The Architectural Museum: a Founder's Perspective Author(S): Phyllis Lambert Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol

The Architectural Museum: a Founder's Perspective Author(S): Phyllis Lambert Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol

The Architectural Museum: A Founder's Perspective Author(s): Phyllis Lambert Source: Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 58, No. 3, Architectural History 1999/2000 (Sep., 1999), pp. 308-315 Published by: University of California Press on behalf of the Society of Architectural Historians Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/991523 . Accessed: 23/09/2014 15:28 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. University of California Press and Society of Architectural Historians are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 132.206.23.24 on Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:28:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Architectural Museum A Founder's Perspective PHYLLIS LAMBERT Canadian Centre for Architecture, Montreal Architectural materialshave been collectedsince at tographs and manuscriptmaterial cannot be overempha- least the early thirteenth century. However, they sized. ... library,archive museum and study center must be have only been recognized as the basis of a new viewed as a unit in its activities,in its staffingas well as [in] entity,the architecturalmuseum, since 1979 when some fif- its holdings."' teen recently formed institutions met in Helsinki to form As a collection formedby an architectin the late twen- the InternationalConfederation of ArchitecturalMuseums tieth century,the CCA resonateshistorically with the indi- (ICAM ).1 Since then the membershiphas grown to nearly vidualpractices of architectswho, since the Renaissance,have 100 members,including museums, archives, and collections selected drawings,prints, models, and books of their peers housed in largerinstitutions such as librariesand schools. In and predecessorsfor reference.Jacques Lemercier or Hip- approachingarchitectural collections, I can most usefully polyte Destailleur come to mind, but it is certainlyJohn discuss some of the key issues from my own personal per- Soane who is the great exemplar:beyond collecting as a spective gained in framingand developingthe collection of source of inspirationfor his own work, he created,at Lin- the Centre Canadien d'Architecture/CanadianCentre for coln'sInn Fields, dramaticspaces for his collection of archi- Architecture(CCA). It is not my intention to describe the tectural plaster casts, antique fragments, objets d'art, and CCA'sholdings, which has been done in earlier publica- paintings as well as books and collections of drawingsof tions.2 Most pertinent is what has been learned about the architectswhom he admired.Soane intendedhis house and significance and special aspects of collection building and museum,with its collections,to be both a greatwork of art relatedresearch in the ten years since the CCA opened as a in and of itself and a place that would providearchitectural publicinstitution in 1989.3This has been experiencegained studentswith a rich learningenvironment (Figure 1). He left in presentingexhibitions, preparing publications, and, most his house/museumto the nationin 1833 with the stipulation recently,with the reception of scholarsin residence at the that the collection,and the very specificmanner and context CCA Study Centre.4The nature of the collection cannot of display,not be changedafter his death.Ultimately his is a be separatedfrom these activitiesnor from the institution's very specialcase of the house museum,which asJohn Elsner founding,its purposes,its mode of operation,or its locus. In has commented,"memorializes and freezesfor posteritythe 1989, looking forwardto the next decade,Adolf K. Placzek moment at which collecting (and redeployinga collection) was prescientin underscoringthe interconnectednessof an ceases,the moment when the museumbegins."6 architecturemuseum's collection in a broaderinstitutional Like London's Wallace Collection, Paris's Musde setting:"The importanceto a greatlibrary of drawing,pho- Jacquemart Andre, Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner This content downloaded from 132.206.23.24 on Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:28:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions ~C~~:~?r~4 ,?:~R~~ ,~9ZP~,:"-:::,:d::i:":;? :::::: .::::::'-ic:?:_. -ja- : :: ji: %~ II~ z Ci -: ----------- Figure1 SirJohn Soane (1753-1837), view of the plaster-castdisplay Figure2 PeterRose, CCAStudy Centre, Alcan Wing for Scholars, in his Houseand Museum, London, 1835. Lithograph,Plate 28 from Montr6al.Photograph by RichardPare, chromogenic color print, Soane,Description of the Houseand Museum on the NorthSide of @ 1988 RichardPare Lincoln'sInn Fields (London, 1835), collection CCA, Montr6al Museum, New York'sFrick Collection, and many small, of the social and naturalenvironment, is a public concern, late-nineteenth- and early-twentieth-centuryart and dec- that