A walk through Perelman Quadrangle can be a typical experience for many Penn students. Yet, as the Philadelphia Art Museum's new exhibit Out of the Ordinary: The Architecture and Design of Robert Venturi, Denise Scott Brown and Associates points out, the quad is a small puzzle piece that fits into an unusual picture, the grand designs of two Manayunk architects.
For the past forty years, the world-reknowned husband and wife duo of Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown have redefined postmodernist thinking in architecture by testing the formal rules of design and assigning them new meaning. This exhibit adds another revolutionary accomplishment to their list in redefining typical art shows.
If the giant replica of six-foot tall, two dimensional University of Michigan's Wolverine Football helmet doesn't tip viewers off to the peculiarity of the exhibit, the final piece at the back of the gallery known as the "Architect's Dream" will. This final display showcases an entire wall of Venturi Scott Brown's favorite sayings, splashed on with the randomness and beauty of a graffiti artist's grand masterpiece. "Ugly and ordinary is better than heroic and original" and "Viva vulgar vitality!" are just two of the many quotes adorning the piece.
Unlike some art exhibits, all types of people can understand its artistic message of finding beauty in the realty of daily life through which we all muddle. On one hand, the culturally astute can appreciate the evolution of the VSBA art form, portrayed in the exhibit. On the other, those who find Van Gogh abstract and Medieval paintings unappealing will delight in the stories behind well-known buildings such as Walt Disney's Wells Office Building, the home of Disney Imagineers in Burbank, California.
Both groups can realize VSBA's lesson of questioning the status quo, a lesson which subtly nudges viewers through the use of familiar pop cultural icons, pieces with local connections and the touch of humor typical of the firm's designs.
With a focus on creating buildings which complement the realistic living environment of everyday life, many of VSBA's projects can be typed as ordinary. Yet, each project twists the norm and gives society a chance to stare and wonder. Some projects, like the Grand's Restaurant in Philadelphia, subtly do so with a huge coffee cup which seems to be a large-scale replica but on closer examination is only an imitation.
Others are a little more blunt. Venturi Scott Brown proposed to build a giant apple in the middle of Times Square, capturing the obvious atmosphere of the New York City. Also, their proposal for the U.S pavilion at Expo '92 in Spain was to have a building lighted on one side as a giant American flag. Both pieces are prominently displayed in the exhibit.
