8045 Newell Street, Silver Spring, MD - January, 2005, Photographer: James Stokoe
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Architecture of Construction: Photographs by James Stokoe
January 11, 2008 – March 27, 2008
American Institute of Architects Headquarters Gallery
1735 New York Ave., NW
Washington, DC
The AIA Headquarters Gallery is located directly behind the Octagon Museum. The gallery hours are 8:30 am to 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday. Admission is free.
The Octagon, the museum of the American Architectural Foundation, in conjunction with the American Institute of Architects, is pleased to present an exhibition of photographs by local architect and photographer, James Stokoe. Stokoe’s work explores the transient architecture of construction sites. Approximately sixty of Stokoe’s color photographs offer a window into a vibrant world of temporary architectural forms that are bi-products of the transformative processes of demolition and construction. Opening January 11, 2008, the exhibition will remain on view through March 27, 2008
Stokoe’s photographs are part of a more widely focused study of how our environment is shaped by chance events or actions. Visiting construction sites over the past four years, Stokoe has documented the unintended architectural riches of building and demolition projects mostly in the Washington, DC area. Images in the exhibition include views of the old and new convention center, the Nationals’ new stadium, the Chinese Embassy, the Newseum, and the National Museum of the American Indian.
Analogous to matter changing state, these photographs document a release of visual energy as the city is transformed. This energy has long been a catalyst and a subject for artistic and architectural explorations by many artists including work by photographers Alfred Stieglitz and Paul Strand, artist Piet Mondrian, and architect Frank Gehry.
The photographs in the exhibition are arranged in sections that explore phases of the construction process: demolition, scaffolding, lifts, formwork, sidewalk bridges, and building frames. The last section highlights the process of covering a building’s frame. Modern construction uses an array of sheathing, insulation, membranes and flashing products. These materials and processes give construction a transient vibrancy that is colorful and almost playful, but ultimately fated to be buried beneath a final, uniform building façade.
James Stokoe is the principal in his own Maryland-based architecture and design firm, Archetal. His work is located around the metropolitan area with a specialty in museum design and renovation. Stokoe’s numerous professional accomplishments include a Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome. He has also contributed to several publications, and authored the book Decorative and Ornamental Brickwork, Dover Publications, 1982. Earlier in his architectural career, he worked under George Hartman of Hartman Cox Architects and the late Charles Moore at the firm that is now known as Centerbrook Architects.
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