A new exhibition at the Knowlton School of Architecture on The Ohio State University campus aims to explore the work of The Great Lakes Architectural Expedition, a fictional public architecture office that takes Lake Erie as its principal client.

Created by Knowlton LeFevre Visiting Assistant Professor of Architecture Galen Pardee, the exhibition uses archival models, drawings, documents, and studies to explore "the organizational structure of the Great Lakes Architectural Expedition itself, as well as early attempts by the Expedition’s Lake Erie Board to establish their roles as public advocates and draft the contours of non-human architect-client relationships," according to exhibition text. 

"The Expedition’s mission has prompted a fundamental re-thinking of architecture’s role in the Great Lakes Megalopolis—engaging legal and physical terrains with equal dexterity, expanding architectural practice with non-human client structures, and transforming architects into agents for public materials in a world of increasing scarcity," explains a statement announcing the exhibition.

The project, as well as the work of the Expedition, is an outgrowth of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (The Great Lakes Compact), an agreement signed in 2008 by the States and Territories of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Montreal, and Quebec "prohibiting water removal outside the Lakes’ drainage basins and creating a sealed eco-political zone within the United States and Canada."

The exhibition material includes detailed aerial drawings, shown above, as well as large scale project models of work and studies created by the the Expedition. 

The exhibition is on view at the Knowlton School of Architecture’s Banvard Gallery September 2 - October 16th, 2020.