The Wake

Rapson Hall is hosting an art exhibition starting January 16 and running through February 17. Architecture + Graphic Design boasts a collection of work that blends the boundaries between two different disciplines. The exhibition is sponsored by WPA inSeattle. The show is located in the HGA Gallery in the commons outside of the Dean’s office in Room 101. Along the front and back of a long row of panels are brightly colored signs in various shades of primary colors. On theses panels is a compilation of 48 photographs of buildings and structures that demonstrate the work of WPA, Inc. and similar design firms.

The phrase “Flexible and Adaptable Permanent and Integrated Democratization of Information” is written across one side of the panels. Twenty-four of the 48 photographs are displayed on this side. Each photo is accompanied by a small caption that lists the name of the structure, who made it, when it was created, and where it’s located.

On the other side of the panels is the phrase, “Topographic Architecture Constructing a Narrative Shhh … this is graphics and architecture.” This side holds another 24 photographs that demonstrate topographic architecture and other buildings and structures that combine interesting elements of graphics and architecture.

Most of the structures presented in the exhibition were designed by WPA, Inc. a Seattle based firmfocused on environmental design and architecturethat incorporates different mediums. There are several structures that weren’t designed by WPA, Inc. from different cities in the United States, such as Reno, Nev., and from countries such as Italy, the Netherlands, and Germany. Among the outliers, there is a photograph of Temple of Medinet Habu in Luxor, Egypt that is best known for its complex design and the inscribed reliefs on the walls, it dates back to more than 2000 years (to around 1175 B.C.).

One of my favorite buildings featured in the exhibition is the Caltrans District 7 Headquarters in Los Angeles. It was designed by Morphosis of Santa Monica, Calif. A large, rectangular building made out of metal and glass, the design is sleek with jutting corners that give it a very modern aesthetic.

At the front of the exhibition, there is an introduction that reads: “A building can wear its graphics like a garment that may be changed to suit different users, different programs and different eras. The indelible architecture beneath gains emphasis by contrast, acquiring an opposing point of view. The permanent and flexible each create an ever possible new whole.” As well as lending insight into the art exhibition, it speaks the focus of WPA, Inc. and their goal of evoking new understandings of individual, community and environment through the merging of architecture and graphic design.