architecturalresearch has a profoundcultural influence, orative-artmuseums that were built as closed systems of and that scholarshave a social responsibilityof the highest displaywithin a collector'sresidence, Soane'smuseum was order (Figure2). In this the CCA providesone among sev- a product of its time. However, the Soane Museum'scur- eral contemporarymodels of a museum of architecture, rent project to catalogue major works in its collection in quite distinctfrom eitherthe museumof artor the academic order to encourage research is consonant with programs researchcenter, although both institutionsinform its over- of the architecturalmuseums formed after 1945. Mostly lapping agendas. Indeed, the terms "study center" and created as state museums with an activist, preservationist, "museum"attach selectivity to the collection. As a study often even archival focus, in essence these are research- center,acquisitions are directedto worksthat haveadvanced based institutions. Programs launched beginning in the thought about the nature of the built world and that will 1980s to inventory and provide intellectual access to the thereforeengage significantresearch. The resourcesof the SoaneMuseum's collections have reinforceda sense of mis- libraryand the holdings of drawings,prints, photographs, sion and underscoredthe collections' statusas open-ended and architecturalarchives offer specialistsa wealth of pri- resourcesfor inquiry.7 mary and secondarymaterial for advancedresearch in the The CCA was founded in 1979 as a study center and history,theory, and practiceof architecture.As a museum, museum devoted to the art of architecturepast and pres- the CCA interprets its collection for the public through ent, with the three-foldconviction that architecture,as part exhibitionsand publicationsthat revealthe richnessand sig- THE ARCHITECTURAL MUSEUM 309 This content downloaded from 132.206.23.24 on Tue, 23 Sep 2014 15:28:53 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions nntir: ii-~-i~iiia~i:~4ii-iir-,ii.i~~--i:ii~ii-i~i---~' ii?~:ii~i~~i-l:-i~iiiiiiiiii ii:!i--iiiiii- i• • i :,ij::l-:_i:-:-i: :-iii.i iii DO TE ? R A I S A B L ) / !•li i i-ii-:.:._':,ig-i• -::::: -•-- "ii :i ! I:-::;,-:l-::-:--i~i~~-i-~~; --?ii--'l-'l- :~-:: :-::i--,--iiii:iiOl:i::::i?IN•iiiiii!'!i•!:ii:iii.iiii•ESi:--:-_:l: D u N 'i i% ::-::-::i:::- . ::-- i - -i:;:-i-i--l:::-l-i~~~~~~~~i::i-i::i:i::i:;:;:1---ai__a~ r:i/i:ii i i~ii•i~-i-1i~iiii i:Ji i ii-i~i•i-i IIIA R G U •IL i• L IE •! Ri_-- ! i , •!ii~i:-i-:i~iii !iii~iiiliiii!•!!i iiii~iii•!•!i:i!!•ii-ii:iiii•i!!iiiiiii -i!J-ii• J!i-ii 1)01ISSEUMLA N DET?AAQ S, ETIENNE i!•!!!!•ii• !•!! !• •:i:•'?i:i:•& !l i ii--i:i-i•)!iii!!!ii!!!!!iiii! i SurchiraemofeParoncezanl larobime o~fruc~onl Pate Ar el I ~_f/ .; ~ :i -:::i_ ~~s ':-:i -.... i-i l?~' _~?l i ?i iiiii il i~ii :!i-:-:l;,.i~:I- :ii!iiii: .fziiiiiii I: Ettouvc APA R .. :- -:::::--:::_i:-ii--_i~i-:~-::ii'-l:':i:ire,a:'i'~;-:.Hi:;i-iii--p:::ar -_~i_-i-i~ii::i~:-_: TUCD . ~iiil i :'--':I::-:::_--:---iiiiiii iii:ii~r: :i:-iiiiiiiiiii;:':i :iiiiii~iiii i;iii i i iil i! iiii • ?i ?....liiiiiiiiC C.I a ni i-i---i---::::-I;:---~ii; :ii_~:- ~~~l-~l-i~i:~W Figure 3 Antoine Vaudoyer(1756-1846), volume 1 of a collection, in two volumes, of printedand manuscriptmaterial assembled by Antoine- Laurent-ThomasVaudoyer relative to the Pantheon, Paris, 1770-1852. Letterpress and ink on paper,collection CCA,Montreal nificance of architecturalculture and stimulate awareness the architecturemuseum's collection could be seen to have of contemporaryissues in architecture. an affinitywith archives,but the latter have usually been The collection, composed of numerous genres and amassedfor administrativepurposes, as legal governmental media, is referred to in the singular, since drawings and repositories,generally with a detachedsense of accumula- prints, photographs,bound imprints,and ephemeraare all tion ratherthan a motivatedsearch for interconnections.As concerned with one particularsubject-architecture in its a collection rather than a repository, the architecture widest sense, including the arts and disciplinesthat create museum is guided by a inquiry into the forces that shape the built world. The Centre's collection encompasses, in architectureand into the intentions of architects,patrons, fact, the buildingprocess; its aims are to foster inquiryinto and clients. the art of architecture.The variousbodies of work brought The CCA'sfirst two decades chronicle the extent to together cut across media, time, and geography,as com- which the museum of architecturehas been defined in the parativesources dedicated to research.This purposediffers late twentiethcentury as a unique institution,distinct from from the cabinetdes dessins of an art museum,or the "special other types of museumsin its collections, exhibitions,and collections"of a library,where drawings,prints, books, and relationshipto the public. In the first decade, the founda- models tend to be valuedas individualmasterworks.

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