Yale School of Architecture Showcases Some of the Monumental Designs of Cesar Pelli

The Yale School of Architecture opens a new academic year with a salute to one of its own: an exhibition of the work of Cesar Pelli.

“Cesar Pelli: Building Designs 1965-2000” is a retrospective of the work of one of the world’s great contemporary architects, who also served as dean of the Yale School of Architecture from 1977 to 1984 and today works in downtown New Haven.

By virtue of the space it occupies – the second-floor gallery of the Art and Architecture building – the exhibition also showcases a crowning achievement of another former dean, the building’s designer, Paul Rudolph.

And, as the first phase of a major restoration of the Art and Architecture building, the newly renovated gallery provides a glimpse of the work in progress of the project’s director, and present dean, Robert A.M. Stern.

This will be Pelli’s first exhibition at Yale since his tenure as dean of the School of Architecture. Dozens of his projects that are either built or under construction as well as two unbuilt projects will represent Pelli’s designs over the past 35 years. Illustrated with a rich selection of hangings, models, drawings and photographs, the installation will offer an insight into the design process of one of most distinguished architects of urban structures.

Projects represented in this exhibition range from a lifeguard station and private residences to urban arts centers and towering skyscrapers.

Included in this sampling are the World Financial Center in Battery Park City in New York, the Norwest Center in Minneapolis, the Miglin-Beitler Tower in Chicago and the Petronas Towers of Kuala Lumpur – which have the distinction of being the world’s tallest buildings.

“If Pelli’s work were to be distinguished in history for only one thing… it would be for this, that it revived the skyscraper form … and endowed it afresh with its original glory, its power to pierce the sky,” writes Vincent Scully, in an essay for this exhibition.

Yet, however Pelli might be associated with some of the greatest and tallest of urban structures, he is equally known for designing his buildings to fit within their architectural, environmental and cultural context.

“Making a building one with its place has been a constant goal of architecture throughout the ages,” Pelli says in acknowledging a guiding principle of his own work.

The first of the school’s fall four exhibition series, “Cesar Pelli: Building Designs 1965-2000” will run from September 5 to November 3. In conjunction with this exhibit, Pelli will present an informal Gallery Talk as part of an opening reception on September 6, 2000, 5:30 to 7:00 p.m.

The School of Architecture Gallery is located on the Second Floor of the Art & Architecture Building at 180 York Street, New Haven, CT.