Architecture and Design in American Museums circa 2000

Abstract

Pauline Saliga, Editor On June 10, 1987 Corry Hiebert, the contract furniture manufacturer based in Irving, Texas, sponsored a design symposium at the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in Chicago. The symposium, which was a benefit for the Department of Architecture at The Art Institute of Chicago, took place during NEOCON, the vast contract furnishings exhibition held annually at the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The focus of the symposium was on museums and how they might best collect, exhibit, and educate the public about design. The intent was for the panelists to discuss the standard problems with collecting and exhibiting design that museums have traditionally faced and to pose innovative ideas and solutions to those problems. Dr. Victor Margolin, Assistant Professor of Design History at The University of Illinois at Chicago and co-founder and editor of Design Issues, chaired the panel. The distinguished panelists were Robert Cadwallader, President of Cadsana, a firm in Greenwich, Connecticut, that markets high-quality furniture and design products; Beverly Russell, Editor-in-Chief of Interiors magazine; Michael Vanderbyl, Dean of the School of Design at the California College of Arts and Crafts and head of Vanderbyl Design, a graphic design firm in San Francisco; Massimo Vignelli, President of the New York design firm, Vignelli Associates and President of Alliance Graphique Internationale; and Pilar Viladas, Senior Editor of Progressive Architecture. In his introduction to the panel discussion, Dr. Margolin read a short introduction to set the stage for the discussion to follow. Excerpts from his introduction follow: As interest in architecture and design continues to grow in the United States and abroad, there is clearly a role for the museum to play in providing a forum for the presentation and discussion of these subjects. This challenge is being taken up, not only by art museums, but also by museums and exhibition centers especially dedicated to architecture and design. These include, for example, the National Building Museum and the Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C., the Cooper-Hewitt Museum in New York, the Centre de Creation Industrielle at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the International Design Center in Berlin, and the new Museums of Architecture and Decorative Arts in Frankfurt. In addition, quality design is to be seen increasingly in the growing numbers of [design-oriented] stores such as City here in Chicago, and numerous other places including showrooms of various companies. The Art Institute of Chicago is now exploring ways of expanding its concern with architecture to include design as well. It is our hope that the panel discussion this evening will clarify issues and provide some ideas that will be helpful in this process. In considering the role of the art museum in presenting design exhibitions, there are at least two large questions that should be