Program Booklet - Sir John Soane`s Museum Foundation

SIR JOHN SOANE’S
MUSEUM FOUNDATION
welcomes you to
THOROUGHLY MODERN SOANE
with the presentation of
SOANE FOUNDATION HONORS
to
ROBERT A. M. STERN
THE MONACELLI PRESS
and
GIANFRANCO MONACELLI
23 April 2008
New York City
Whilst Soane’s idiosyncratic and very personal style of architecture
and design had its share of critics, as well as fans, during his lifetime,
his stripped down classicism found new admirers in the 20th century
and continues to attract appreciation from new generations.
Architects admire his handling of space and light, and his buildings and
ideas are regarded as stimulating and relevant to architectural and
interior design ideas of the 21st century.
The Directors of Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation
would like to recognize our corporate sponsors and lead supporters of this evening:
Architectural Digest
Mrs. Deborah Brice
Richard H. Driehaus
John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn
George S. Loening
Related
Random House
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley DeForest Scott
Kathleen E. Springhorn
Robert A. M. Stern Architects
Taconic Builders
P
ROGRAM
Welcome
Kathleen E. Springhorn, Gala Co-Chair, Director, Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation
Entertainment
A Thoroughly Soanian Mini-Cabaret
Remarks
Tim Knox, Director, Sir John Soane’s Museum
Toast
Paige Rense, Editor and Chief, Architectural Digest
Presentation of SOANE FOUNDATION HONORS to:
THE MONACELLI PRESS and GIANFRANCO MONACELLI
and
ROBERT A. M. STERN
Presented by Elizabeth F. H. Scott and Kathleen E. Springhorn
Gala Co-Chairs, and Directors, Sir John Soane's Museum Foundation
Dancing
Bob Hardwick and The Bob Hardwick Sound
Honorary Chairs
Sir Alan Collins, KCVO, CMG, British Consul-General, New York
and Lady Collins
International Chair
Mrs. Deborah Brice
Chairs
Joel Barkley
Elissa Cullman
Richard H. Driehaus
Charles Gwathmey
Elizabeth F. H. Scott
Kathleen E. Springhorn
Vice Chairs
Lucy and Nat Day
Alexander Gorlin
Susan Zises Green
Paige Rense
Stephen M. Ross
Stanley DeForest Scott
Nicholas Stern
Gold Sponsor
Architectural Digest
Silver Sponsors
Related
Taconic Builders
Associate Chairs
Laura Blanco and Robert Shainheit
Cullman & Kravis, Inc.
Anne Edgar
Gwathmey Siegel & Associates Architects
Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects
John Ike
Thomas A. and Kristin Kligerman
Richard Meier
Wendy Lyon Moonan
Barbara G. Pine
Janine Rensch
Robert A. M. Stern Architects
Britt Tidelius
Committee
Diana Balmori
Jack and Doris Bistricer
Margaret H. Carey
Birch Coffey
Bridget and Mark Colman
Joan K. Davidson
Judith DiMaio
Lewis I. Haber and Carmen Dubroc
Robert F. Herrmann
Raymond Jungles, Raymond Jungles Inc.
Tim Knox
David Macaulay
Chas A. Miller III
Mike Nicholson
Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan
Marita O'Hare
Sandra Ourusoff
Jeremy and Adriana Payne
Sandy Pershing and Marc Keller
Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
Frances Schultz
Pam and Scott Schafler
Cynthia W. Spurdle
Stephanie Stokes
Holly Wallace
Mr. and Mrs. William B. Warren
Martin Weinstein and Teresa Liszka
Elizabeth and Samuel G. White
Sara Vass
Our evening celebrates Sir John Soane’s dedication to architectural education. This
evening we present honors for the second year. Our recipients are a publisher who has helped to
expand awareness of and appreciation for fine architecture throughout the world, and a
remarkable architect who is also an ardent public advocate for excellence in architecture and an
influential educator.
SOANE FOUNDATION HONORS are presented to . . .
Gianfranco Monacelli started his own publishing house, The Monacelli Press, with the goal
of originating books of the highest graphic and literary quality. Since 1994, the Press has
published more than 300 books and has received international recognition and numerous awards.
Gianfranco Monacelli, born in Italy, first visited New York in 1965 to study music at Mannes
College and Columbia University. At the same time he started to work at the legendary Rizzoli
bookstore on Fifth Avenue. He subsequently founded Rizzoli International Bookstores, which
expanded throughout the United States, and Rizzoli International Publications, which became
one of country’s most renowned publishers of illustrated books.
