Mike Wolanin | The Republic Jason Hatton, from left, Tatiana Bilbao and Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher take part in a Miller Prize Conversations event at Bilbao’s Exhibit Columbus installation Designed by the Public on the library plaza in Columbus, Ind., Tuesday, Sept. 19, 2023.
To say that architect Tatiana Bilbao had to sift through a near library of suggestions for her ESTUDIO’s eventual bright and playful installation “Design By the Public” for the Exhibit Columbus architectural event is like saying that local librarian Jason Hatton has to deal with a lot of books in his work.
It hardly reaches far enough onto the shelf of explanation.
Bilbao and Hatton, director of the Bartholomew County Public Library, were part of a free public discussion Tuesday evening to kick off Exhibit Columbus’ set of four Miller Prize Conversations stretching through Nov. 10 at various locations. The Miller Prize installations form the centerpiece of the exhibition.
Bilbao gave about 60 attendees at the outdoor Bartholomew County Public Library Plaza on Fifth Street in downtown Columbus an idea of the inspiration that her firm engaged early in the public input segment of the design process.
“There was a child imagining a place of landing dragons, another one wanted a zoo, another one wanted an outside library, some others wanted a cooking kitchen, some others wanted a skate park,” said Bilbao, whose award-winning firm is based in Mexico City, Mexico. “I mean, really — all sorts of things you can imagine.”
What ESTUDIO’s team eventually imagined is a bright and whimsical work of shelving and “a library of things,” as Bilbao called them, that the public can use for unwinding at tables and sunbrellas on the bricked porch, if you will.
Jennifer Dunlop Fletcher, senior curator at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, was also part of the discussion. She recently completed an exhibition titled, “Tatiana Bilbao ESTUDIO: Architecture from Outside In.”
Dunlop Fletcher immediately saw a link from that exhibition and the local installation on the plaza.
“When thinking about that (exhibit) title, ‘Architecture from Outside In,’ I don’t know,” the curator said. “I have to say that this project really embodies that.”
Exhibit Columbus, which has generated renewed global attention for the city’s Modernist legacy and broadly expanded the involved audience for that to teens and others, “is an exploration of community, architecture, art, and design that activates the modern legacy of Columbus,” according to organizers.
Hatton told attendees that he loves the surprise element inherent in Exhibit Columbus.
“I think one of the great things about Exhibit Columbus — and we’ve been a site since the beginning — is that you have no idea what you’re going to get (in an installation),” Hatton said. “And (the surprise) is through the interactions with the architects.
“And I think that’s what’s so beautiful about art and design and architecture — and that is taking the public information and then translating it, you can do things in a million different ways, right? But to see Tatiana and her team’s vision for this — we were thrilled, honestly. It hit so many of the things that we were looking to achieve.”
Richard McCoy is executive director of the nonprofit Landmark Columbus Foundation, the umbrella agency over Exhibit Columbus and the organizer of these four Miller Prize conversations. He reminded audience members that they were seated in front of a library done by internationally known designer I.M. Pei, whose other efforts include the Louvre Pyramid in Paris. And right across the street is Eliel Saarinen’s heralded First Christian Church.
“The world comes to Columbus,” McCoy said. “It’s kind of an amazing thing and an amazing place. And I’m really happy to be with the organization that gets to produce the things that we all get to enjoy in this community.”
The other conversations
- 3 to 5 p.m. Sept. 28 near InterOculus which is at Fourth and Washington streets.
Vishaan Chakrabarti (Practice for Architecture and Urbanism)
Lee Bey (Chicago Sun-Times)
Dave Hayward (City of Columbus)
- 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 26, Mill Race Center.
Christopher Marcinkoski and Andrew Moddrell (PORT)
Thaisa Way (Harvard Graduate School of Design)
Dan Mustard (Mill Race Center)
- 10 a.m. to noon Nov. 10, The Commons.
Sara Zewde (Studio Zewde)
Landscape architect Michael Van Valkenburgh
Columbus native and former community leader Will Miller
Mark Jones (Columbus Parks and Recreation)
Exhibit Columbus runs through Nov. 26.
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