Yale School of Architecture Explores Common Ground of Architecture and Urbanism Through Work of Design Firm Koetter Kim

An installation and exhibit at the Yale School of Architecture will present the work of Koetter Kim & Associates.

Titled “Cities and Buildings,” the exhibition will be on view in the Main and South Galleries of the Yale School of Architecture at 150 York St, New Haven, from March 19 to May 4.

A former dean and longtime faculty member at the School of Architecture, Fred Koetter is a founding partner with Susie Kim of the Boston-based Koetter Kim & Associates. The exhibit will explore the intersection of architecture and urbanism as demonstrated by the works of that firm. Among the projects represented in the exhibit are Saigon South, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam; MacMillan Hall at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island; and a site specific installation of the entranceway into the Yale School of Architecture Gallery, where the exhibit is taking place.

“I am delighted by the show. It’s a collegial way to celebrate the work of important architect-urbanists,” the present Dean of the School of Architecture Robert A.M. Stern commented about Koetter, who was his immediate predecessor in that position, and who added a strong emphasis on urbanism to its curriculum.

“The exhibit highlights the development of emphasis on urbanism at the School of Architecture,” Stern expanded, noting that urbanism is “a core concern of the program at Yale.”

The exhibition is the first to showcase the work of Koetter Kim & Associates at the Yale School of Architecture, where Koetter was dean from 1993 to 1998 and where he continues to teach.

“This exhibition aims to illustrate our continuing preoccupation-perhaps obsession-with the territory where architecture and urbanism intersect,” Koetter said. “To this end, we have selected several recent projects-large and small buildings along with a number of more extended urban scale works-that might give some sense of how and why this preoccupation is served.”

Koetter Kim & Associates maintains a diverse urban design and architecture practice which includes academic, institutional, corporate, commercial and civic building design, as well as site design, landscaping and urban planning. An affiliated firm, Koetter, Kim & Associates (UK) Ltd, established in London in 1988, undertakes large-scale urban design projects and architectural commissions in Europe.

Recent awards for projects represented in the exhibit include a 1998 Boston Society of Architects (BSA) Honor Award in Architecture for MacMillan Hall and a 1996 AIA Honor Award in Urban Design for Saigon South.

To complement the show, Koetter will give a gallery talk at the School of Architecture on April 9, 5:30 p.m.

Admission to the exhibit and gallery talk is free. The exhibit is open six days a week, Monday- Saturday 10:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. For more information, contact Yale School of Architecture, 203 432-2288 or visit the web site www.architecture.yale.edu.