image 2002 essay in the exhibition catalog the ultimate outcome is some form of the modern period to include everything from Jacek Marczewski, The Museum of Modern Art, New York. © Diller + Envisioning Architecture: Drawings preliminary idea or a complete departure collages to computer renderings, reflecting Scofidio from The Museum of Modern Art, from it, or even something finally unbuild- not only the approach of the individual able, however, the drawing serves the same architect but the technological capabilities Matilda McQuaid traces the insti- end as the study or maquette in painting of the time. These changes were charted in tution’s changing attitudes toward or sculpture: the development of an idea. the Department’s exhibitions, especially collecting architectural drawings. What each drawing ultimately reveals is after the 1960s, when original architectural McQuaid is former associate a discrete moment in the thought process drawings finally became an integral and curator in the Department of and creative imagination of the architect. significant part of the exhibition program. Architecture and Design at The Museum of Modern Art has Exhibitions have played an essential role in The Museum of Modern Art, and been collecting architectural drawings for the development of the architectural draw- currently exhibitions curator and almost seventy years, acquiring nearly ing’s status as an important collectible. 1,000 drawings by the most eminent archi- They have sometimes instigated collecting; head of the Textiles Department tects of the twentieth century. (That num- conversely, they have sometimes followed at the Cooper-Hewitt, National ber excludes the 18,000 drawings in the on the coattails of specific acquisitions. Design Museum. Mies van der Rohe Archive.) The achieve- The Museum’s first architecture ments manifested in these drawings are exhibition was Modern Architecture: integral to the development of modern International Exhibition, organized by architecture; they have also become book- Philip Johnson (the first chairman of the marks for events and periods in the histo- Department of Architecture) and Henry- ry of the Museum’s Department of Russell Hitchcock in 1932. This exhibition,

2 blueprints blueprints 3 ACQUIRING ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING A MODERN COLLECTION ACQUIRING ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING A MODERN COLLECTION

drawings were not by architects but by ment, and if the Wright exhibition had figures such as the Theo van Doesburg who commemorated the extraordinary talent of had other artistic interests. Between 1948 a single architect in the drawing medium, and 1954, for example, the Department an underlying purpose of the later show acquired three gouaches by the Brazilian was to celebrate the art of drawing itself. painter and landscape designer Robert Burle Marx. In the Museum’s first decades it had only one acquisitions committee, the Committee on Museum Collections, which acquired works of every kind. In October 1967 that arrangement ended and separate committees were formed for each of the above / Otto Wagner, Ferdinands- a major American showcase for modern lished view of architectural drawings, five, medium-specific curatorial depart- brücke, Vienna, Austria. Project, 1896–1905; The Museum of Modern architecture both here and abroad, includ- which had been valued and collected for ments that the Museum then maintained. Art, New York, promised gift of ed the work of nine architects, with an several centuries. Johnson, Hitchcock, and The catholic nature of the pre-1967 commit- Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder. Photograph: Digital Image 2002 The additional section devoted to the subject of Alfred H. Barr, Jr., the Museum’s founding tee may help to explain not only its inter- Museum of Modern Art, New York housing. Comprising mainly models and director, seem to have felt uncertain about est in Frederick Kiesler, Burle Marx, and photographs, it contained very few draw- and even suspicious of unbuilt projects, others whose work translated across vari- ings, and the drawings it did accommodate whether these were experiments and ous departmental specialties but also its were mostly floor plans or perspectives of visions—“paper architecture”—or more relative slowness in acquiring architectur- projects unbuilt at the time. Immediately definite plans that for one reason of anoth- al drawings, whose visual merit may not after the exhibition, seven out of its nine er had gone unexecuted. The curators pre- always have been self-evident to curators models were added to the collection, along ferred realistic representations of built more committed to other branches of the with all of the photographs. Two drawings structures—demonstrations of possibili- arts. An acquisitions committee dedicated by Le Corbusier for the Swiss Pavilion at ties that were inarguably within the reach to architecture and design was surely more the Cité internationale universitaire, of contemporary construction practices. likely to pursue architectural drawing Arguing that the architectural drawing above / Ron Herron (Archigram), Paris, which had been included in the Models and photographs performed that than a committee on which architecture “makes the act of drawing substitute for Walking City on the Ocean. Project, 1964–66; The Museum of Modern show, were purchased directly from the role, and photography, too, was in addition curators were a minority. the real condition of a proposed architec- Art, New York, gift of The Howard architect, although they did not formally a specifically modern medium, making its As the Department’s exhibitions tural form,” Arthur Drexler, the exhibi- Gilman Foundation. Photograph: Jon Cross and Erica Staton, Digital enter the collection until fifteen years use as a tool to describe another modern generally began to include more drawings, tion’s curator, presented beautiful render- Design Collection Project, Luna later, when they would number among the form appropriate and consistent. and as drawings became the specific sub- ings from the mid-nineteenth and early Imaging. 2002 The Museum of Modern Art, New York Department’s first official acquisitions of By 1952, Museum records show, ject of more of the Department’s exhibi- twentieth centuries by former students of architectural drawings. there were sixty original architectural tions, the collecting effort came to focus the Ecole. Part of his intention was to The Department’s avid interest drawings in the collection, as well as four- not only on works of great architecture but show the influence of such works on cer- in models and photographs, and its early teen models. Only five drawings have accep- on drawings that were themselves great tain American pioneers of modern archi- exclusion of drawings from the collection, tance dates before 1952, however; the expressive achievements. The Frank Lloyd tecture, like H.H. Richardson and Louis reflected an attitude in which the building remaining fifty-five were most likely on Wright Drawings exhibition of 1962 had Sullivan, but the exhibition was also was seen as a work of art and the drawing extended loan from Mies, in a group that been the first to stress the beauty of archi- meant to influence the current practice as relatively insignificant, even though an was finally acquired in 1963. It is interest- tectural drawing as a form. Thirteen years of architectural presentation. integral part of the design process. This ing to note that until this large Mies acqui- later, The Architecture of the Ecole des Since the Wright exhibition of was a striking departure from the estab- sition, the majority of the Department’s Beaux-Arts (1975–76) reiterated this senti- 1962, drawings have been integral, even