Robert A. M. Stern, practicing architect, teacher and writer, is Dean of the Yale School of
Architecture. He is a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and recipient of the Board
of Directors' Honor from the Institute of Classical Architecture and Classical America and the
Athena Award from the Congress for the New Urbanism. In 1986 Mr. Stern hosted the
documentary television series "Pride of Place: Building the American Dream." He is co-author of
a series of books documenting the development of New York City's architecture and urbanism
from the end of the Civil War through the millennium, including most recently New York 2000.
He is founder and senior partner of Robert A. M. Stern Architects.
Thoroughly Modern Soane Gala
The Directors of Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation would like to greatfully recognize the following supporters of this evening:
Gold Sponsor
Platinum Underwriters
Mrs. Deborah Brice
Platinum Benefactors
Richard H. Driehaus
John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn
Silver Sponsors
Golden Benefactors
Random House, Inc.
Robert A. M. Stern Architects
George S. Loening
Mr. and Mrs. Stanley DeForest Scott
Kathleen E. Springhorn
Silver Benefactors
Laura Blanco and Robert F. Shainheit
Cullman & Kravis, Inc.
Charles Gwathmey, Gwathmey Siegel & Associates
Ike Kligerman Barkley Architects
Wendy Lyon Moonan and Duncan N. Darrow
Janine Rensch and Dr. Nedim Peter Vogt
Platinum Patrons
Nat and Lucy Day
Alex Gorlin
Susan Zises Green
Mr. and Mrs. Jaquelin T. Robertson
Arthur W. Zeckendorf and
William L. Zeckendorf
Silver Patrons
Stephen D. Bernstein
and Francesca Bettridge
Anne Edgar
Cynthia and John W. Everets
Richard Meier
Barbara G. Pine
Britt Tidelius
John Ike
Raymond Jungles|
Raymond Jungles, Inc.
Thomas A. and Kristin Kligerman
Marita O'Hare
Sandra Ourusoff
Jeremy and Adriana Payne
Platt Byard Dovell White Architects
Leslie Earl Robertson
and Sawteen See
Stephanie Stokes
Holly Wallace
Martin Weinstein
and Teresa Liszka
Elizabeth and Samuel G. White
Mr. and Mrs. William B. Warren
Bronze Patrons
Robert E. Abrams
Mrs. Russell B. Aitken
Diana Balmori, Balmori Associates
Pamela Banker
Joel Barkley
Michael Bierut and Tracey Cameron
Margaret Hatfield Carey
Birch Coffey
Bridget and Mark Colman
Joan K. Davidson
Judith DiMaio
Ferguson & Shamamian Architects
Mrs. Henry C. Frick, II
Lewis I. Haber and Carmen Dubroc
Robert F. Herrmann
Supporters
Donald Albrecht
Michael Alfieri
Tom Armstrong
Cynthia Conigliaro
Billy Cunningham
Arthur Dunnam
Hon. Richard K. Eaton
and Susan Henshaw Jones
Ronald L. Flemming
Suzy Grote
May Brawley Hill
Chippy and Keith B. Irvine
Tim Knox
David Macaulay
Christy MacLear
Chas A. Miller III
Andrea Monfried
Mike Nicholson
Rev. Leo J. O'Donovan
Sherida E. Paulsen
Thomas Robinson,
The I-Grace Co.
Durston Saylor
Cynthia W. Spurdle
Contributors
Judy and John M. Angelo
Mr. and Mrs. Bruce Bozzi
Jack and Doris Bistricer
Tony and Elizabeth Comper
Faye Cone
Remmel T. Dickinson
Jane and Michael Eisner
M. Jane Gaillard
Paul Gunther
Elise Jaffe and Jeffrey Brown
Kevin and Chris Madden
Samuel C. Miller
Toshiko Mori
Sandy Pershing and Marc Keller
Daniel Romualdez
Mr. and Mrs. Charles M. Royce
Pam and Scott Schafler
Frances M. Schultz
Joseph Peter Spang
Listings as of 15 April 2008
Additionally, our appreciation goes to . . .
Design and Décor: Alex Gorlin, Alexander Gorlin Architects A James Males, James Male Design A
The Monacelli Press for the loan of books A The Office of Robert A. M. Stern Architects for the loan of models.
(Please note: the models and books are the property of The Monacelli Press and Robert A. M. Stern Architects)
Creative Services: Robert Van Nutt for creating and designing the invitation, program cover and awards.
