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Below are current and past shows in the galleries and library at the College of Environmental Design.
September 25–December 22, 2009 Environmental Design/A New Modernism The College of Environmental Design (CED) was conceived of in the 1950s and formally established in 1959. To differentiate their ideas from Modernist dogma, the founders William Wurster, Catherine Bauer Wurster, Jack Kent, and their Bay Area colleagues dubbed their vision “Environmental Design,” or what we might call a “New Modernism.” The CED was unique not only because it was one of the earliest colleges to combine architecture, city planning, landscape architecture, and the decorative arts, but also because it emphasized the important role of the social, natural, and physical sciences in informing teaching, practice, and research. Wurster Hall, completed in 1964, has become the emblem of the founders’ vision where, in 2009, it continues to emerge anew. The exhibit focuses on seminal moments from 1959 to 2009 in the evolution of the CED founders' vision, whereby teaching, research, and practice were informed by the social and natural sciences and which, in recent decades, has significantly come to include the computer sciences. It features original drawings, photographs, documents, books, and artifacts drawn from the Environmental Design Archives, the Environmental Design Library, the Bancroft Library, the University Archives, IURD and CEDR, and private collections. The exhibition is curated by Professor Raymond Lifchez with the assistance of Carrie McDade. Library information, hours, and directions September 9–October 9, 2009 Stanley Saitowitz | Natoma Architects, San Francisco: Buildings and Projects An exhibition of work in conjunction with the 50th anniversary of the College of Environmental Design.
May 20–September 15, 2009
One hundred years ago, Daniel Burnham and Edward Bennett published a vision of Chicago that reflected the early stages of big city planning. The City Beautiful Movement, spurred by Baron Haussmann’s remaking of Paris in the 1860s and the Progressive Movement in America, was intended to create a rational, classical city to replace the crowded, unplanned Victorian city common in the 19th century. The 1909 Plan for Chicago, although never fully realized, is heralded as the apex of the City Beautiful Movement which found echoes in plans for the San Francisco Civic Center, Oakland’s City Center, and urban planning from Manila to Canberra Australia. This exhibit explores the City Beautiful Movement as manifested in the San Francisco Bay Area. Curated by David Eifler and Matthew Prutsman, Environmental Design Library. Exhibition Team: Waverly Lowell and Miranda Hambro, Environmental Design Archives. Library information, hours, and directions February 3, 2009–May 8, 2009 Greenwood Common: Uncommonly Modern
Presented in conjunction with the publication Living Modern: A Biography of Greenwood Common, by Waverly Lowell. A Berkeley | Design | Book, published by William Stout Publishers, available spring 2009. Curated by Waverly Lowell, Curator, Environmental Design Archives. Exhibition Team: Miranda Hambro, Assistant Curator, Environmental Design Archives; Student Assistants: Madeline Hamlin, Lan Hu. Library information, hours, and directions October 31, 2008–January 16, 2009
The great public cemeteries in the United States all began as monumental landscapes, playgrounds for the picturesque, where the growing middle classes both buried their dead and took refuge from the rapidly industrializing cities. There they could contemplate the “sweet hereafter” in a setting with an obvious kinship to Central Park or the leafy suburbs, then rising as part of the same cultural forces that created the modern cemetery. Still, these silent cities evolved from a social form that gave us a range of civic institutions including the temple and the astronomical observatory, the theater, and the university. But where has this great social form gone in the last century? Fatal Design tells the tale through the rich holdings of the Environmental Design Archives and Library. Curated by Andrew Shanken, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture, and Waverly Lowell, Curator, Environmental Design Archives. Opening Reception Thursday, October 30, 2008, 7-9 p.m. Celebrate the opening of the new exhibition at the Environmental Design Library at a ghoulish gala reception. View funerary drawings from the crypt of the Environmental Design Archives and tomes from the Library. Devilish delicacies will be served. Library information, hours, and directions April 28, 2008–September 30, 2008 Building in the Landscape: The Sea Ranch and Making Places Exploring the concept of making places, this exhibit focuses on the Sea Ranch, and on Donlyn Lyndon's work in other areas. Lyndon's works explore the idea that "environment is that piece of reality which gets through to us," and the things that enter, "our selected environment should help us to 'place' ourselves specifically in a broad context." Nowhere is this more evident than in the work that he did with MLTW at the Sea Ranch, and which he continues to do there and in other locations. The exhibit includes highlights from the Environmental Design Archives and Environmental Design Library collections, such as original sketches, photographs, ephemera and books. Curated by Waverly Lowell (Curator) and Miranda Hambro (Assistant Curator) of the Environmental Design Archives and Elizabeth Byrne (Head), Debbie Sommer, and Matthew Prutsman of the Environmental Design Library. Library information, hours, and directions November 13, 2007–March 31, 2008 The Roving Eye: Travel and Design This exhibition explores the connections between travel and design, beginning with the Grand Tour of Beaux Arts tradition, and continuing through present day study and studios. It looks at themes of cultural exchange, globalization, and inspiration through travel in the fields of architecture, landscape architecture, and city planning. Curated by Miranda Hambro of the Environmental Design Archives and Dori Hsiao of the Environmental Design Library, the exhibit includes highlights from those collections such as rare books, original sketches, and photographs. Library information, hours, and directions May 21, 2007–October 31, 2007 The Architect's Sketch: Vision & Document This exhibition celebrates the state-of-the-art exhibition cases donated by Professor Raymond Lifchez and Judith Lee Stronach, and inaugurates a program of exhibitions highlighting treasures from the Environmental Design Archives and the Environmental Design Library. Library information, hours, and directions |
Urban Beast or Urbane Beauty: Planning the City Beautiful
This
exhibition reveals the history of Greenwood Common, an enclave of eight
distinct modernist houses, developed between 1951 and 1957 in the
Berkeley hills by architect William W. Wurster. The development
featured his idealistic sense of community coupled with a modernist
aesthetic and an awareness of regional traditions. The purchasers of
the lots, working with established architects and landscape architects,
created homes showcasing a uniquely Californian lifestyle that
reflected the mild climate, the distinctive geography, and the local
environment. This small cluster of residences surrounding a shared open
space combined a sense of the suburbs with the intimacy of a small
town. As a result Greenwood Common has become an icon of regional
mid-century modernism and continues to thrive as a well-maintained and
comfortable community site—all as it was originally intended.
Fatal Design