Home > News > UCLA Professor Thom Mayne to Be Featured in Major Exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris March 8-July 17

UCLA Professor Thom Mayne to Be Featured in Major Exhibition at Centre Pompidou in Paris March 8-July 17

Exhibition to coincide with publication L.A. Now in May

Morphosis, the architectural firm of Thom Mayne — a professor in the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design and the 2005 Pritzker Prize Architecture Laureate — is the subject of a major exhibition opening at the Centre Pompidou in Paris on March 8. “Morphosis, Continuities of the Incomplete” runs through July 17.

The exhibition — Morphosis’ largest solo show to date — will include 24 of the firm’s premier projects, most of which have never before been presented in public. Comprising a variety of media, the exhibition will be both an exposition of recent projects and itself a new work. The show will feature a custom architectural installation designed by Mayne. A traversable self-illuminating aluminum and glass platform will provide an armature for display of models, drawings, original sketches, film footage, live feeds and projections. An extension of the firm’s architectural research, the exhibition will engage the viewer by encouraging an interactive experience.

Mayne, who joined the UCLA faculty in 1993, is one of America’s most honored architects. He is the first American to win the international Pritzker Prize — considered the Nobel Prize of architecture — since 1991. The Pritzker Prize jury citation calls Mayne “an authentic addition to the tradition of innovative, exciting architectural talent that flourishes on the West Coast.” His projects are “noted for their audacious character, bold designs and originality — both in their form and in their use of materials.”

Other distinguished awards include the Rome Prize Fellowship from the American Academy of Design in Rome (1987), Member Elect from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (1992), and the American Institute of Architects (AIA)/Los Angeles Gold Medal in Architecture (2000). With Morphosis — the Los Angeles–based firm he established in 1972 — Mayne has been the recipient of 25 Progressive Architecture (P/A) Awards, 56 AIA Awards and numerous other design recognitions.

In addition to being a tenured professor at UCLA, Mayne has been active in the academic world throughout his career. He was a founder of the Southern California Institute of Architecture and he has been a visiting professor and lecturer at institutions and universities around the world.

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Mayne’s studio class earned the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design the 2005 Progressive Architecture (P/A) Award from Architecture magazine for “L.A. Now: Volume 3,” a massive research and urban design project that examines critically the imminent problems facing Los Angeles — overpopulation, housing and infrastructure. The award was unprecedented in that it was the first time it was given to a university and to only one recipient rather than to several. “L.A. Now: Volume 3 and 4” will be published in May.

Department background
Part of the School of the Arts and Architecture, the UCLA Department of Architecture and Urban Design (http://www.aud.ucla.edu/) pursues issues confronting contemporary architecture and urbanism through four different degree programs offering two professional degrees (the master of architecture I and II) as well as the M.A. and Ph.D. in architecture. Its primary focus on advanced design is accompanied by concentrations in technology and critical studies of architectural culture. The department — among the best programs of its kind in the United States — is recognized as a pioneer in the use of the computer to explore the expanding boundaries of architectural form and computer-controlled manufacturing of building components. The department has initiated a very successful summer discovery institute, Jumpstart, which introduces high school and college students to the field.

Chaired by Sylvia Lavin, a leading figure in contemporary architectural history, theory and criticism, the department has a stellar faculty of practicing architects and scholars. Department faculty includes Dana Cuff, Neil Denari, David Erdman, Diane Favro, Craig Hodgetts, Jurg Lang, Mark Lee, Robin Liggett, Greg Lynn, Mark Mack, Barton Myers, Jason Payne, George Rand, Ben Refuerzo, Dagmar Richter, Robert Somol and Richard Weinstein.

Faculty members have received major awards and commissions. Six faculty members and graduates were invited to participate in the 9th International Venice Architecture Biennale, Metamorph, in 2004. UCLA architecture students represented the United States in the First International Architecture Biennale in Rotterdam in 2003 and in the Venice Architecture Biennale in 2000. “Crib Sheets: Notes on the Contemporary Architectural Conversation” — a contemporary primer of 22 buzzwords that capture a moment in architecture — was produced by the department and was published last fall by Monacelli Press. “Thought Matters,” student work from the 2004–05 Research Studios, was published in January.

Representative alumni include Rebecca Binder, recipient of an American Institute of Architects National Honor Award and the City of Los Angeles Mayor’s Award; Frederick Fisher, recipient of the Brendan Gill Award from the Municipal Arts Society of New York for the design of the P.S. 1 Contemporary Art Center; Hsin-Ming Fung, co-founder of Hodgetts + Fung Design and Architecture, whose projects include the award-winning temporary Towell Library at UCLA and the renovation/restoration of the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood; (Hank) Koning and (Julie) Eizenberg, recognized for their groundbreaking work in housing and community-based projects and recipients of American Institute of Architects (AIA) honor awards; John Ruble, principal of Moore Ruble Yudell Architects & Planners, recipient of the 2006 AIA Architecture Firm Award, whose projects include the United States Embassy and Tegel Harbor in Berlin; Patrick Tighe, principal of Tighe Architecture, recipient of a 2004 AIA/LA Next Merit Award for affordable housing, Norwalk, Conn.; Billie Tsien, founding partner of Tod Williams Billie Tsien and Associates, whose projects include the award-winning American Museum of Folk Art, New York City; and Tom Wiscombe, principal of Emergent, recipient of a 2004 American Architecture Award for 2300 Live Oak, Los Angeles.

UCLA: Carolyn Campbell, ccampbel@arts.ucla.edu
For Immediate Use
(310) 825-6540
March 7, 2006

Morphosis: Anne Marie Burke, a.burke@morphosis.net
(310) 453-2247, (310) 570-0140