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ACQUIRING ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING A MODERN COLLECTION ACQUIRING ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING A MODERN COLLECTION

below / Hans Poelzig, Concert Hall, favored parts of the Museum’s architectur- bitions at the Museum had used drawings Dresden, Germany. Project, 1918; The Museum of Modern Art, New al exhibitions. The Department has contin- to help the viewer to determine a build- York, gift of Henry G. Proskauer. ued to produce shows that reflect its early ing’s layout and program; the current Photograph: Jon Cross and Erica Staton, Digital Design Collection aims: to present and collect good modern computer-generated models can offer a Project, Luna Imaging. 2002 The architecture from all over the world. more three-dimensional explanation. Museum of Modern Art, New York Exhibitions such as Emilio Ambasz/Steven In terms of future collecting, has right / Louis I. Kahn, Travel sketch Holl (1989), Robert Burle Marx: The the craft-intensive hand drawing finally for Sainte Cécile Cathedral, Albi, France. 1959, The Museum of Unnatural Art of the Garden (1991), and won a respectable status in the art world Modern Art, New York, Gift of the architect. Photograph: Jon Cross and Tadao Ando (1991) featured drawings that only to be replaced by the computer-gener- Erica Staton, Digital Design Collection both revealed significant works of archi- ated drawing? Will there be episodes of Project, Luna Imaging. 2002 The Museum of Modern Art, New York tecture and were beautiful objects in them- soul-searching over the status of drawing, selves, and that, as such, ultimately joined of the kind that led to exhibitions such as the collection. Meanwhile developments Frank Lloyd Wright Drawings, in 1962, and in technology had enormously broadened The Architecture of the Ecole des Beaux- the world of architectural drawing beyond Computer-generated drawings, and various Arts, in 1975? Probably distinct types of the standard medium of graphite on paper. other forms of computerized display, drawing will coexist, as they always have. assumed an appropriate place in exhibi- And as exhibitions increasingly provide tions, just as they had been accorded outlets for architects to experiment with an integral place in architects’ offices. new forms of representation involving Although computer-aided design (CAD) electronic technology, and these diverse had been used as early as the 1960s, it was mediums gain ground in daily architectur- not commonplace in architectural practice al practice, the collection is likely to until relatively recently. The Department reflect their fullness and variety. No less first acquired a computer-generated than Lauretta Vinciarelli’s evanescently drawing in 1993. beautiful watercolors, themselves a leap Technology has also transformed beyond the traditional architectural draw- exhibitions: far more than they could ing, these works reveal that “architecture through the encompassing scale of the is body plus aura.” They and the other photomural, viewers can now enter a hundreds of drawings in the Museum’s virtual world, and this one is interactive collection are testimony to the fact that The National Building Museum’s presentation above / Frank Lloyd Wright, rather than passive. The 1999 exhibition drawing is very much alive in our contem- of Envisioning Architecture: Drawings from American System-Built Houses for The Un-Private House, organized by Terry porary world. • the Richards Company, Model Riley, featured an interactive table that The Museum of Modern Art, New York is D101, 1915–17; The Museum of made possible by Lt. Col. and Mrs. William Modern Art, New York, David allowed visitors to take virtual tours of Rockefeller, Jr. Fund, Ira Howard Levy several of the buildings in the show. The Karl Konze, and the National Endowment Fund, and Jeffrey P. Klein Purchase for the Arts. Fund. Photograph: Jon Cross and 2001 exhibition Mies in Berlin, organized Erica Staton, Digital Design Collection Project, Luna Imaging. by Riley and guest curator Barry Bergdoll, 2002 The Museum of Modern Art, contained digital models of a number of New York. © 2002 The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation / Artists Rights the architect’s projects, both built and Society (ARS), New York unbuilt, affording the viewer both interior and exterior perspectives and the ability to experience their relationship. Earlier exhi-

