OPENS IN LOS ANGELES, LAST VENUE OF INTERNATIONAL TOUR
Exhibition Organized by The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES - "At the End of the Century: One Hundred Years of Architecture," a monumental exhibition exploring the history of architecture and urbanism in the twentieth century, will conclude its international tour at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) at The Geffen Contemporary on April 16, 2000. On view through September 24, 2000, this large-scale survey features over 1,000 objects including original and newly-commissioned scale models, photographs, drawings, historical film and video footage, furniture, and artifacts. Organized by MOCA, the exhibition began its international tour in 1998 in Tokyo and has since traveled to Mexico City, Cologne, and Chicago.
"One Hundred Years of Architecture" draws upon recent, groundbreaking scholarship in the field of architectural history to present a sequence of episcdes, movements, and thematic developments characterizing the architecture and urbanism of the past century. These include the complex relationship between innovation and tradition, the profound impact of technology on architecture and on patterns of living throughout the world, and visions for large-scale urban environments as well as the intimate realm of the domestic sphere.

Conceived by former MOCA Director Richard Koshalek, president of the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, and co-organized with MCA Chicago Chief Curator and former MOCA Curator Elizabeth A.T. Smith, "One Hundred Years of Architecture" was developed in collaboration with an international advisory team of architecture scholars: Zeynep Celik, associate professor of architecture, New lersey Institute of Technology; ]ean-Louis Cohen, director, Institut Francais d'Architecture, Paris; Beatriz Colomina, architect, historian, theorist and professor, School of Architecture, Princeton University; Margaret Crawford, professor, history and theory program, Southern California Institute of Architecture; ]orge Francisco Liernur, professor, modern architectural history, Universidad de Buenos Aires, and researcher, Instituto de Arte Americano e Investigaciones Esteticas; Anthony Vidler, chair, department of art history, UCLA; and Hajime Yatsuka, Tokyo-based architect and theorist.

MOCA Director Jeremy Strick commented, "'One Hundred Years of Architecture' provides an extraordinary opportunity to survey and assess the architectural accomplishments of the past century. One of the most ambitious and wide-ranging exhibitions ever mounted at MOCA, it also provides a context in which to imagine and appreciate future architectural innovations. This is a major event for Los Angeles."

"At Ford Motor Company, we believe the arts enrich our lives and our communities and help to promote mutual understanding," said William Clay Ford, Jr., chairman, Ford Motor Company. "We hope that 'One Hundred Years of Architecture' will be especially inspiring as communities and companies like ours seek out new design concepts for sustainable life and work in the 21st century."

Exhibition Contents

"One Hundred Years of Architecture" is presented thematically in twenty-one sections, providing an historical context for understanding contemporary developments and examining how the field of architecture has changed in response to social, cultural, intellectual, political, economic, and demographic factors during the last century. MOCA's presentation includes multi-media components such as film clips, large- and small-scale projections of historical film and video footage. The exhibition also features "The Unbuilt," computer-graphics films of four unrealized architectural projects by 20th century architects. Developed by the faculty, students, and visiting scholars in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Departrnent of Architecture, this installation of virtual renderings evokes the scale that these architects intended for their radical work. Shown through a large-scale projection, this digital media will enable visitors to experience these buildings by entering the three-dimensional virtual spaces.

The thematic sections are: "Grand Plans at the Turn of the Century: Mapping a World Order, "Colonialism in the Early 2Oth Century"; "Manifestoes for a New World"; "Visions of a New Order: The Russian Avant-Garde"; "Modern Learning and Living at the Bauhaus"; "The Rational Kitchen"; "Minimum vs. Maximum Houses: Mass Housing and Villas in the 1920s and 1930s"; "The Garden City and the New Town: Experiments in Europe, America and the Middle East"; "The Politics of Monumentality in 1930s Architecture"; "World of Tomorrow: The Future of Transportation"; "Devastation and Reconstruction: The Rebuilding of Cities"; "Mass-Produced Housing and Industry after World War II"; "Creation of New Capitols in the Second Half of the Century"; "Modernism at Mid-Century: The International and the Regional"; "The Architecture of Ecology"; "Structural Expressionism"; "The Edge of Utopia: Megastructures and Infrastructures"; "The Rise of Theory in the 1960s and 1970s"; "Culture of Spectacle: Cities of Fantasy, Tourism and Entertainment"; "The House as an Aesthetic Laboratory"; and "The Skyscraper: A 20th-Century Building Type."

Publication

The extensive, 352-page publication accompanying "One Hundred Years of Architecture" brings new schoiarship to the fleid of architectural history, with essays offering a diverse range of viewpoints and areas of expertise by Zeynep Celik, Jean-Louis Cohen, Beatriz Colomina, Jorge Francisco Liernur, Elizabeth Smith, Anthony Vidler, and Hajime Yatsuka. Co-published with Harry N. Abrams, Inc. and edited by MOCA Editor Russell Ferguson, the book features more than 300 illustrations, including newly-commissioned photography documenting the contemporary context of the century's most significant buildings.

Tour

"One Hundred Years of Architecture" was previously on view at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (July 10 through September 6, 1998), Antiguo Colegio de San Ildefonso, Mexico City (November 24, 1998 through April 25, 1999), Museum Ludwig/Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle, Cologne (June 17 through October 3, 1999), and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (December 18, 1999 through March 12, 2000).