Angela Person, an assistant professor of Architecture, gave an invited lecture at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) on February 22, 2023.
The lecture, entitled BRUTAL DC, provided an overview of Dr. Person’s upcoming exhibition of the same title at the award-winning Southern Utah Museum of Art (SUMA). Dr. Person is co-curating the exhibition with photographer Ty Cole, who also lectured at UNLV, and architect and writer Deane Madsen, founder of the popular @brutalistdc Instagram account.
Opening in October 2023, BRUTAL DC, is an exhibition comprising archival documents, recent re-imaginings, and fine art photography that considers the historical underpinnings, current state, and future possibilities of key Brutalist buildings in Washington, D.C. Brutalism is an architectural style that emerged in the 1950s, characterized by minimalist designs that emphasize the bare building materials and structure.
The exhibition will be presented in three thematic segments: “The Emergence of Brutalism” in D.C., featuring archival documents and construction photographs that tell the story of how the phenomenon emerged in the U.S. capital city during the Cold War; “The Current State of Brutalism,” featuring current, large-scale photographs of select D.C. buildings, as well as commentary from D.C. locals and visitors; and “Reimagining Brutalism,” featuring re-imaginings of buildings such as the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and the J. Edgar Hoover FBI Building by leading architecture firms and students from the School of Architecture at UNLV.
While at UNLV, Dr. Person and Cole also oriented fourth-year UNLV Architecture students to their “re-imagining” project, which will look at the Lauinger Library on the Georgetown University campus. The UNLV studio is led by Professors Eric Strain and Josh Vermillion, who will be taking the students to tour D.C. in April, including the Lauinger Library, as a part of their project.
Select UNLV student re-imagining concepts will be included in the exhibition, alongside re-imaginings by noted firms Diller Scofidio + Renfroe (Hirshhorn Museum), Gensler (FBI Hoover Building), Brooks + Scarpa (HUD Weaver Building), and BLDUS (HHS Humphrey Building).
The exhibition will be on view at SUMA, on the Southern Utah University campus in Cedar City, Utah, from October 7, 2023, until March 2, 2024.
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