SCI-Arc Announces Year of Public Programs Honoring 50th Anniversary

In July of 1972, on the heels of the revolutionary 1960s, an era of social unrest interwoven with radical shifts in our collective cultural, scientific, and artistic imagination, a group of rebels and idealists dared to imagine a new kind of architecture institution—a school without walls—and SCI-Arc was born. The school has functioned since as a scion of visionary thinking, a hub for exploratory discourse, and a laboratory for innovating the medium of architecture.

For 50 years, SCI-Arc has been restless, bold, and optimistic. We celebrate the relentlessness of the figures and forces that created a movement never-before-seen in architecture education, that embraces the audacity of ever-shifting visions ahead. SCI-Arc is ecstatic to share plans to honor its monumental 50th anniversary this year—a year which has seen extraordinary parallels in the social and cultural foundations from which the school originally emerged; a time indelibly shaped by climate crises, a global pandemic, and racial uprising.

Starting this month, and throughout 2022, the school will be commemorating this banner milestone with special events, lectures, podcasts, public programs, exhibitions, editorial features, community initiatives, and more to honor the myriad contributions SCI-Arc has made to revolutionizing architecture and architecture education across the past five decades.

SCI-Arc’s always-extraordinary public programs will be organized this year by category, falling under SCI-Arc Lectures, SCI-Arc Exhibitions, SCI-Arc in the Community, SCI-Arc Futures, and SCI-Arc Mythologies.

In addition to a phenomenal and illuminating series of lectures and exhibitions, SCI-Arc Channel will be releasing the 50 + 50 Film Series, engaging various topics around the school, entitled (respectively) Into Past and Future, Architecture and the Arts, A College Without Walls, Archiving the Future, A Thesis School, Exhibitions and Curatorial Perspectives, and Building a Legacy. Editorial series SCI-Arc Histories will regale the stories and characters of SCI-Arc’s rich legacy in writing.

SCI-Arc’s Main Event returns with a special gala celebration honoring architect Frank Gehry, visual artist Alison Saar, Walt Disney Imagineering, and the Herald Examiner Building/Georgetown Company. Attendees will enjoy the most remarkable work of SCI-Arc students on display at a preview of Spring Show, as well as a gala dinner, awards, and after-hours party.

A 50^th Anniversary Podcast will provide a monumental, historical look back at the founding of SCI-Arc as a radical alternative to architecture education in the 1970s, hosted by History + Theory Coordinator Marrikka Trotter, and featuring Shelly Kappe, Thom Mayne, Ahde Lahti, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, Vicky Simonian, Margaret Crawford, Annie Chu (B.Arch '83), Sylvia Lavin, and Jim Stafford, among many others.

School-wide symposia will entail lively, interactive discourse, including a dual series of talks SCI-Arc: Tables + SCI-Arc: Chairs, wherein faculty, students, and renowned figures in the field will delve into the state and future of the discipline.

Taking the lead in reimagining the limits of architecture, our past propels us into the future, producing the next generation of risktakers who will push us towards what the next 50 years can be. Join us in celebrating SCI-Arc, as we recollect the past 50 years to reimagine the next 50.

Admission and access to SCI-Arc-hosted public events and exhibitions are always free and open to the public. Visit https://sciarc.edu/events/ for any updates, changes, and for more information about upcoming lectures. All events begin at 6pm unless otherwise noted and are broadcast live online on SCI-Arc’s Vimeo and Facebook page.

SCI-Arc events are always free and open to the public.

SCI-ARC LECTURES
Héctor Esrawe
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Ana María León
February 9, 6pm PT
Virtual Lecture

Mario Gooden
February 23, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Erin Besler (M.Arch '12)
March 2, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Anupama Kundoo
March 9, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Sekou Cooke
March 21, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Liam Young
March 30, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Catherine Opie
April 6, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Eric Owen Moss
October 5, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Michael Rotondi (B.Arch '75)
October 26, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Neil M. Denari
November 2, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Deborah Garcia (B.Arch '17)
November 9, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Lauren Halsey
November 30, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Steven Holl
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Bernard Tschumi
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Timothy Morton with Laurie Anderson
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Shigeru Ban (B.Arch '80)
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

David Adjaye
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Zhu Pei
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

SCI-ARC EXHIBITIONS

Lucy McRae
FUTUREKIN
February 18 - April 17
Reception: February 18, 5pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery

Spring Show: The Land of Ahhs
Curated by Jeremy Kamal
Hartley, Kordae Henry, and
William Virgil
Opens May 1 to the public
Throughout SCI-Arc
Purchase tickets for the VIP
preview on April 30
at sciarc.edu/mainevent.

William Virgil
July 8 - August 21
Reception: July 8, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery

Selected Thesis
September 23 - October 2
Reception: September 23, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery

Damjan Jovanovic
Lifeforms.io
October 21 - December 18
Reception: October 21, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery

SCI-ARC FUTURES

SCI-Arc + Laboratory
for Suburbia
March 31, 12pm-2pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

Duel + Duet
TBA Fridays, 5pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall

SCI-Arc Tables
Symposium
TBA
W.M. Keck Hall

SCI-Arc Chairs
Symposium
TBA
W.M. Keck Hall

SCI-ARC IN THE COMMUNITY

Inscriptions:
Architecture Before
Speech
Edited by K. Michael Hays
and Andrew Holder
February 25, 5pm PT
Book Launch

Black Lives Matter
Week of Action
TBA February
W.M. Keck Hall

Getty + SCI-Arc
Symposium
TBA Fall 2022
W.M. Keck Hall

UNDER PRESSURE.
Essays on Urban Housing.
By Hina Jamell
March 18, 5pm PT
Book Launch

Main Event:
Honoring Frank Gehry, Alison
Saar, the Herald Examiner
Building/Georgetown Company,
and Walt Disney Imagineering
Purchase tickets at sciarc.edu/mainevent
April 30
Dinner: 6pm
After-hours party: 8:30pm
Throughout campus

Queer Perspectives
in Architecture
Film Screening
June 24
W.M. Keck Hall

All-Alumni Reunion
Honoring the Class of 1997
+ Community Block Party
November 5
SCI-Arc/Arts District

SCI-Arc x LACMA
TBA

SCI-ARC MYTHOLOGIES

SCI-Arc:
Electrocardiogram
Designed by Morphosis
April 30
South Gallery Entrance

50th Anniversary
Podcast:
Hosted by Marrikka Trotter,
featuring Shelly Kappe,
Thom Mayne, Ahde Lahti, Bill
Simonian, Glen Small, Jim
Stafford, Vicky Simonian,
Margaret Crawford, Annie Chu,
and Sylvia Lavin, among others
Spotify + iTunes

50 + 50
SCI-Arc Channel Film Series
channel.sciarc.edu

SCI-Arc Histories
news.sciarc.edu

Kappe Diem

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SCI-Arc Public Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, please visit sciarc.edu or call 213-613-2200.