Yale Bulletin and Calendar

February 14, 2003|Volume 31, Number 18

School of Architecture exhibit showcases design team's work

An exhibition titled "Matter: The Work of Tod Williams and Billie Tsien," showcasing the work of two visiting professors at the School of Architecture, will be on view Feb. 17-May 4 in the school's gallery.

"Matter," the first major exhibition of work by the acclaimed design team in 13 years, will highlight nearly 20 years of the architects' work. It will feature material samples, prototypes, furniture, wall panels and study models, among other artifacts, documenting their built projects -- such as the American Folk Art Museum in New York City, the Cranbrook Natatorium in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, and the Phoenix Art Museum -- and their designs for a wide range of other projects.

Williams and Tsien have worked together since 1977 and been partners in their own design studio since 1986. In addition to their celebrated institutional projects, the architects have also taken on such disparate commissions as the costumes and movable stage set for the Elisa Monte Dance Company, an installation for Isamu Noguchi light sculptures and several residences, mainly in and around New York City. This year, they are jointly sharing the Louis I. Kahn Visiting Professorship at Yale -- a post they also held in 2000.

In an article in the journal Nexus in 1999, Williams and Tsien said of their work: "We have written a mission statement for the office: Whatever we design must be of use, but at the same time transcend its use. It must be rooted in time and site and client needs but it must transcend time and site and client needs. We do not want to develop a style or specialize in any project type. It is our hope to continue to work on only a few projects at a time, with intense personal involvement in all parts of the design and construction."

Williams was an associate in the office of Richard Meier before starting his own practice in 1974. His work has been honored by the New York Chapter of the American Institute of Architects with over 12 distinguished architecture awards. A fellow of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) since 1992 and former director of the Architectural League, he served on the architectural advisory committee for Princeton University, and the New York City and National AIA Awards Committees.

Tsien, a graduate of Yale College, worked both as a painter and a teacher before receiving her master's degree from the University of California at Los Angeles. Indeed, both Tsien and Williams have maintained busy academic schedules alongside their architectural practice, teaching together or separately at such prestigious institutions as The Southern California Institute of Architecture, Parsons School of Design, Princeton, Harvard, Cooper Union, Columbia, the Rhode Island School of Design, the University of Texas at Austin and Helsinki University.

Tsien served on the panels and advisory boards of such organizations as the National Endowment for the Arts, the Percent for Art Jury for the cities of New York and Seattle, the Public Art Fund, the Architectural League, the American Academy in Rome and the Municipal Art Society in New York. In April 2002, she was appointed by New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg to the board of the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation.

Williams and Tsien have received numerous honors and awards for their work, including the Brunner Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Medal of Honor from the New York City AIA and the Chrysler Award for Design Innovation. Their firm has won five National AIA Awards: from 1988 for Feinberg Hall, a dormitory at Princeton, to 1997 for the Neurosciences Institute in La Jolla, California.

The Yale exhibition is accompanied by an original video co-produced by Carol Scully and Dean Sakamoto titled "Inside/Out: The Architecture of Williams & Tsien." This video project is supported by a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts and with additional funding from Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown.

"Matter" was organized by Sakamoto, director of exhibitions, and is part of the ongoing series of exhibitions on visionary contemporary architecture presented at the Yale School of Architecture. The exhibition is also partially funded by Jaffe and Brown.

There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Monday, Feb. 17, following a 6:30 p.m. lecture by Mexican architect Enrique Norten in Hastings Hall of the Architecture Building, 180 York St.

The gallery, which is located on the ground floor of the Architecture Building, is open to the public free of charge 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Saturday. For more information, contact the School of Architecture by calling (203) 432-2288, or visiting the website at www.architecture.yale.edu.

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