NATIONAL FISHERIES CENTER AND AQUARIUM
The Office of Charles Eames
The Office of Charles Eames [Design]: NATIONAL FISHERIES CENTER AND AQUARIUM. Washington, DC: United States Department of the Interior, December 1969. Original edition [A Report on the Program and the Progress of the National Fisheries Center and Aquarium]. Square 16mo. Glossy letterpress scored printed wrappers. 60 pp. Black and white photographs and illustrations throughout. Rear wrapper vertically creased. Small dampstain to upper edge of textblock. Glossy wrappers faintly rubbed. A good or better example of this rare item.
5.5 x 5.5 perfect bound booklet with 60 pages showing the progress of the plan to build a National Fisheries Center and Aquarium. Kevin Roche, John Dinkeloo and Associates was the architectural firm awarded the contract for the proposal; the Eames office was primarily responsible for the design of the aquarium exhibitions, graphics, films, and other related material.
“A design for a national aquarium, it was to be located in Washington, on the Potomac River, on a site that was subject to flooding. The site has a special relationship to the formal plan of Washington, so the diagonal of the base of the building aligns with the axis of the Mall. The exhibit program was developed in collaboration with Charles Eames.
“The building is really three different spaces: the base, the large open concrete structure two-hundred-feet square, held above the high floodwater mark and designed to contain enclosed marine exhibits, research laboratories, support services and administration; the roof, intended to house a large outdoor marine exhibit; and a sixty-foot-high greenhouse enclosure housing the living ecologies of the Everglades and the East and West Coast tidal pools.
“This half circle also has a relationship with the larger city plan.
“The building was to have been built in concrete. It was approved for construction, with all working drawings - structural, mechanical, hydraulic, etc. - and other systems completed, and funds were appropriated by Congress, when President Nixon put a freeze on Federal spending. The project eventually was cancelled, and the opportunity to build a facility such as this went to the City of Baltimore.” —Roche Dinkeloo
“When Charles and Ray took on the project of content design for a proposed National Aquarium in Washington, D.C., they started by asking themselves a basic but key question: What’s the best way to take care of an aquarium? They responded by setting one up in the Office, demonstrating their dedication to the hands-on learning process, and their belief that one should “never delegate understanding.”
“Part of the Eameses’ work on the project included this illustrated booklet, which explained the “aims and responsibilities” of the proposed new National Aquarium. They printed the limited-edition report primarily for use by the Department of the Interior. It described the building and its layout and also outlined the educational and research goals of the institution.
“Although Charles and Ray’s proposed plan for the National Aquarium never came to fruition (government funding fell through), they made both a book and a film so that, if the project was reinstated in the future, a standard of quality would already be established.” — The Eames Office
And here are some random details for you Eames Scholars from the Eames Archive held by the Library of Congress: “ Photographs created and used to document and design exhibits, booklet, and film for aquarium proposal for the U.S. Department of Interior. Images show preliminary scale models and architectural drawings of aquarium and greenhouse; many close-up and magnified views of aquatic life, including birds, fish, sea anemones, octopuses, starfish, frogs, shells, shellfish, coral, and jellyfish, some in tanks (maintained in the Eames Office for study) and in various other locations, including aquariums, study centers, and aquatic ecosystems in California, Florida, Massachusetts, New York, Puerto Rico, and possibly Texas. Includes graphic designs for exhibition information panels, and promotional booklet; drawings of aquatic life; and a few copy photographs. Some images show Charles Eames, Ray Eames, and Eames Office staff at work; a few show photographers Imogen Cunningham and Ansel Adams.
“Drawings of aquatic life by Eames Office staff member, Darryl Conybeare.
“Aquarium proposal developed for site located in East Potomac Park, Ohio Drive and Buckeye Drive, S.W., Washington, D.C.; plans for the aquarium were not developed beyond the proposal stage.
Most of these photographs were taken by Charles Eames, Ray Eames, or other Eames Office staff members, including Darrel Conybeare, Alex Funke, Keith Hall, Myra Maxwell, Ted Organ, and Dan Zimbaldi.
Other than that I got nothing.