Promoters of Columbus’ Modernist architecture often talk of its global standing.
But two leading designers who will be part of the 2021 Exhibit Columbus exhibition want to link the local Columbus community with more than 200 other locales worldwide bearing the Columbus name or some derivative of that name. Hence, the Minneapolis-based Dream the Combine’s proposed Miller Prize installation “Columbus Columbia Columbo Colón,” set for Mill Race Park downtown for the exhibition that begins Aug. 21, will provide that connection.
It will do so via 58 flagpole-like vertical elements planted in the park — just one part of the exhibition that fits partly under an unintentional reaching-for-the-skies motif. Each element will be inscribed with information about that particular locale.
That was just one of a number of Zoom presentations Friday before 250 registrants highlighting plans for some of the 13 exhibits to be a part of the exhibition running until Nov. 28. Other planned designs will be presented beginning at 10 a.m. March 26 via Zoom.
The five Miller Prize installations are the centerpiece of the exhibition with the theme “New Middles.”
Dream the Combine partners Tom Carruthers and Jennifer Newsom got the idea for the global Columbus theme from simply researching the city’s roots. They still are finalizing details about the vertical poles.
“They will be kind of like a historic marker,” said Newsom of Dream the Combine, a firm so named from her child’s out-of-blue utterance one morning.
A nod to the animals
Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of architecture, art, design and community. The program, under the nonprofit flagship Landmark Columbus Foundation, alternates between a symposium one year and an outdoor exhibition the next. The exhibitions highlight temporary structures and related works linked to one or more of the city’s celebrated architectural gems.
The first exhibition in 2017 attracted an estimated audience of 40,000 people and a big spark of architectural chatter especially among young people and on social media. In 2019, an estimated 30,000 visited structures. Plus, both years, national and international media found new storylines to trumpet the city’s worldwide design renown. Organizers have said from the beginning that the new exhibition designs locally can give people new eyes to see the city’s architectural legacy and perhaps its future.
Another Mill Race Park installation planned for the exhibition drew some of the most colorful feedback, not only from local and national guest commentators watching the proceedings, but from Columbus area viewers posting comments in Zoom’s chat section.
The presentation was University Design Fellow participant Joyce Hwang of the University of Buffalo’s installation “To Middle Species With Love.” Among its animal-oriented highlights is a series of bird and bat houses to be erected in the park that would help the winged creatures be more at home. It also will include a feature in which bat sounds would be recorded at the park and then placed online for people to hear the following day.
Curator/writer/guest commentator Gavin Kroeber lightheartedly but half-seriously wondered aloud if there were a way later to edit and put the sounds together for a kind of recorded “bat concert” at some point for people to hear.
“Don’t invite Ozzy Osbourne,” one wag suggested in the chat section, triggering laughter from all participants. The reference was to the once-shock rocker known for holding and biting a bat during a live show, quickly earning him a rockin’ rabies shot. One note: The idea of mixing music with bat sounds already has been done by Indianapolis musician Stuart Hyatt.
Exhibition co-curator Mimi Zeiger of Los Angeles later grinned over such contributions and called the public input to the presentations “lively.”
First Christian site
University Research Fellow Jei Jeeyea Kim of the local J. Irwin Miller Architecture Program at Indiana University presented an overview of the installation “LaWaSo Ground” at First Christian Church on Fifth Street. She explained that the name comes from mixing letters from (La)nd, (Wa)ter, and (So)il.
“The intent of the proposal is to acknowledge the silent and suppressed (ethnic) voices of the past, recognize the cultural dichotomies of our present, and advocate for more diverse inclusion in the future,” Kim said.
She pointed out that Western memorials tend be large and front-and-center in communities and memorials connected to native Americans tend to be smaller and far less visible — sadly significant, she pointed out, since Indiana was named for native Americans.
The design includes a limestone tower echoing the state’s strong link to limestone, and areas for sitting and relaxing. The tower is meant to be “establishing a dialogue with Henry Moore’s Large Arch (across the street) and the clock tower of First Christian Church.
“People might think of a tower as a (traditional Western) monument,” Kim said. But she added that vertical elements are somewhat common in indigenous cultures. She also mentioned that geometric pattern on the side of First Christian’s own tower is similar to geometric patterns used by native Americans.
“I think it will be well-received by the community and the church,” said Columbus resident Rick Herman, First Christian’s facilities director. “We also appreciate how it’s being done.”
At the river
Another University Design Fellow, Derek Hoeferlin of Washington University in St. Louis, presented his interactive installation “Tracing Our Mississippi” to be on a terrace at the rear of at the Upland Columbus Pumphouse at 148 Lindsey St. The work will transform the Mississippi Watershed into a large-scale, abstracted model composed as a set of moveable pieces overlooking the East Fork White River there.
During a brief discussion, the idea was applauded as a nice fit with the city’s proposed riverfront project.
David Bower, president of Upland, said he is looking forward to the installation.
“I can’t wait to see it in real life,” Bower said. “Columbus is in for a real treat, and I can’t wait to be a part of it.”
Upland is considering a special brew for the exhibition, according to Zeiger.
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What: The second installment of design presentations for Exhibit Columbus installations broadcast via Zoom.
When: 10 a.m. to noon and 2 to 4 p.m. March 26.
The lineup and locations:
- Sam Jacob Studio, Washington Street
- Lola Sheppard and Mason White, University of Toronto and Waterloo University, 600 Block of Washington Street
- Ang Li, Northeastern University, The Commons entrance
- Future Firm, ex-Sears building plaza downtown
- High School Design Team, Central Middle School
- Ecosistema Urbano, Central Middle School
- Olalekan Jeyifous, Cleo Rogers Memorial Library Plaza
Registration: exhibitcolumbus.org
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