March 10, 2020 — The exhibition Steven Holl: Making Architecture will open at Bellevue Arts Museum outside of Seattle, Washington on March 27. Bellevue, which was designed by Steven Holl Architects and opened in 2001, is the seventh stop on the exhibition’s international tour, after shows in New York, Seoul, Nanjing, and Tokyo. To celebrate the show, Steven Holl will lecture at Bellevue on May 27.
Steven Holl: Making Architecture reveals Holl’s intricate and distinctive process of making architecture through seventeen recent projects, among them the Winter Visual Arts Center at Franklin and Marshall College, Pennsylvania; The Kennedy Center Expansion, Washington D.C.; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; and Maggie’s Cancer Care Centre in London.
Works in the exhibition are organized in three sections — Thinking, Building, and Reflecting. “Thinking” captures how watercolor drawings, small exploratory models and material fragments lead to idea generation and form the foundation of each project. “Building” reveals the process of making architecture through models, sculpture, and in photographs taken during the actual construction process. “Reflecting” presents Holl’s ideas through a selection of digital films, his writings, and writings about him.
For this exhibition, a new section has been added to celebrate Steven Holl Architects’ work in the Pacific Northwest region. On view will be watercolors and models of the Chapel of St. Ignatius in Seattle, Bellevue Arts Museum, and the design for the upcoming Quincy Square in Bremerton.
Steven Holl: Making Architecture is organized by the Steven Myron Holl Foundation and curated by Nina Stritzler-Levine. The exhibition originated at Samuel Dorsky Museum in New Paltz, NY. The local presentation of this exhibition is curated by Benedict Heywood.
Steven Holl: Making Architecture in the press:
“Steven Holl: Making Architecture examines the works of one of the most renowned and in demand architects of his times who has managed to preserve the integrity and quality of his work by resisting corporatization.” — Blouin Artinfo
“While “Art for Art’s sake” is a familiar term, “Architecture for Architecture’s sake” is not – it is rare that an architect has the opportunity to take an abstract thought through to a completed structure for its own sake. “Steven Holl: Making Architecture,” while overwhelmingly about grand commissions, gives us an insight into these two approaches, the experimental project and the commissioned project.” — Claire Lambe, Roll Magazine
“The title of this exhibition, Making Architecture, aptly reflects Holl’s approach to the business of designing private houses and major urban projects. He is as much an artist as an architect.” — artist Michael Brod