Two celebrated architectural visionaries specializing in spotlighting never-built projects in major cities will speak Monday at Otter Creek Golf Course in Columbus.
Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell will discuss their past projects and begin creating a list of significant Columbus projects that were never built. They will then present their findings at the Sept. 26-29 Exhibit Columbus symposium.
Their Never Built Columbus effort has garnered support from Exhibit Columbus and the Columbus Indiana Architectural Archives.
A grant of $5,600 from the archives’ board will fund the research by Goldin and Sam Lubell, said David Doup, an archives board member and a local builder.
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It’s hardly that unusual that the pair want to work in Columbus after having worked in major metro areas as New York and Los Angeles, said Richard McCoy, among the founders of Exhibit Columbus that highlights architecture, art and design.
“Architectural historians won’t think twice about that,” McCoy said. “Columbus always has been an important architectural city.”
McCoy said Goldin and Lubell approached him about working locally at the Exhibit Columbus exhibition last year. Besides their Monday address, they will spend a few days locally meeting with city officials and community leaders, past and present redevelopment officials, retired executives of Cummins Inc., and others, McCoy said.
“We like to say that Never Built envisions an alternative city, a city of what-if,” said Goldin, based in Los Angeles. “Not make-believe, but ideas that had a fair chance of being accomplished were it not for client’s cowardice, bureaucratic folly or indifference or hostility, economic misery, or civic outcry.”
Goldin and Lubell currently have new projects underway for Paris and New York’s Central Park.
Goldin was the architecture critic at Los Angeles Magazine from 1999 to 2011. In 2011, he was awarded a Getty Institute Research Grant which led to his 2013 exhibition, “Windshield Perspective,” at the Architecture and Design Museum, a study of vernacular Los Angeles architecture.
The New York-based Lubell, who was born in Paris, is a contributing editor at The Architect’s Newspaper. He has written eight books about architecture. He also writes for The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Magazine, Architect and a number of other publications.
Taylor Brothers Construction, for which Doup serves as president, has participated in a range of significant local structures from the Columbus Learning Center to Mill Race Center.
The wisdom of using the talents of Goldin and Lubell is simple, he said.
“These folks have a nationwide and perhaps even international reach and capability of getting the word out about their projects,” Doup said. “So this will be far greater a project than just within Columbus, Indiana, or even just the Midwest. This project will have tentacles reaching all over the place.”
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Who: Speakers Greg Goldin and Sam Lubell, co-creators of Never Built New York and Never Built Los Angeles books and exhibitions that have given them a national reputation. They will highlight their past work and highlight their upcoming work with Never Built Columbus.
When: 6 p.m. Monday happy hour; 6:30 p.m. presentation.
Where: Otter Creek Golf Course clubhouse, 11522 E. County Road 50N east of Columbus. Noted architect Harry Weese designed the Otter Creek Clubhouse.
To share information on local never built projects with the speakers: [email protected].
Information: The Facebook page for Never Built Visits Columbus: Greg Goldin & Sam Lubell. Reservations can be made at that page.
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