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DRAWN TO THE EDGE: MEANING AT THE MARGINS OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS FEATURE

Sometimes in Wright’s drawings, as in the illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Drawn to the Edge Ages, the edges ultimately took over the entire page. This was true in Wright’s drawings of Broadacre City, envisioning landscapes filled with many unbuilt Wright-designed structures pulled from the Meaning at the Margins office drawers. The work at the margins of Wright’s practice, in other words, took over the drawings of Broadacre City, becoming the subject matter itself of a city by Thomas Fisher of Architectural Drawings designed according to Wright’s principles of organic architecture. The drawings at the edges of the HE NOVELIST AND ESSAYIST UMBERTO ECO illuminated manuscripts sometimes had a has written extensively about the fantastic quality. Architectural drawings, T medieval qualities of modern life and such as those produced by Rem Koolhaas art. In his book The Aesthetics of and Madelon Vriesendorp in the book Chaosmos: The Middle Ages of James Joyce, Delirious New York, often engage in simi- for example, Eco notes how Joyce’s interest lar fantasy. Koolhaas and Vriesendorp’s in the marginal aspects of life, as evident drawings show blocks of New York City in books like Ulysses, harked back to containing the oddest assortment of struc- medieval manuscripts, whose drawings in tures: an Art Deco ziggurat, the Plan the margins often visually overwhelmed Voisin towers of Le Corbusier, and the the text. When we look at modern archi- Trylon and Perisphere from the 1939 tectural drawings, we might take our cue World’s Fair—all on podiums, like so from Eco. While we usually look to the many curious specimens in a museum. drawing’s center for its subject, the edges Another drawing of theirs, of Roosevelt of such drawings can tell us a lot about Island, contains miscellaneous buildings what is going on in the architect’s mind, designed by Koolhaas or admired by him, consciously or not. In depicting the con- such as the United Nations or Rockefeller text of a building, architects will often Center. This is architectural drawing as a manipulate the appearance of its sur- kind of stream-of-consciousness. With such roundings or alter the context outright to a mix of the real and surreal, Koolhaas, above / Wright’s rendering of the pro- Thomas Fisher, former editorial director indicate the world as they see it or would posed Broadacre City, 1934. From like James Joyce in Ulysses, seems to ques- Frank Lloyd Wright and the Living of Progressive Architecture, is dean of prefer us to see it. City, by Jean-Louis Cohen, et al., tion the assumption that there is a singu- notes can have a more polemical role as above left / Fanciful drawing of Skira Editore, 1999. the College of Architecture and Consider the drawings that came Roosevelt Island, by Rem Koolhaas lar, stable view of the world, suggesting well, as they did for Joyce, who layered his Landscape Architecture at the University out of Frank Lloyd Wright’s office during and Madelon Vriesendorp. From instead that modern life offers us many Delirious New York, Monacelli Press, his practice in Oak Park, Illinois. The early texts with asides. An example of this of Minnesota. In this article, he explores possibilities, many interpretations. 1997. renderings by Marion Mahoney in Wright’s would be the drawings and photo-collages the significance of marginalia in architec- Another characteristic of the office often show houses in what looks like of Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown, and tural drawing. illuminated manuscripts was the presence virgin forest or untrammeled prairie, even Steven Izenour, who used cartoon balloons of running commentaries in the margins, though most of these structures occupied to indicate the multivalent meanings of annotating the text. In similar fashion, suburban lots. While those bucolic settings ordinary objects and environments. These architectural working drawings typically may have reflected how Wright’s suburban ironic and often humorous asides at the have notes and dimensions running clients wanted to see their surroundings, edges of drawings and photos suggest that around the edges, describing or explaining they also indicated Wright’s romantic all representations send coded messages the content of each sheet. But marginal vision of life lived closer to nature. and contain suppressed meanings, a

