Architects As Artists

St. Louis is home to a unique yearly event that draws attention to architects as artists, thanks to the staff of Cannon Design.

The annual "Exhibit A" art auction to benefit a local charity features art work by internationally known architects from around the world.

Laura Augustine, associate vice president and national marketing coordinator for Cannon Design, said over 300 people attended Exhibit A: Art by Architects in November and the event raised $20,000 for COCA's Urban Arts Outreach Program, which provides free and reduced-cost arts education, performances, and hands-on experiences to 4,000 students a year.

Yes, once upon a time architecture was the work of artists - think of Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Bernini - but the vocations of artists and architect have been parting company for almost two centuries, and the distance between them seems to lengthen with each passing year.

Now, when an architects is called an artist, it typically is for the sculptural qualities of his or her buildings, as with Frank Gehry, Daniel Libeskind, and Santiago Calatrava.

Exhibit A is different. Exhibit A focuses on drawings and watercolor paintings, not buildings. While that focus emphasizes that even contemporary architecture has roots in art, it also underscores the widening gap between architecture and fine art.

According to Steve Doherty, editor-in-chief of American Artist magazine, the organized discipline of fine art no longer embraces drawing. "The fine-art departments in colleges and university have discontinued their drawing and watercolor painting courses," he said.

Schools of architecture, however, "still teach students to use graphite, colored pencil, gouache, and watercolor to create believable visualizations," he said.

Washington University still teaches drawing in both art and architectural schools, but students abandon hand drawing in favor of computer drawing as quickly as they can, said Robert Hansman, associate professor, Washington University College of Architecture/Graduate School of Architecture and Urban Design.

"There was more drawing on display at this show than you would see at the architecture school," he said.

Hansman said the loss of drawing skills could ultimately cause harm to the practice of architectural design. "They are losing the connection between process and product," he said.

Thus, one benefit of shows like Exhibit A: Art by Architects, is that they could bring architects' attention back to the role that drawing has in the development of design ideas.

"I draw and sketch a lot to develop ideas... [and] I do a lot of thinking through watercolor painting," said David Polzin, principal designer, Cannon Design. "For me, the most interesting ideas for projects emerge out of sketches. It is the errant wandering of the pen, the imprecision of a drawing that opens up new ideas," he said.

Polzin's colleagues credit him with "masterminding" the design for building modern office space within the skeleton of the historic Municipal Power House in downtown St. Louis. That inspired renovation has won 20 awards, including the 2010 International Architecture Award from the Chicago Athenaeum and the European Centre for Architecture and most recently a National USA Award for Architecture in Bloomberg Television's International Property Awards competition.

Polzin has been involved in organizing Exhibit A since its inception. "Kent had the

original idea. We all thought it was a great one and got on board." Kent is Kent Turner, president of Cannon Design and formerly director of the firm's midwest region.

"Ando's Ghost" by ST. Louis
Architect Andrew Raimist

"My primary role is organizing the list of people we will solicit and making sure it is a list of renowned people," Polzin said.

Unlike the very few other art by architects events in the U.S. - Philadelphia's Center for Architecture has sponsored such an exhibition and auction for since 2007, and the American Institute of Architects Baton Rouge sponsored one this year - Exhibit A is not primarily a showcase for local architects.

"We wanted to focus on national and international talent," said Polzin. "Part of it is to elevate the cachet of the work and generate excitement by asking for contributions from Pritzker Prize winners and people who are internationally recognized as premier architects in the world," he said.

The drawings and watercolors auctioned off in the latest show on November 18, 2010, included works by Frank Barkow of Barkow Leibinger in Berlin, Germany; Portuguese architect Eduardo Souto De Moura; Wolf Prix of Coop Himmelb(l)au in Vienna, Austria; and Ben Van Berkel of Unstudio in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Prominent American architects who donated work to the exhibition included Pritzker Prize winner Thom Mayne and famed architects Marlon Blackwell, Steve Ehrlich, Michael Graves, Steven Holl, and Helmut Jahn.

Polzin contributed his own artwork to the exhibition for the first time in 2010. "We've been sparing about making it a bunch of Cannon people, but as we were sitting around in a committee talking about it, someone said to me, 'why don't you contribute something,' and I did," he said. Polzin joined four other St. Louisans in the show.

In addition to Polzin, the St. Louisans in Exhibit A consisted of Kent Turner and:

• Hansman, who is founder of "City Faces", a community art program for impoverished children living in public housing, and director of the Hewlett Program in Architecture, an undergraduate program introducing students to cultural and social dimensions of architecture and the built environment.

• Adrian Luchini, professor in the College of Architecture at Washington University and founder of LuchiniAD, who is well-known in St. Louis for his design for the William L. Clay Sr. Early Childhood Development/Parenting Education Center at Harris-Stowe State University. He is also a painter, whose works have been shown in the United States and Latin America. And

• George Nikolajevich, design principal, Cannon Design, recipient of over 40 design awards, who was elected a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects for design excellence in 1999.

Polzin said he likes to draw and paint watercolors for his own pleasure when he has time. The piece he contributed to the exhibition and auction was a watercolor of a prickly pear, which was part of a series of drawings and paintings of desert plants he completed on a family vacation in Arizona.

Watercolor by David Polzin

In 2010, the 26 drawings and paintings donated to Exhibit A by architects were joined by nine of the award-winning photos from the American Institute of Architects National Photography Competition, including "Ando's Ghost," a photograph taken by St. Louis architect Andrew Raimist at the Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts.

"We began Art by Architects three years ago to celebrate our new home and connect with the community and the wonderful services it has to offer. We are committed to making it a long-term effort," Turner said.

As one invitation from Cannon Design stated: "It's all very cool. It's all by amazing talent. It's all elegantly framed and ready to hang. And it is all for a great cause."

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