Gift Bags: Architectural Digest for complimentary magazines
And to the teams of: The Bob Hardwick Sound A Carroll Musical Instruments A Franklin Roosevelt Underwood A
The Office of Maggie Fogel A The Office of ForwardMiller A James Male Design
Patrick McMullan Photography A CitiView Audio Visual Services A Color by Pergament
Calligraphy by Judith Ness A SBS Group A Sara Vass Public Relations and Consultation
The Gifted Portfolio A Barbara Dana Tollis A Mark Hunsch and the team at the Rainbow by Cipriani.
Special thanks…
A Thoroughly Soanian Mini-Cabaret
Chippy Irvine
Keith Irvine
Tom Kligerman
Franklin Roosevelt Underwood, pianist
We applaud the energy, spirit, and sheer nerve put into this production.
Thoroughly Modern Soane
SOANE SEMINARS 2008 – 2009
The Board of Directors is pleased to announce the underwriting support from the Richard H.
Driehaus Charitable Lead Trust for our Soane Seminars 2008 - 2009 series of talks by architects
who have been influenced in some manner by the work of Sir John Soane, and that this Soane
Seminars series is presented in conjunction with Architectural Record Magazine. With thanks and
appreciation to Richard H. Driehaus and Architectural Record, we present the speakers for
Thoroughly Modern Soane.
March 2008
Tod Williams and Billie Tsien
Fall 2008 through February 2009
David Chipperfield
Daniel Libeskind
Thom Mayne
Elizabeth Diller and Richard Scofidio
As speaker dates are confirmed, they will be posted on the Soane Foundation web site, www.soanefoundation.com.
To receive first notices by email, send your email address to [email protected]. We hope you will be
able to join us!
What is Thoroughly Modern about Soane?
It was not until the 1920s that Soane’s work found a persuasive champion in the unlikely figure
of Roger Fry. As the organiser of two pioneering exhibitions in 1910 and 1912 Fry had brought
the new French art from Manet to Picasso to a somewhat dull London art scene, and he had
since become the English spokesman for Modernism. The controversial destruction of Soane’s
masterpiece, The Bank of England, in 1925 ironically galvanized public attention on Soane’s
work.
Others followed: Mario Praz, the Italian writer and connoisseur, and the architect and polemicist
Professor Sir Albert Richardson were key figures in the first half of the twentieth century in
promoting the Regency Revival, and Soane’s work and Museum in particular. English architects
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (the designer behind the famous K2 telephone box) and Raymond Erith
owe much to Soane – whilst in the United States Robert Venturi’s ‘Complexity and Contradiction in
Architecture’ (1966) looked for ambiguities and complexities in the architecture of the past that
would reinforce a contemporary architecture of richness and meaning. Venturi drew attention to
many of these qualities in Soane’s work: the complex combinations of shapes in his ceilings, the
partition of spaces in rooms in the form of suspended arches, the intricacies of planning and of
spaces within spaces, and the layering of canopies and domes.
During the Postmodern era of the later 1970s and 1980s there have been many reflections of
Soanean themes amongst a generation of architects and designers who find inspiration in Soane’s
ideas. Philip Johnson, Michael Graves, Juan Navarro Baldeweg, Rafael Moneo and Denise Scott
Brown amongst many others have generously acknowledged their debt to Soane and have
acknowledged how his Classicism manages to be both conventional and deviant.
The fact that Soane’s ideas continue to engage the attention of modern architects and designers
working in the early 21st century without inhibiting their own powers of invention is probably his
greatest legacy. And Sir John Soane’s Museum’s role as a place of inspiration for contemporary
architects and designers from all over the world is perhaps more important today than ever
before.
Letter from the Director of Sir John Soane's Museum
Sir John Soane’s Museum is now 171 years old – the second oldest Museum in London (only the
British Museum is older). It is therefore difficult for us in the 21st century to realise what a startlingly
‘modern’ and exciting place it would have been to visit in the early 19th century. Soane’s architecture,
although rooted in the classical tradition, was nevertheless radical and ground-breaking and nowhere
is this more visible than in the extraordinary procession of rooms and chambers – each startlingly
different – that make up his house and museum at 13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
His collections too were unusual in that he collected and displayed contemporary art; his friendships
with great and sometimes controversial artists of the day – Turner, Flaxman, Gandy and Banks meant that Soane’s Museum became one of the few secular places that the public could see modern
paintings and sculpture, displayed in galleries and spaces designed for just that purpose. His
influence in this respect continues to resonate throughout the world of contemporary museum and
gallery design as new generations of architects and designers strive to improve on Soane’s
astonishingly original ideas.
