by: Rick Bell FAIA Executive Director AIA New York
The UAR’s exhibition at the Miami Beach Convention Center.
Rick Bell, FAIA
One of the major highlights of the 2010 AIA Convention was an exhibition, in the second floor west gallery of the Miami Convention Center, consisting of 24 extraordinary and unconventional projects from the Russian Federation. The vibrant show was sponsored by the Union of Architects of Russia and organized by Brian Spencer, AIA, IAA, PAACH. Spencer, an architect in Carefree, AZ, had curated exhibitions of American architecture at the two most recent annual Zodchestvo festivals in Moscow. He was the first curator of architecture at the Milwaukee Art Museum, and is an Honorary Professor at both Belgorod State Technical University and the Rostov Institute of Architecture in Russia.
The work shown featured new housing, including the Stella Maris Residential Building by Project Bureau Evgeniy Gerasimov & Partners; the Avangard Residential Complex by Sergey Kiselev & Partners; and the Cooper House Residential Complex by Sergey Skuratov Architects. Commercial space was represented by the Four Seasons Shopping & Leisure Center by V. Plotkin, the Gorki Entertainment Complex by A. Kukovyakin, and the Kitezh Commerce & Business Center by Andrey Bokov, President of the Union of Architects of Russia. Bokov spoke about his work during a well-attended global exchange panel moderated by Thomas Fisher, Dean of the College of Design at the University of Minnesota.
Other colorful projects included the Cocoon Restaurant in Moscow by V. Savinkin, the Peter Fomenko Studio Theater by S. Gnedovskiy, and a “picturesque bridge” by N. Shumankov. There was also a project by Sergei Tchoban, lead curator of Factory Russia, the 2010 Russian pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Mr. Tchoban will be speaking at the Center for Architecture at 6:00pm on Friday, 07.09.10 Click here to RSVP.
Whispered gallery comments: “this could fit in anywhere in the world” and “structural expressionism is alive and well.”
Rick Bell, FAIA, is the Executive Director of the AIA New York Chapter.