Creative Building Reuse

(Image Parade.com)

Yesterday, Parade magazine published an article on a creative building transformation that has taken place outside St. Louis, where a struggling enclosed shopping mall has been turned into a thriving arts center. If you haven't read it yet, check out Can Art Save a Mall?

It's a good example of how an existing building, and once popular destination, can be reinvented instead of torn down. One of my other favorite creative building reuses is the Torpedo Factory Art Center in Alexandria, VA. Once an actual torpedo factory during the early part of last century, the building now houses three floors of working artist studios, galleries, an art school, and a museum.

As the economy struggles and more buildings become and remain vacant, I wonder what other creative building reuses will emerge.

• Has anyone read Retrofitting Suburbia, as it might hold some answers?

Akron Recap

I finally made the short trek down to Akron to check out the new art museum. Although I was eagerly anticipating seeing the building, I left with a sense of indifference about the architecture and visitor accessibility. From the exterior, the structure reminded me of a combination of the Wexner Center in Columbus, where I was a tour guide and graduate intern and the Peter B. Lewis building in Cleveland. But unlike those buildings, I don't think it makes a grand statement, possibly because of it's tonal appearance. There's an over abundance of metal and glass.

That leads me to the interior, which comes across as stark and difficult to navigate. The design is meant to foster community spirit but for me it came off as cold and impersonal. It further frustrated me that there was a lack of signage for locating the actual gallery space. Once inside the galleries, there were signs next to nearly every painting discouraging touching the works and explaining why. As someone, who worked in museums, specifically managing visitor services, I felt they were condescending, considering museums with much better collections don't even have to reinforce this at every turn.

My final grievance with visitor services was their overzealous staff. I had never been followed so aggressively in an art museum, even at the National Gallery of Art, where I've wandered through gallery after gallery without being followed like a shoplifter.


(Image Courtesy of KAR)

On a much lighter note, my visit to Stan Hywet was delightful. Some of my favorite highlights were the scarecrows (see above image). Unlike traditional scarecrows, these were colorful and whimsical often incorporating architectural and decorative arts elements. It was an interesting contrast between the old and the new and very refreshing.

• What can you create that is a new take on something old?

Wild New Museums

(Akron Art Museum)

As museum budgets and staffs get smaller, their buildings surprisingly expand. Usually designed by cutting edge architects, they are an to attempt to lure visitors through unique design. Unfortunately, it seems like they are all looking the same; glass and steel structures twisted in contorted shapes. Where is the creativity?

Later this month, I'll be visiting the new Akron Art Museum. Stay tuned for my review.

• Check out more new museums here.
  

Cleveland Goes Modern

(Image Courtesy of Cleveland Artists Foundation)

Interested in learning more about Modernism in Cleveland?

What: A conversation on the history of the "aesthetic" of Modernism

Where: Cleveland Artists Foundation, at the Beck Center for the Arts

When: Thu, Sep 20: 6-8 pm

Free and open to the public

• See you there!

Summer Season Opens at MOCA

MOCA Cleveland opens their summer season with 3 widely diverse exhibitions:

OPEN: New Designs for Public Space and Expanding the Circle / Uptown Launch Pad explores innovative architecture and planning for the 21st century, including the ideas for MOCA's expansion and the newly branded Uptown District in University Circle. I'd already seen OPEN at the National Building Museum, when it was there a couple of years ago. Although I am big fan of reinventing contemporary public space, the exhibition reads like a textbook slapped up on a wall. If you have the patience and time, it's really a worthwhile exhibition though.

Olga Ziemska: Mirror Matter promises a feast for the eyes. Her installation combines little pieces to create large intallations that echo one another while trying to make what is unseen seen in an inter-connected world. Truly a treat!

Anthony Caro: Wending Back is another installation by the Cleveland Museum of Art, as a way to keep their presence in the community, while construction on their building continues.

• The official opening is Friday, June 1 from 7-10 pm. Preceding the opening is a panel discussion on public space at 5:30 pm.

Cans Get Creative For a Cause

In another life, I used to work and teach simultaneously in 2 architecture museums in Washington, DC. Although, I don't have a degree in architecture, like many people assumed at the time, I do however have a passion for the built environment.

Another organization with a similar passion, Canstruction enlists competing teams of architects and engineers to create sculptures out of canned food, which are later donated to local food banks for distribution to those in need.

• This weekend Canstruction comes to the Cleveland-area. Check their website to see when they will be in your city.