The New York Public L i b r a r y

presents

Architectural Explorations in Books

Lynn Davis and Alan Weisman

 
Wednesday December 9, 2009
6:00 p.m.

Margaret Liebman Berger Forum
Room 227 (2 ^nd Floor) 

Stephen A. Schwarzman Building
476 Fifth Avenue
5 th   Avenue and 42nd Street
New York , NY 10018
212-340-0871
www.nypl.org

(directions)
 

Room 227 opens to public at 5:30 p.m.
All events are FREE and subject to last minute change or cancellation.

 
This conversation between internationally celebrated photographer Lynn Davis and best-selling author Alan Weisman focuses on the architectural legacy of the space industry. The topics to be discussed… What should be done to document and preserve these extraordinary structures from abandonment and ruin? Could preservation and restoration make some of these off site locations into major architectural attractions and destinations?

For Space Project Lynn Davis traveled to historic sites in Kazakhstan , Russia , Germany , French Guiana, and the United States . She received special permission to visit Baikonur in Kazakhstan , a leading launch site since the 1950s. Davis emphasizes the bold modernism of these sites while evoking the presence of outdated technologies. The technical achievements of the prints, which use the most advanced processes in color printing, balance the marvels and monuments captured in the photographs.

A graduate of the San Francisco Art Institute and former apprentice to Berenice Abbott, Lynn Davis has been a photographer for more than thirty years. Her prints are included in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art , Guggenheim Museum , and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art and J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Dallas Museum of Art; and Philadelphia Museum of Art. She is represented by Edwynn Houk Gallery in New York .

Alan Weisman is the best-selling author of The World Without Us (2007), and a finalist for the National book Critics Circle Award. His writing has also appeared in Harper’s , the New York Times , Atlantic Monthly , the Los Angeles Times , and elsewhere.

Architectural Explorations in Books is a new series of engaging programs delving into the critical role that architecture books play in the understanding of contemporary urban developments and structures. The events feature book presentations and discussions by world acclaimed architects, critics, curators, photographers and writers.