2 X 2: Architectural Collaborations

January 22 through April 16, 2000

The University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive is pleased to present 2 x 2: Architectural Collaborations, which will open in the museum's Theater Gallery on January 22, and run through April 16, 2000. 2x2: Architectural Collaborations elaborates on the theme of the exhibition Equal Partners: Men and Women Principals in Contemporary Architectural Practice (through March 19) by looking at innovative projects and collaborative style of a newer generation of architects, including a sister/sister partnership. Firms from both coasts of the United States will participate in the exhibition including Berkeley-based LOOM; Davids Killory, San Francisco; Lubowicki and Lanier, Los Angeles; Chu+Gooding, Los Angeles; OpenOffice, New York; LOT/EK, New York; Kuth Ranieri, San Francisco; and Hariri & Hariri, New York.

Each firm will show models, drawings, or photographs, and in some cases videos, of two projects that they have either realized or designed. The architects themselves will be selecting the projects they wish to present, guided by the theme of choosing those that particularly highlight their firm's approach to the collaborative aspect of their practice-not only how the principals work together, but also the collaborations necessary between architect and client, as well as architect and contractors. In each project, the emphasis is on how successful designs emerge from the dialectics of collaboration.

Also on view
2 x 2
completes a singular trio of exhibitions on the art of architecture currently on view at the UC Berkeley Art Museum. Roma/Pacifica: The Phoebe Hearst International Architectural Competition and the Berkeley Campus, 1896 - 1930 (through April 23) recreates the final round of the Phoebe Hearst International Architectural Competition, held in 1898 to determine a master plan for the University of California, Berkeley. Architects from around the world submitted resplendent visions of the university as a Classical "Rome on the Pacific," complete with colonnaded walkways, vast domed gymnasiums, and military barracks. Roma/Pacifica features rarely seen preparatory sketches and stunning large-scale architectural drawings, along with supporting photographs and archival materials.

Equal Partners: Men and Women Principals in Contemporary Architectural Practice (through March 19) features the collaborative projects created by architectural firms headed by male and female partners. At a time when equal opportunity and affirmative action policies are under scrutiny, Equal Partners provides an intriguing forum in which questions of the dynamics of male-female practices and their implications in today's society can be considered.

2 x 2: Architectural Collaborations will be on view in the BAM/PFA Theater Gallery (enter from Durant Avenue) through April 16, 2000. The Theater Gallery, which is free to the public, is open from 8 am – 5 pm, Monday to Friday, from 8 am – 9 pm Thursday, and 11 am – 5 pm Saturday and Sunday.

Public Programs
On Sunday, March 12, from 3 to 5 pm, the UC Berkeley Art Museum will host the panel discussion, "Equal Partners: A New Generation" in the Museum Theater. Panelists will include architects whose work is featured in 2 x 2: Architectural Collaborations-Raveevarn Choksombatchai and Ralph Nelson (LOOM, Berkeley); Gisue and Mojgan Hariri (Hariri & Hariri, New York); and Annie Chu and Rick Gooding (Chu+Gooding, Architects, Los Angeles), with moderator Harrison Fraker, Dean of UC Berkeley's College of Environmental Design. The panelists will present their work and discuss the issues embodied in the exhibition Equal Partners, especially the collaborative process, from the standpoint of a new generation.

Highlights of the public programs presented in association with the museum's three architectural exhibitions include the following:
Guided tours of Roma/Pacifica will be offered on selected Sunday afternoons at 2 pm. A sign-language interpreted tour of the exhibition will be offered on Saturday, March 11 at 1:30 pm.
Specialist in California history, environment, and architecture Gray Brechin will offer a walk-through of Roma/Pacifica on Thursday, February 24, 12:15 pm

A series of three public lectures by leading architectural historians will consider the premises, development, and implications of the master plan for the UC Berkeley campus. On Sunday, February 6 at 3 pm, exhibition curator Robert Judson Clark will present "Athens of the West and Rome of the Pacific: The Phoebe Hearst International Architecture Competition and Its Phenomena" in the Museum Theater.
On Sunday, February 27 at 3 pm, David Van Zanten will present the lecture "The Beaux-Arts and the Bizarre: Forms of Monumental Design a Century Ago" in the Museum Theater. David Van Zanten, Professor of Art History at Northwestern University, will present the principles of monumental design, especially as American architects understood them to have been formulated at the leading educational institution of the late nineteenth century, the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Dr. Joan Draper, Associate Professor in the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado, Denver, on Sunday, March 19, at 3 pm in the Museum Theater. Dr. Draper's slide illustrated lecture, ""Building a City of Learning: John Galen Howard and the Berkeley Campus, " will discuss the underlying themes in John Galen Howard's design for the Berkeley campus.

Unless otherwise stated, public programs are included with museum admission. For further information on these or any of the museum's programs, please call 510.642.0808.

Posted by admin on January 22, 2000