![Rem Koolhaas, working on an exhibit on Wallace Harrison at the IAUS, and Wallace Harrison. [from The Making of an Avant-Garde, directed by Diana Agrest]](https://archinect.gumlet.io/uploads/e5/e5s1fkha5s1adz2e.jpg?auto=compress%2Cformat "Rem Koolhaas, working on an exhibit on Wallace Harrison at the IAUS, and Wallace Harrison. [from The Making of an Avant-Garde, directed by Diana Agrest]")
I wish that it still existed.
— Frank Gehry
It would be the world's biggest nightmare if the Institute were still alive.
— Mark Wigley
It was the moment for something to happen.
— Diana Agrest
//
— Places Journal
In 1967 Peter Eisenman founded the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies, and until it closed in 1985 the Institute — a heady mix of think tank, exhibit space, journal publisher and cocktail party — was one of the centers of American architecture culture. Belmont Freeman describes the new documentary by Diana Agrest, The Making of an Avant-Garde, as a remarkable contribution to the record, and a fascinating glimpse at the early years of many of today's stars: "There is something almost (almost) touching about listening to today’s titans of corporate and haute institutional architecture remind us that once upon a time they were young, idealistic, radical thinkers."
5 Comments
uh, it does still exist.
if not exactly as it was . . .
Who funded it?
Philip Johnson, among others
From Kim Foerster:
"The Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies was founded in 1967 by Peter Eisenman, who came to New York a free agent with an agenda after having been denied tenure at Princeton. The enterprise initially enjoyed the backing of the Museum of Modern Art and Cornell University, but this would prove nominal and fleeting: I suspect that curator Arthur Drexler’s better instincts steered him clear of investing too much of MoMA’s resources and prestige in a project so clearly set up to be Eisenman’s baby, and Cornell probably felt some remorse for their involvement after star professor Colin Rowe was unceremoniously ejected from the organization."
hmmm - all i know is i've got a complete collection of the exhibit catalogs...
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