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DRAWN TO THE EDGE: MEANING AT THE MARGINS OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS DRAWN TO THE EDGE: MEANING AT THE MARGINS OF ARCHITECTURAL DRAWINGS

margins of art—the cartoon and comic hard-line drawings, but populated the con- book—convey the primary content of the text with shadowy, attenuated human fig- architectural drawings. ures or trees, as if they existed in a fog. While these examples indicate These Giacometti-like elements in Mies’s what can happen when things at the mar- drawings recall another strain in both gins take over a drawing, the opposite— medieval and modern thought: the uncer- eliminating the margin or context of a tain role that the subjective and personal drawing—also occurs. Akin to the other- play in the world. worldliness of medieval manuscripts, in One response to such uncertainty which events occur in an eternal present, has been to assert the subjective aspects of the drawings of architect Peter Eisenman, drawing even more. Like the sinuous bor- especially in his early analytical phase, ders drawn along the edges of illuminated showed his buildings in an empty space, manuscripts, Frank Gehry’s sketches con- devoid of cues such as scale, or even a clear sist mainly of complex, squiggling black sense of what is right side up. Expressive lines. While they have a graphic power, of his search for an architecture that these drawings are so personal as to be avoided idealizing either the future or the unreadable as buildings, and it is only past, Eisenman’s drawings eliminated the when we see the models of Gehry’s build- margins where such idealizing often ings that his drawings of them make occurred. That, paradoxically, also margin- sense. Another almost private language alized the drawings themselves, rendering occurs in the drawings of Daniel the subject matter so abstract and so hard Libeskind, many of which seek not to right / A drawing in comic book to decipher that they became more like depict buildings at all, but architectural style by Archigram. From Archigram, Princeton Architectural Press, 1999. graphic exercises than true architectural ideas or spatial concepts, rendered in ink drawings. Like the medievals or mod- and consisting mainly of lines, curves, and thought worth remembering whenever we ernists like Joyce, Eisenman has used dashes. The results have a spatial but look at architectural renderings. drawings less to convey information about decidedly mysterious quality, like a build- Cartoons have inspired other a building than to envision an entire ing captured during an explosion. Here, architects as well. Modernism and world of his own, one with many possible the architectural drawing becomes more medievalism, as Eco notes, have both had meanings. an affinity for the child-like vision, be it These are extreme cases. Most the baby’s babble that opens Joyce’s book architectural drawings do make some Finnegans Wake or the child-like directness effort at depicting the actual context of about a process than a final product, more left / Drawing by Peter Eisenman. of Christ, questioning those in power. An the buildings rendered, although even From The New Paradigm in a tracing of what a building might be irreverent architectural equivalent might here, the way in which this is done says a Architecture: The Language of rather than of a building itself. Post-Modernism, by Charles Jencks, be the cartoon-like drawings by members of lot about the architect’s vision of the Yale University Press, 2002. Another direction, evident at the the firm Archigram. They depicted their sci- world. Aldo Rossi, for example, typically edges of many recent architectural draw- above / Aldo Rossi, Urban ence-fiction visions of a “Walking City” or drew his buildings in settings that had a Construction, project, 1978, ings, has been to refer to historical conven- The Museum of Modern Art, “Plug-in City” in the flat, line-drawing style surreal quality, often devoid of people or tions in the depiction of context. In James New York. Gift of the Architecture of cartoons, sometimes collaging their nature and cast in a brilliant, raking light, and Design Committee in honor of Stirling’s drawings, for example, the fore- Marshall Cogan, 2001 Digital image drawings onto grainy photos of cities such recalling the dream-like paintings of © The Museum of Modern Art/ ground to his buildings often consisted of as New York and London as they then exist- Giorgio de Chirico. Here, the context Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY people in almost classical poses, as if to indi- ed. On occasion, as in the publication expressed Rossi’s view that cities help us cate the virtuous behavior the architect Archigram 4, they conveyed their ideas in process our collective memories, much as comic-book form, complete with characters dreams do for individuals. Mies van der reacting to their environment with voice Rohe’s renderings conveyed a related idea. continued on page 18 and thought balloons. Here, genres at the He often depicted his buildings in precise,

10 blueprints blueprints 11 FEATURE RECORDING A BUILT SYMPHONY

impeccable coordination, precise assembly, and rigorous quality control. Garcetti resolved to return the next day with camera in hand to photo- graph the ironworkers on the job. He kept coming back, and soon he befriended key workers, earned their trust, and became All photographs Gil Garcetti, Untitled. comfortable clambering over the steel © 2001–2003 Gil Garcetti. frame himself, snapping pictures at every opportunity. By the time the concert hall Recording a Built Symphony was finished and opened to the critical

