Tuesday, May 24, 2011

The Architecture of Bruce Goff: Crystal Chapel

Above image by art(n). Ellen Sandor, Chris Kemp, Chris Day,
 Ben Carney, Miguel Delgado located in Chicago, IL
Bruce Goff created stunning works of architecture beginning in the 1920s to his death in 1982. A few of his works were completed posthumously. However, many of his projects - including some of his best - were never built. One such example is the Crystal Chapel, designed in 1950 for Norman, Oklahoma. A scale model of the project was built at the time to aid in fund raising. The model was so convincing that some people, upon seeing published photographs, thought the chapel had actually been constructed. Many architectural pilgrims are said to have been disappointed upon visiting Oklahoma and being told that the building never existed. The model has long been destroyed and money and politics prevented the real thing from materializing. Now we have a new model to appreciate. The video below by Skyline Ink Animation Studios presents a computerized animation that gets inside Goff's vision in a way no cardboard model ever could have. It was produced for an exhibition organized in 2010 at the Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art in Norman, Oklahoma.

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