Front Room Gallery is Proud to Present:
Brutal Legacy: A Conversation about Paul Rudolph and his Endangered Masterwork
2pm, Sunday September 28thFri–Sun 1-6 & by appointment
Please join us for coffee, bagels, and a conversation with Theoharis David, Sean Khorsandi, and William Watson. We will be discussing the imperiled Orange County Government Center, Paul Rudolph’s legacy, and the necessity for preservation. Currently on view at the Front Room is Brutal Legacy, a selection of images by photographer Sean Hemmerle. Taken over the past three years, the images represent the most comprehensive visual archive of the Government Center to date. Doors open at 1:00. The discussion will begin at 2:00, lasting approximately one hour, with a question and answer period to follow.
Architect Theo David was a student and friend of Paul Rudolph. Architect Sean Khorsandi is Co-Dirtector of the Paul Rudolph Foundation. Designer William Watson has been compiling a scholarly archive about the Government Center since 2012. Watson and Hemmerle were awarded a grant from the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts in 2013 for their project, Brutal Legacy.
Theoharis David FAIA, is an American born architect/educator of Cypriot origin practicing in New York City and Nicosia, Cyprus. He is a tenured Professor of Architecture, former Faculty President and Chairman of Graduate Architecture at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn. He is also the recipient of the Distinguished Teacher Award 2013-14 from Pratt and holds the title of Institute Professor. He has degrees from Pratt Institute and Yale University, where he studied under Serge Chermayeff and Paul Rudolph.
Sean Khorsandi is an architect in the firm Samuel Anderson Architects in New York, specializing in museum work and laboratories for art and book conservation and preservation. He holds a Bachelors of Architecture from Cooper Union and a Masters of Architecture from Yale University, where he helped process the archives of Eero Saarinen's practice. Involved with the Paul Rudolph Foundation since 2006, Khorsandi has helped expand advocacy efforts and events to support the legacy of Paul Rudolph.
William Watson is a designer and writer practicing in New York. His recent article on the Orange County Government Center, “Paul Rudolph: Song of Deeds,” was published in the Fall 2012 issue of San Rocco Magazine. He is a visiting professor at the Pratt Institute in New York and cofounder of Castro Watson, an interdisciplinary design and research firm. He received his MA from the University of Texas at Austin and his BA in economics from Princeton University. He has worked for Smith-Miller + Hawkinson Architects and Gluckman Mayner Architects in New York, Rubio & Álvarez-Sala Architects in Madrid, and a World Health Organization Collaboration Center in Tokyo.
Sean Hemmerle is a New York based photographer whose work ranges from war zones to contemporary architecture. He has created iconic photographs that reflect the pathos and poetry of the American Rust Belt, including work from Detroit, Pittsburgh, Toledo, Gary, and Albany. Hemmerle has exhibited nationally and internationally, recently in a solo show at the Feroz Galerie in Germany, Paris Photo and AIPAD. He has been showing at Front Room since 1999. His work can be found in public and private collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, the International Center for Photography, The Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, and the Margulies Collection at the Warehouse.