Symphony in Steel is made possible through the generous support of Ron Burkle and The Yucaipa Companies and the International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers. Additional funding provided by Affiliated Computer Services, Inc. (ACS), Commerce Construction, M. A. Mortenson Company, The Herrick Corporation, Arden Realty, The Charles Schwab Corporate by Martin Moeller Foundation, Ironworkers Local 433, Iverson Yoakum Papiano & Hatch, always well documented through the archi- acclaim Gehry’s works so often enjoy, RCHITECTURAL PHOTOGRAPHY generally J. Ned, Inc./Nederlander, Neil Garcetti had produced something quite celebrates buildings as completed works tect’s sketches, drawings, and models, but Papiano, Roy and Patricia Disney, rare—a comprehensive visual record of A of design. Through artfully composed the construction process—so fascinating to and Shamrock Holdings of California. perspectives, carefully manipulated light- watch at the time—is typically evanescent, the construction process that yielded a ing, and the use of sophisticated equipment recorded only by memory. great work of architecture. such as parallax-correcting lenses, the pho- One day in 2001, photographer A broad selection of Garcetti’s tographer creates highly deliberate images Gil Garcetti happened upon the site of the images is now on view in the National that capture—and sometimes strongly influ- Walt Disney Concert Hall under construc- Building Museum’s exhibition Symphony in ence our perceptions of—a building’s char- tion in downtown Los Angeles. He stopped Steel: Ironworkers and the Walt Disney acter and identity. Such photographs often and watched in astonishment as ironwork- Concert Hall, which runs until November 28, 2004. Complementing the photographs of Symphony in Steel: Ironworkers and have an aura of inevitability about them, ers fearlessly scrambled over the nascent the building under construction are still the Walt Disney Concert Hall is on and in some cases, individual images may structure, deftly coaxing gigantic steel more images taken after its completion. view in first floor galleries until become as iconic as the buildings they osten- beams and columns into their preordained These final pictures—elegant and some- November 28, 2004. The guest curator sibly represent. resting places. The workers’ exploits were for the exhibition was Alan Z. Aiches. The ultimate character of a given especially impressive because of the nature times surprisingly abstract—bring Garcetti’s building is, however, far from inevitable. It of the building, a geometrically complex visual symphony to a stirring finale. The emerges gradually, usually over a period of composition by architect Frank O. Gehry. photographer has captured the art of archi- at least several years, as the project moves Comprising roughly 12,000 pieces of steel, tecture, while creating new art that speaks through the design and construction phases. no two of which were exactly alike, the for itself. • The development of a given design is almost intricate structural frame demanded

12 blueprints blueprints 13 12 Blueprints D.C. BULDS EXHIBITION SERIES EXAMINES THE ANACOSTIA WATERFRONT EXHIBITION

