The Roving Eye—Travel and Design

Opening Thursday, 15 November, The Roving Eye explores the connections between travel and design, beginning with the Grand Tour of Beaux Arts tradition and continuing through present day study and studios. It looks at themes of cultural exchange, globalization, and inspiration through travel in the fields of Architecture, Landscape Architecture, and City Planning.
 

Curated by the staff of the Environmental Design Archives and the Environmental Design Library, the exhibit includes highlights from these collections such as rare books, original sketches, and photographs.

On view through March 31, 2008, the exhibit is in the Volkmann Reading Room of the Environmental Design Library, 210 Wurster Hall. For more information call 510-642-4818.

Curators:
Miranda Hambro, Assistant Curator, Environmental Design Archives
Dori Hsiao, Operations Manager, Environmental Design Library
Curatorial Committee:
Waverly Lowell, Curator, Environmental Design Archives
Elizabeth Byrne, Librarian, Environmental Design Library
Opening Guest Lecturer:
Ananya Roy, Professor, College of Environmental Design
Special Acknowledgments:
Matthew Prutsman, Circulation Supervisor, Environmental Design Library

The Architect’s Sketch: Vision and Document

The Architect’s Sketch: Vision and Document is the inaugural exhibition in special cases designed and constructed specifically to display the holdings of the Environmental Design Archives and rare portfolios and books from the Environmental Design Library. The selected sketches explore the theme of the hand-rendered sketch.
 

Materials included in this exhibition present an opportunity to step back and re-discover the importance of drawing in the making of architecture. Sketching is a means of indicating design intentions and documenting certain values of space, function, and material not always reproducible on digital output. More importantly, in sketching, the making of each mark on paper enlivens the imagination of the designer by nurturing the unparalleled relationship between hand and eye.

The Architect’s Sketch: Vision and Document is dedicated to CED students, for and because of whom, the College exists. It is with students in mind that these drawings, objects, and rare and significant volumes have been assembled as examples of the treasures preserved and made available for research and learning in the College Archives and Library collections. What has been selected is but a tiny fraction of the material that can now be exhibited and publicly enjoyed in the new exhibition cases.

Conceived and donated by Professor Raymond Lifchez and Judith Lee Stronach, The Architect’s Sketch: Vision and Document celebrates and inaugurates these state-of-the-art exhibition cases designed by alumna Wendy Tsuji of Frost Tsuji Architects.

On view through October 31, 2007, the exhibit is in the Volkmann Reading Room of the Environmental Design Library, 210 Wurster Hall. For more information call 510-642-4818.

Curator: Professor Raymond Lifchez
Curatorial Committee:
Carrie McDade, Independent Curator
Elizabeth Byrne, Librarian, Environmental Design Library
Miranda Hambro, Assistant Curator, Environmental Design Archives
Waverly Lowell, Curator, Environmental Design Archives
Exhibition Case Design:
Frost Tsuji Architects: Frank Frost and Wendy Tsuji
Horton Lees Brogden Lighting Design: Angela McDonald
Toft DeNevers & Lee Structural Engineers: Douglas Street
Construction
UC Berkeley, Capital Projects, Project Manager: Beth Piatnitza
George Slack, Cabinetmakers: George Slack
Del Monte Electric Company: Zair McMahan
Special Acknowledgments:
Gillian Boal, UC Berkeley Library Conservation Department
Chuck Byrne, Graphic Designer
Benjamin Clavan, Architect
Dori Hsiao, Operations Manager, CED Library
Mel Lo, Student Assistant, CED Archives
Lars Luckner, North Berkeley Frameshop
Steve Murray, CED Computer Department
Roger Wicker, Turtle Island Book Shop
Keith Wilson, Architect

Library Acquires Earliest Original American Work on Architecture

Asher Benjamin (1773-1845) wrote the first truly “original” American builders’ guide and became one of the most influential architect-writers in America. The Environmental Design Library recently acquired a first edition of what architectural historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock identified as the “earliest original American work on architecture”: Asher Benjamin’s Country Builder’s Assistant: Containing a Collection of New Designs of Carpentry and Architecture Which Will Be Particularly Useful to Country Workmen in General (Greenfield, Mass., Thomas Dickman, printer, 1797, ENVI NA2520 B41 1797 Rare). This extraordinary addition to its rare book collection was purchased through the UCB Library Michael Reese Library Endowment Fund.
 
Since this was a handbook meant for practical use in the field, on the job, few copies remain, and those that have survived show signs of use. Fewer than 15 copies of this edition have been located in libraries. 
 
The son of a rural Connecticut carpenter, Benjamin designed and built several important houses, churches and public buildings in New England. Mostly self-taught, he used British builders’ guides and pattern books, the only ones available at the time, but discovered that most of them were unsuited to American building styles and materials, and their plans for huge country houses were not appropriate for rural America. Drawing from the earlier British books, he created a strictly American guide and handbook for rural carpenters. Its clarity and advice also influenced architectural writing for many years. 
 
The Country Builder’s Assistant included plates with measured drawings and instructions, identification of terms for various parts of buildings, moldings, columns, etc.

Based on the success of The Country Builder’s Assistant, Asher went on to write six additional builders’ handbooks, which, along with the first, went through multiple editions each, and had a major influence on building in America. 

Material ConneXion Added in Fall 2006

  We have access to the Material ConneXion’s online database of building materials, processes and specifications selected from a large spectrum of industries which are typically unnoticed or difficult to reach by the design community.

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Material ConneXion is a New York City company that has a library of 1400+ new and innovative materials representing eight categories: polymers, glass, ceramics, carbon-based materials, cement-based materials, metals, natural materials and natural material derivatives. All materials in the database are juried monthly by a panel of specialists and professionals from related and producer industries and technicians from different sources of processes such as weaving technology, metal foaming and co-injection molding.

Website: http://www.materialconnexion.com/intro.htm
To access the database you must be at an Environmental Design Library public computer and use this link: www.materialconneXion.com/berkeley
You can search in a variety of categories: project name, application, keyword, or country of origin.
Questions? Please contact Elizabeth Byrne: ebyrne@library.berkeley.edu

BuildingGreen Suite Access Added in April 2006 (UCB Only)

We now have online access to the BuildingGreen Suite of products. These include: EBN (Environmental Building News), articles, reviews and archives, GreenSpec building products directory and Project Case Studies from the High Performance Buildings Database.
Go to the website: http://www.buildinggreen.com
Or, search in Pathfinder for title: BuildingGreen and click on the link. You can access this new resource on campus or via the proxy service from off campus.