194X–9/11: American Architects and the City
01 July 2011 - 02 January 2012
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| | United
Architects (Ben van Berkel, Caroline Bos, Peter Frankfurt, Mikon van
Gastel, Kevin Kennon, Greg Lynn, Farshid Moussavi, Alejandro Zaera-Polo,
Jesse Reiser, Nanako Umemoto). World Trade Center Proposal Project, New
York, NY. 2002. Acrylic, 8' 5 1/2" × 6' × 48" (257.8 × 182.9 × 121.9
cm). The Museum of Modern Art. Fund for the Twenty-First Century and an
anonymous donor |
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194X–9/11: AMERICAN ARCHITECTS AND THE CITY
1 July, 2011 – 2 January, 2012
In 1942—shortly after the U.S. entered World War II—Architectural Forum
magazine commissioned a group of architects, including Ludwig Mies van
der Rohe, to design projects for a hypothetical postwar American city,
rethinking both urban community life and the relationship between
architecture and urban planning. The aim was to project an optimistic
postwar period of growth and prosperity to begin as soon as hostilities
ended, in 194X—soon, it was hoped. Over half a century later the country
is once again engaged in global conflict and—in the wake of 9/11 and
the ongoing financial crisis—undergoing a major reconsideration of urban
and suburban space. This year marks the 10th anniversary of 9/11, an
event that ushered in a new era of architectural anticipation and
uncertainty, and gave rise to a flurry of urban rebuilding projects,
some of which are only finally seeing the light of day at Ground Zero.
Drawn from MoMA’s architectural holdings, this exhibition shows the work
of a variety of architects who took on the urban scale in a spirit of
recasting the form and daily experience of the city. In addition to Mies
van der Rohe, featured architects include Louis Kahn, Paul Rudolph, Rem
Koolhaas and OMA, and United Architects.
www.moma.org
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