D.C. Builds Exhibition Series Examines The Anacostia Waterfront Rediscovering the Anacostia In recent years, Washington has experi- enced a significant urban renaissance, marked by brisk residential development, surging land values, and ambitious com- mercial and public projects such as a new convention center. This rapid physical and economic renewal has placed increasing pressure on the city’s core, as businesses and residents alike wrestle for precious units, 5 million square feet of office space, real estate. As a result, city planners and and 25 sites for museums and memorials. private developers are rediscovering City officials also expect that the plan will underutilized urban areas as potential yield thousands of new jobs, miles of river- sites for large-scale renovation and con- front recreational areas, and dramatic struction, as well as for new parks and improvements to transportation infrastruc- other much-needed civic amenities. The ture. Evocative drawings produced under Anacostia River, with its long, meandering the AWI suggest an auspicious future for the waterfront and proximity to many of the river, spanned by beautifully designed above / Visitors admire the Anacostia ANY GREAT CITIES ARE CLOSELY ASSOCI- region’s landmarks and commercial cen- bridges, lined with parks easily accessible to Waterfront Initiative model at the exhibition opening. ATED WITH RIVERS. Washington, of ters, clearly presents unparalleled opportu- nearby residents, and providing attractive course, is most strongly identified nities for revitalization. venues for various mixed-use developments. below right / Detail of the AWI M model. with the Potomac. Surprisingly, however, Recognizing the great potential of Washington’s often-neglected second river, this civic resource, the District of Columbia Restoring an Urban Ecosystem the Anacostia, figured at least as prominent- Office of Planning, working in an unprece- Planners and many other civic leaders agree Through coherent planning and top left / Kingman and Heritage ly as the Potomac in the early days of the dented partnership with the District that the first step in the revitalization of the Islands. Rendering by Michael a concerted clean-up effort, the Anacostia McCann. city’s history. Originally an important thor- Department of Transportation and nearly 20 Anacostia waterfront is a concerted effort to can return to its former place as a true Courtesy of District of Columbia Office of Planning oughfare for agricultural trade for both other local and federal agencies, established clean the river itself. This is a major under- civic asset for the entire Washington met- above / Proposed parks and river- native Americans and, later, European set- the Anacostia Waterfront Initiative (AWI) to taking, but one likely to have profound and ropolitan area. • walk near Southest. Rendering by The guest curator for tlers, the Anacostia quickly became the new Michael McCann. devise a coherent, environmentally sound far-reaching benefits. The Anacostia, after Courtesy of District of Columbia Office of Planning D.C. Builds: The Anacostia capital’s primary shipping artery, and was plan for the area’s renewal. The initiative’s all, flows into the Potomac, which in turn Waterfront was Mary even selected as the site for one of the coun- Anacostia Waterfront Framework Plan calls empties into the Chesapeake Bay, which Konsoulis. try’s earliest major navy yards. The river for the creation of 20,000 new residential grows increasingly fragile as nearby commu- soon fell victim to its own success, though, nities continue to sprawl. Moreover, the as run-off from farmland and the growing urban portion of the Anacostia is actually D.C. Builds: The Anacostia Waterfront was city clogged the waterway with silt and just the mouth of a watershed covering more made possible by the Government of the debris. By the late 19th century, the once- than 170 square miles, comprising a substan- District of Columbia and the Summit Fund vital Anacostia had fallen into disuse, and tial part of eastern Maryland. The rejuvena- of Washington. Additional funding provided the 20th century only brought greater degra- tion of such a vast ecosystem will require by The Chesapeake Bay Foundation, PEPCO, dation as industrial waste, an archaic sewer unprecedented public and private invest- and the D.C. Water and Sewer Authority. system, and a broad socioeconomic decline ment, cooperation among local, state, and in surrounding neighborhoods left it pollut- national governmental agencies, and many ed and isolated from civic life. years to accomplish.

14 blueprints blueprints 15 FESTIVAL OF THE BUILDING ARTS IN MEMORIAM

Festival Sets Record...Again! In Memoriam John W. Hechinger, Sr.

There were opportunities for everyone to O ACHIEVE PROMINENCE IN BUSINESS, John and his wife, June, demon- try a hand at woodworking, stone sculpture, public service, or the arts is quite an strated an early interest in design when bricklaying, blacksmithing, and even dry- T accomplishment; to become a recognized they commissioned famed modernist Walter wall finishing, just to name a few of the leader in all three realms is extraordinary. Gropius and his firm, The Architects 25 crafts being represented by hands-on John W. Hechinger, Sr. was such a leader. Collaborative, to design their house. Elegant demonstrations. And with two cranes, two A long-time trustee and loyal sup- but unpretentious, the Hechinger residence dump trucks, a concrete mixer, and several porter of the National Building Museum, is among the few residential examples of the backhoes outside at the Construction Vehicle John died on January 18, his 84th birthday, International Style in Washington. It also “Petting Zoo,” everyone got a chance to sit following a long illness. He was best known proved to be a wonderful venue for the dis- in the driver’s seat! as an astute businessman who turned an play of the family’s art collection. John Visitors at the festival also got eponymous family business into a thriving began collecting tool-related art as a means a chance to view all of the Museum’s cur- chain of hardware and building material of inspiring employees in the company’s rent exhibitions. Up, Down, and Across: stores with outlets across the eastern United headquarters. Over the years, he assembled Elevators, Escalators and Moving Sidewalks States. John’s personalized license plate, nearly 400 pieces either made from, or The Festival of the Building Arts N SEPTEMBER 13, 2003, amid the opened to the public that day. Also on which read simply “DIY,” proclaimed his depicting, the literal tools of his trade, was made possible by the Associated sounds of saws, hammers, and view were Tools as Art: The Hechinger deep pride in the company’s vital role in the including works by such prominent artists General Contractors of America and O truck horns, 5,816 visitors joined 144 Collection—Instruments of Change and burgeoning “do-it-yourself” movement. as Jonathan Borofsky, Arman, Jacob This Old House Ventures, Inc., the demonstrators for the National building Saving Mount Vernon: The Birth of Following his retirement in 1996, the Lawrence, and Berenice Abbott. official sponsor of family festivals Museum’s popular Festival of the Building Preservation in America. • Hechinger Company was sold to outside Not long after the National at the National Building Museum. Arts, setting a new attendance record. investors, and, to John’s great sadness, it Building Museum opened to the public, Lead sponsorship was provided by Included in this number were 294 scouts, ultimately folded under competitive pres- John graciously offered to lend the young GMC. Washington Parent was a local plus 174 adult chaperones. A troop of deaf sure from new, national chains that largely institution a number of pieces from what media partner. scouts visited the festival for the first time, followed the Hechinger model. had come to be known as the Tools as Art and along with their sign language inter- While actively leading his compa- Collection. Thus was born a series of exhi- preters, spent a large part of the day there. ny, John became an influential political bitions under the title Tools as Art, which Out-of-town visitors came from as far away leader, who served as the first chairman of were consistently among the most popular as Philadelphia and New York City. Return the new D.C. City Council, appointed by attractions at the Museum. Meanwhile, festival-goers were heard to declare the President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1967. John served on the Museum’s Board of Festival of the Building Arts “…exception- Though never actually elected to public Trustees from 1990 to 2000, and remained al…one of my all time favorite children’s office, John remained active in civic active as a member of the Trustees Council activities!” affairs through a wide variety of voluntary until his death. Programs at the festival appealed roles, and is fondly remembered by many A pillar of the community in to both families and adult visitors alike. Washingtonians as a tireless advocate of every respect, John was a faithful friend Two presentations by Tom Silva and Rich home rule for the District of Columbia. He and avid supporter not only of the

