Source: The Republic

Designer Marshall Prado clearly would have to have his head in the clouds to try to outdo architect Eero Saarinen’s trademark sky-high, 192-foot needled spire of North Christian Church.

“I’m not meaning to compete with that,” Prado said, speaking by phone from Knoxville, Tennessee, where he is assistant professor of structural technology at the University of Tennessee School of Architecture.

Prado’s plans a 30-foot, carbon fiber structure known as “Filament Tower” on the church grounds on Tipton Lane for the 2019 Exhibit Columbus exhibition, a design meant partly to complement the tower.

Prado is among the University Design Research Fellows set to play a significant role in the three-month Exhibit Columbus event opening Aug. 24. The fellows are designing six temporary installations meant to “converse” with permanent structures locally.

“The tower is meant to take into account the geometry that the spire is based upon, and to build in something in a slightly different way with the help of new technology,” Prado said. “Materials used for the spire were kind of innovative at the time (in 1964), and we’re doing a similar kind of tower with the innovative materials of today.”

Prado thought for a moment when asked what the late Saarinen, who died in 1961, would think of the piece he will construct with 14 University of Tennessee architecture students and one engineering student.

“Well, if he were alive today, I wonder if he would be investigating these new geometries and these new materials as well,” Prado said. “He was pretty innovative with his type of architecture. But I would like to think he would be into what we’re doing as well.”

Prado, known for works ranging from filmy pavilions to robotics, is practiced at complementary design works. Elytra Filament Pavilion, one breathtaking piece he constructed in the courtyard of the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, sharply highlights parts of the permanent structure.

Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of art, architecture, and design that seeks to celebrate Columbus’ heritage while making it relevant in new and modern ways, according to organizers. It is the signature project of Landmark Columbus, which was created in 2015 to care for the design heritage of Columbus, and is under the umbrella of The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

Anne Surak, Exhibit Columbus’ director of exhibitions, explained the importance of the universities’ role in Exhibit Columbus.

“Columbus has a long history of using architecture, art, and design to make transformative investments in education,” Surak said. “We believe it is important to further this effort by inviting public universities in our region to engage with the design legacy of Columbus.”

Two other University Research Design Fellows, Daniel Luis Martinez and Etien Santiago of Indiana University are speaking with fabricators and others as they move forward with their planned piece called Entry Portal for The Republic Building in downtown Columbus. They are in an especially unique position to interpret local architecture in a fresh way to the nation and beyond since they just moved to Columbus last year to join the IU School of Art Architecture and Design, which has its home in The Republic Building.

First, Martinez mentioned he is impressed with the national and international media attention the inaugural Exhibit Columbus exhibition earned, with one installation going to the Venice Biennale of Architecture, the world’s largest art and architecture festival, and another going to the National Building Museum in Washington, D.C.

“What Exhibit Columbus has been able to do with the media is pretty impressive,” Martinez said. “It’s important not only for the work that we want to do (with the installation), but for a new School of Architecture here in a part of world already quite known for architecture.”

The pair’s 20-foot-long panel-style installation, to be completed working alongside five IU students, is linked to the school’s new architecture home that has begun hosting public lectures, conferences, exhibits, receptions and the like in recent months. And Entry Portal not only clearly marks in an entry in a mostly-glass structure that hides entrances, but it also “marks the only entrance that really faces the city (along Second Street),” as Martinez put it.

“It will act as an invitation for the public to come in,” the architect said. “We’ll use Exhibit Columbus to extend this kind of welcoming hand for the public to see what’s going on with our (architecture) programming.”

About Exhibit Columbus:

Exhibit Columbus is an annual exploration of art, architecture, and design that seeks to celebrate Columbus’ heritage while making it relevant in new and modern ways, according to organizers. It is the signature project of Landmark Columbus, which was created in 2015 to care for the design heritage of Columbus, and is under the umbrella of The Heritage Fund — the Community Foundation of Bartholomew County.

To learn more, visit: exhibitcolumbus.org/2019-exhibition