Mana Contemporary Chicago and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill LLP are proud to present “SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture]”, a pop-up exhibition in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, with special programming in partnership with Ace Hotel Chicago. Sponsored by Sterling Bay and Terry Dowd, Inc.

For more than eight decades, SOM has explored the poetics of structure through continual examination and experimentation. The exhibition SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture] reveals the concepts and forms that stem from SOM’s integrated practice of engineering, art, and architecture. Through hand-drawn sketches, interactive sculpture, immersive video, and a lineup of more than 30 structural models at 1:500 scale, the exhibition gives insight into SOM’s practice, past and present, as it seeks to address physical and environmental challenges with concise and honestly expressed solutions.

The exhibition surveys SOM’s long tradition of collaboration with visual artists and showcases models, drawings, and ephemera from projects created by Pablo Picasso, James Turrell, Jaume Plensa, James Carpenter, Janet Echelman, and Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle. Presented with Mana Contemporary Chicago in partnership with the Chicago Architecture Biennial, SOM: Engineering x [Art + Architecture] explores the idea that engineers, architects, and artists alike practice a poetry of inquiry, experimentation, and ingenuity.

Opening Day Programs:
September 10, 2017

Building Tall with Everyday Materials: SOM Structural Research Gang + SOM Black Box Group
3—4PM

Architects and engineers from SOM lead an interactive structure-building workshop with everyday materials. This workshop is open to the public and is intended for a general audience of all ages.

Structural Origami Workshop: SOM Structural Research Gang + SOM Black Box Group
4—5 PM

Architects and engineers from SOM lead an interactive workshop that explores structural ideas found in origami. This workshop is open to the public and is intended for a general audience of all ages.

Evening Artist Talk with Jaume Plensa and SOM at Ace Hotel Chicago
6—8PM

Ace Hotel Chicago
Mahoney Room
311 N Morgan St
Chicago, IL 60607

Immediately following the public opening, Program Partner Ace Hotel Chicago hosts Jaume Plensa and SOM discuss the process of collaboration behind World Voices at the Burj Khalifa, an installation composed of 196 cymbals representing the 196 countries of the world. Symbolic of the Burj Khalifa being a collaboration of people from across the globe, the installation befit the building’s global iconic status.

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