above / Record crowds filled the Trethewey, home improvement experts and frequently used his business clout to effect National Building Museum, but of many Great Hall for the 2003 festival. stars of the popular PBS television show This positive civic change, as when he devel- arts, cultural, and civic organizations in right / A youngster enjoys the Old House, gave festival-goers the chance oped the Hechinger Mall in northeast the Washington area. The countless people opportunity to sit in the operator’s Washington, a venture that, though finan- whose lives were enriched by his philan- seat at the Construction Vehicle to ask questions about those all-important “Petting Zoo.” home renovation projects. Children of all cially risky for the Hechinger family, was thropy and activism all mourn his loss. • ages were able to contribute to the construc- broadly praised for bringing valuable eco- tion of a continually growing pipe sculpture nomic activity and a symbolic new center and help build the walls of a log cabin. to a struggling community.

16 blueprints blueprints 17 MUSEUM NEWS SUPPORT

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Thank You!

$100,000 and above $5,000–$9,999 $1,000–$2,499 $250–$999 The Museum thanks American Society of Anonymous AIA Knowledge Resource Team the individuals, William Randolph Hearst Landscape Architects Foundations Beyer Blinder Belle Architects & Alliance Capital Management LP Autodesk, Inc. Planners LLP companies, associa- Lafarge North America Inc. Atlantic Valet, Inc. Carolyn and Kenneth D. Brody Barbara Boggs Associates Inc. United States Department of Ayers Saint Gross Inc. tions and agencies Energy, Office of Energy David L. Brunner and Cleveland Browns Barwood Transportation listed here for gifts Efficiency and Renewable Energy Rhonda Butler James C. Cleveland Bell Group, Inc. DC Water and Sewer Authority of $250 or more Gilbert E. DeLorme, Esq. Pam and Jay Bothwell $50,000–$99,999 The Max and Victoria Dreyfus Dewberry & Davis received from Foundation, Inc. Breckenridge Design Group Lt. Col. and Mrs. William Karl Konze Robert W. and Louisa C. Duemling Gensler Architecture, Jerome Cooper November 2003 Design and Planning Worldwide Greenebaum & Rose Associates Drury B. and Anne Sprunt Crawley $25,000–$49,999 through January The MARPAT Foundation, Inc. Holland & Knight Brenda Derby The Associated General Edward J. Mathias Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & 2004. These gener- Contractors of America Will Miller and Lynne Maguire Mary Roberta Jones Kuhn Architects ous gifts provide National Association of Kishimoto.Gordon.Dalaya PC Lois and Richard England $10,000–$24,999 essential support Real Estate Investment Trusts Robert C. Larson Richard F. Evans Clark Charitable Foundation, Inc. J. Ned Inc./ Nederlander Rafael V. Lopez and Linda I. Marks Dr. Theodore M. Fields for the Museum’s Mike Goodrich David M. Schwarz/ Barbara Macknick Whit Fletcher exhibitions, educa- Delon Hampton, Ph.D., P.E./ Architectural Services Herbert S. and Patrice R. Miller Cris Fromboluti, AIA Delon Hampton & Associates tion programs, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP Daniel H. Mudd Robert J. Geniesse, Esq. The McGraw-Hill Companies Robert A.M. Stern Architects National Concrete Masonry Elizabeth Edwards Harris endowment funds. Microsoft Corporation Washington Chapter of the Association Jay Hellman NATIONAL ASSOCIATION Some of the contri- American Institute of Architects Lea and Ted Pedas/Wanda and OF REALTORS“ Hord Coplan Macht, Inc. Jim Pedas butions listed Portland Cement Association Mary Ann C. Huey $2,500–$4,999 Barbara Spangenberg below are in partial The Related Companies, LP Samuel S. Jackson, Jr. above / Sketch by Frank Gehry. American Planning Association United Arts Organization of hoped to instill in passersby. Likewise, tion of a setting, the better, an assumption Kikkerland Design, Inc. fulfillment of From Architectural Drawing: A Visual Sharon and Jim Todd Andersen Corporation Greater Washington Inc. Michael Graves’s drawings will frequently that overlooks the imaginative role that the John P. Kyle Compendium of Types and Methods, Turner Construction Company Thomas N. Armstrong, III Emily and Antoine van Agtmael larger pledges. by Rendow Yee, Wiley, 1997. Carl