To help today’s public gain a better appreciation of Soane and his achievements, the Museum is
about to launch ‘Opening up the Soane’ a new, $12 million dollar project and a major part of the
Soane Masterplan, which lays out our ambition to restore, refurbish and improve Sir John Soane’s
Museum.
The charming watercolour views that you can see here, record parts of the Museum as they were in
the years immediately preceding Soane’s death in 1837. If they look unfamiliar to you that’s because
after Soane’s death, for various reasons, these richly decorated and typically idiosyncratic Soanean
chambers were dismantled and pressed into service as offices and staff accommodation. Thanks to
the recent restoration of No.14 Lincoln’s Inn Fields we can move the offices next door. One of the
principal aims of ‘Opening up the Soane’ is to restore these exquisite and intriguing rooms to their
former brilliance for all our visitors to enjoy.
‘Opening up the Soane’ includes other improvements such as upgraded visitor facilities, the creation
of a new Exhibition Gallery and Conservation Studios, and improvements that will allow full
disabled access to the Museum. These changes will enable us to show more of the Museum and its
collections and to look after them better - retaining and enhancing the special atmosphere of this
unique museum.
All this will be completed by 2012 – the 200th anniversary of the building of No.13 Lincoln’s Inn
Fields. It is an ambitious and complex project, arguably the most challenging the Museum has yet to
undertake and we begin fundraising in the next month or so. But we have already been
overwhelmed with offers of help and support – especially from our friends at Sir John Soane's
Museum Foundation and others in the US. I am pleased to say that the Museum has already received
pledges of more than $2M, which is very encouraging.
Thank you for showing your support of the work of the Foundation and the Museum by attending
this Gala. We’re thrilled with how successful this event has become, which does so much to help
keep the name, achievements and legacy of Sir John Soane at the forefront of people’s thoughts.
Tim Knox
Director
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM FOUNDATION here in the UNITED STATES: The mission
of the Foundation is to provide unique educational programs for professionals (AIA credits are
often offered) and the lay-person who relishes in-depth exploration of issues of architecture and
the fine and decorative arts. The Foundation also provides a traveling fellowship each year for an
American graduate student or scholar to go to the Museum to further their work and research.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Suzanna S. Allen
Laura Blanco
Margaret H. Carey
Gifford Combs
Faye Cone
Page Ayres Cowley, AIA, RIBA
Anne Edgar
John W. Everets
Richard A. Griffiths
Chippy Irvine, President
Thomas A. Kligerman
Susan P. Magee
Katherine McCormick
Wendy Lyon Moonan
Marita O’Hare
Barbara G. Pine
John F. Saladino
Richard Sammons
J. Thomas Savage
Elizabeth H. Scott
Victoria Lea Smith
Kathleen E. Springhorn
Cynthia S. Spurdle
Suzanne Stephens
Stephanie Stokes
DIRECTOR EMERITUS
Samuel C. Miller
ADVISORY BOARD
Paul Byard
Michael Graves
Peter Pennoyer
Robert Venturi
Stuart H. Wrede
FELLOWSHIP COMMITTEE
Jeanne Butler
Tim Knox
Peter Pennoyer, Chair
Thomas Gordon Smith
Robert A. M. Stern
EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR
Chas A. Miller III
Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation
1040 First Avenue, No. 311
New York, NY 10022
Tel. 212-223-2012
www.SoaneFoundation.com
COVER:
The Breakfast Room of No.13 Lincoln’s Inn Fields.
Rendered by Robert Van Nutt
This Breakfast Room image is used on the crystal awards for the Soane Foundation Honors presented this evening.
One of two Breakfast Parlours on display in the Museum, the one in No.13 has been described as “the most
perfect room in England.” Its floating canopy ceiling has been an inspiration for similar rooms throughout the
world, including one by Philip Johnson in his Manhattan apartment at Museum Tower. The second Breakfast
Parlour is on view in No.12 and was restored with funds provided by Sir John Soane’s Museum Foundation, which
took on the project in the early 1990s. Its successful refurbishment set a standard for future restoration projects
within the Museum. We continue with our commitment to providing funds for current projects including the
recreation of Soane’s Model Room, the Robert Adam Study Center in No.14 and other projects.
SIR JOHN SOANE’S MUSEUM FOUNDATION
1040 First Avenue, No. 311
New York NY 10021
www.SoaneFoundation.com