Proposals by five teams of architects and designers have been named finalists in a competition to build a temporary pavilion on the grounds of the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art.
A selection review committee of museum staffers chose the finalists from 15 entries. A jury headed by museum director and CEO Julián Zugazagoitia, and including the Bloch Building’s design architect Steven Holl, will consider the five proposals in the coming week and announce a winner in early February.
The winning pavilion would be built to coincide with the opening of the Nelson’s major exhibit, “Inventing the Modern World: Decorative Arts at the World’s Fairs, 1851-1939,” which is scheduled to open April 14.
“The proposals were amazing, creative, innovative,” said Catherine Futter, curator of the world’s fair exhibit and also a member of the jury. “They included all different kinds of sustainability, innovation, new materials, recycling, things made out of recycled materials — fabulous things.”
The project’s request for proposals asked for competitors to “design a dynamic public space, constructed with the most innovative materials and methods.” The public space, which could be programmed with events related to the exhibit, would contain a minimum of 500 square feet. The Nelson’s budget limit was $20,000, but the museum encouraged teams to seek partnerships for materials and other project costs beyond that.
The pavilion project belongs to a long and notable lineage within design history.
As the call for proposals put it, “From the Eiffel Tower to the Barcelona Pavilion of 1929 to Thomas Heatherwick’s recent Seed Pavilion in Shanghai 2010, the architecture of world’s fairs has played an important role in presenting innovation, design and advancements in modern living.”
Temporary pavilion projects have multiplied in recent years, showing off the work of world-class architects in varied public settings. Best known is probably the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion series in Kensington Park, London, which for the last dozen years has presented eye-popping temporary works by the likes of Zaha Hadid, Oscar Niemeyer, Frank Gehry, Jean Nouvel and most recently Peter Zumthor.
Contending for the Nelson-Atkins project are four local teams and one from elsewhere. The finalists:
• “Ex3,” by Hufft Projects, a Kansas City architectural firm; with furniture maker Edwin Blue; Derek Porter Studio (lighting consultant); and artist Lea Griggs.
• “Sun Pavilion,” by Generator Studio of Kansas City, a firm headed by architect Tom Proebstle, with artist Tim Gratkowski, Brightergy Solar Solutions and engineering firm Thornton Tomasetti.
• “Praxino-Scape,” by the Kansas City office of the global firm AECOM; with the video-production firm T2, builder Centric Projects, metal fabricator A. Zahner Co. and Brightergy Solar Solutions.
• “Nimbus,” by Echomaterico, a small global firm with principals in New York, Italy, England and Mexico.
• Untitled pavilion, by El Dorado Inc., of Kansas City with fabricators Design +Make Studio, Derek Porter Studio and the engineering firm of Burns & McDonnell.