H. Lavin show his buildings in settings that have the edges of drawings have traditionally played. Construction Industry Round Table Washington Woodworking Co., LLC Wanchul Lee Associates same storybook quality, with hills, clouds, Two things may come of this. As Mr. and Mrs. Roy Disney Linden H. and Judith A. Welch M. Deblasio, Inc. Eckert Family Foundation and other structures recalling his own architects become more facile with these Leonard A. Zax, Esq. Michael S. Marcotte Ellerbe Becket, Inc. David D. Marquardt, AIA forms. Such historical references are, as Eco new tools, they may begin to manipulate the Envision Design PLLC Joan Meixner suggests, another form of modernism: the digital images of a context as they did in tra- David C. Evans, Esq./ Tina and Neal Mollen free interpretation and appropriation of the ditional drawing. The media of marginalia Reed Smith LLP Mr. and Mrs. Carl Gewirz Ann K. Morales classical past that characterized medieval may have changed, but not the potential of Iron Workers Local No. 433 The New York Times Company art as well as books such as Ulysses. the margins to add meaning to architectural National Leased Housing Henry Otto Association The marginalia of architectural drawings. Meanwhile, this new technology, Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Occasions Caterers Bill Sawicki drawings matter, in part, because of the as Marshall McLuhan predicted, may turn Robins, Kaplan, Miller & Ciresi Steven Schmidt change overtaking this form of communica- the old one into an art form per se. Hand- Victor O. Schinnerer & Co., Inc. Adrienne Schmitz STUDIOS Architecture Stefanie Zeldin Sigal and tion. With the advent of digital photography drawn architectural renderings may play Robert K. Sigal and high-quality graphics software, archi- less of a functional, and more of an aesthet- Scott David Simonsgaard tects have found it increasingly easy to place ic and expressive role, in which case the Studio for Civil Architecture Trace Inc. accurate computer-generated images of their margins of drawings may become even more Davis Turner buildings in photo-realistic depictions of the important in the conveyance of meaning: WDG Architecture actual site. While this technology makes it echoes of Umberto Eco. • Laura Wirkkala easier for clients and the public to under- Annette and Colin Young stand what a building might look like in its context, these new digital tools have assumed that the more realistic the depic-

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MYSTERY BUILDING

HE MYSTERY BUILDING pictured in the Winter 2003–04 issue was Fort Jeffer- T son, which occupies one of seven small islands comprising the remote Dry Tortugas National Park, about 70 miles from Key West Mystery Building in the Gulf of Mexico. Conceived in the 1840s as an integral component of the United States’ coastal defenses, the fort never really played an important strategic role, and indeed, was never even truly finished. During the Civil War, the structure found a temporary purpose as a military prison for ? captured deserters. Soon thereafter, the fort achieved a measure of notoriety when sever- al convicted conspirators in the assassination believed to be made of 15 and half million of President Abraham Lincoln, including Dr. bricks! Do we have any volunteers to con- Samuel Mudd, who had given medical care to duct a comparative count for verification? the fugitive John Wilkes Booth, were sen- Congratulations to the five readers above / Fort Jefferson tenced to serve time there. The military who correctly identified Fort Jefferson: Jon abandoned the fort in 1874, but in 1908, the C. Babb, Jan D. Carline, Carl Thomas Engel, desolate island was rediscovered and desig- David Kleimann, and Peter S. Tannen. nated a wildlife refuge. This issue’s Mystery Building The National Park Service, which brings us back to the 20th century. Can now manages the site, claims that the fort you identify the building, its architect, and is composed of 16 million bricks. Shockingly, its location? Send responses to: Mystery that would put it ahead of the National Building, National Building Museum, Building Museum’s historic home, which is 401 F Street NW, Washington, DC 20001.

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