SITE: BUILDINGS AND SPACES
C. Ray Smith [essay]
C. Ray Smith [essay]: SITE: BUILDINGS AND SPACES. Richmond, VA: Virginia Museum, 1980. Original edition. Square quarto. Parallel wire binding. Photo illustrated wrappers. 44 pp. Exhibition catalog colorfully illustrated with period correct graphic design throughout. Former owners inked anme and date to title page, otherwise a nearly fine copy.
8.5 x 9.75 exhibition catalog for a circulating exhibition developed by SITE, New York and sponsored by Best Products Co., Inc., Richmond, Virginia, that first appeared at the Virginia Museum, June 10 - August 10, 1980. Includes proposals and built projects, including several Best stores around the country, and extenstive annotations.
From the SITE website: “SITE is an architecture and environmental arts studio, internationally known for innovative buildings, public spaces, parks, interiors and product designs. Founded in New York City in 1970, the purpose is to serve clients through the creation of aesthetically imaginative, visually memorable, environmentally responsible, and economically viable structures. The group is a collaborative team of architects, artists and technicians. During the past forty years SITE has completed works in the USA, Canada, Spain, France, Italy, England, Austria, Japan, China, Korea, Turkey, Qatar and Dubai.
“The philosophy of SITE’s work is based on ‘environmental thinking.’ This approach refers to an integrative fusion of ideas from visual art, building design, urban planning and landscape architecture – exploring an alternative to the conventional treatment of these disciplines as separate territories. The studio advocates an aesthetic approach where it frequently becomes difficult to discern where one art form begins and the other ends.
“After the early 1990's, SITE became increasingly involved with environmental issues. The design team believes that a sustainable architecture for the future must provide an expanded definition of green design and a much higher level of communication with the public. This refers to an integration of social, psychological, ecological and contextual information. In the process of exploring this direction, a number of the studio’s most recent works have reflected inspirational sources found in communications systems, the natural sciences and various means of energy conservation. Over the past fifteen years SITE has dedicated a greater proportion of time to green research - resulting in James Wines’ book, GREEN ARCHITECTURE (Taschen Verlag 2000) and including built projects inspired by a variety of contextual sources for ideas. In the interest of developing a relevant architectural language for a new millennium, the SITE studio believes that future buildings and public spaces should go beyond early industrial age influences and find ways to respond more effectively to the 21st Century age of information and ecology.
“SITE’s Founder and President, James Wines, is the winner of twenty-five art and architecture awards – including the 2013 National Design Award for Lifetime Achievement, 2011 ANCE International Architect Award (Italy) and 1995 Chrysler Award for Design Innovation. His projects for SITE have been the subject of twenty-one monographic books and honored by five retrospective exhibitions in the USA, Europe and Japan. His drawings are in the collections of thirty-five museums, including the Museum of Modern Art NY, Victoria & Albert Museum London and Centre Pompidou Paris. James is the author of seven books and a Professor of Architecture at Penn State University.”