Baumwoll Archives

screenshot of “Full Circle” Exhibition page on the Frost Art Museum website

This has been an amazing journey with Andrew with the Frost Art Museum. As some of you may have read in my prior posts, this building has a very personal meaning to Andrew and I. This was Andrew’s last building as an architect before his spine disease took over and left him disabled.  Andrew was project architect and assistant designer to Yann Weymouth on the museum with HOK Architects.  At the time while working on the museum, Andrew would never have imagined that he would have a solo exhibition and have his work in the Frost’s Permanent Collection in the building he helped design.

Three of Andrew’s works were acquired by the Frost for the permanent collection after his solo exhibition at the Frost in 2008. The exhibition titled “Full Circle” happened at the inagural opening of the museum. It was one of six opening exhibitions along with “Modern Masters from the Smithsonian American Art Museum”, which was the first stop of the blockbuster exhibition that would travel to other museums in the U.S. The Frost has updated their website and has a page devoted to the exhibition. Also on this page you can view the catalog that accompanied the show.

click here to see the “Full Circle” exhibition page on the Frost art museum website

This is a student project that my spouse Andrew Reach did at Pratt Institute. I marveled at his focus and creativity when he was creating it. He looks back and reflects on it, realizing that it was not only a poetic statement translated in architectural form, but also an early example of art therapy to escape his pain.

Andrew says:

I find a kind of freedom in my art that helps me escape pain. As I look back on a project I did at Pratt, I realize that I was doing the same thing with my architecture. The curvature in my spine in my twenties caused intermittent episodes of pain. The conception of this house, about the desire to escape gravity, TO FLY, TO BE FREE, but not being able to, always tethered to earth, was a metaphor for the human condition. But perhaps subliminally, it was a metaphor for my deformed spine, wishing I could escape it.

I was honored when I was notified in 1987, a couple of years after graduating, that this project was selected to be in the book published by Rizzoli FORM; BEING; ABSENCE, Pratt Journal of Architecture

click on images to enlarge

Site Plan & Floor Plans

Axonometric, Section & Elevation

Model

From the Book “Form; Being; Absence – Pratt Journal of Architecture
Published by Rizzoli 1987

Front Cover of “Form; Being; Absence – Pratt Journal of Architecture
Published by Rizzoli 1987

Wishing you Happy Holidays! May 2016 be a happy and healthy year ahead.

Andrew Reach & Bruce Baumwoll

I’m so proud of my Andrew’s new public art located at one of the busiest intersections in downtown Cleveland at the North East corner of Euclid Avenue and East 9th Street. His work and the work of 5 other Cleveland area artists were chosen as part of the competition Citizens Artbox, held by the Downtown Cleveland Alliance in partnership with Citizens Bank. The DCA’s website says:

In connection with Step Up Downtown, DCA’s five-year vision and tactical plan to create a more connected, walkable Downtown, the goal of the Citizens ArtBox project is to enliven Downtown Cleveland by bringing local art to the street. Winning designs will decorate the utility boxes that line Euclid Avenue from Public Square to PlayhouseSquare. Up to 11 boxes will be wrapped with printed art designs from Cleveland-area artists.

Above: One side of Andrew Reach’s Citizens ArtBox titled Model Citizens of Downtown at the north east corner of East 9th Street and Euclid Avenue. The domed building in the back ground is the historic  Cleveland Trust Rotunda Building. The building has been restored and is now a very cool Heinen’s market. click here to see 360 degree views of the incredible domed space, a fine example of early 20th century neoclassical architecture.

Andrew Reach’s narrative for his Citizens ArtBox design:

For the Citizens ArtBox, I reflect the citizens of downtown Cleveland as abstract personas called “Model Citizens” beaming with civic pride for the downtown we love. The Citizens of downtown live in a beautiful, bustling robust urban environment, with a grid of streets and avenues in which open spaces connect to and lined with the buildings that house our arts, public and civic institutions, businesses, professional offices, merchants, hospitality, restaurants and more. Rows of dotted lines running horizontally behind the Model Citizens represent the streets. A grid of tick marks are an abstract reference to the downtown grid. The Model Citizens are embedded and aligned within this grid representing the connection to the urban environment we inhabit. Each model citizen is unique yet at the same time, much the same, representing that while we are all unique individuals; we all respect our differences and care for the common good. Model Citizens each have a wi-fi antenna representing that we live in a new age of modernity, connected to each other through technology in a way unprecedented in history and that with this connectivity comes responsibility; to use this new ability to connect to help one another reach our highest potential.

from left: Andrew Reach and Bruce Baumwoll

Other Winning  Citizens ArtBox Designs

Chris Wolnick’s design titled I Am A Part of Something

Artist Karen Beckwith and her design titled Bike Sharing Systems

Artist Mary Brigid and her design titled Self Portrait, Best Friends

Artist Ashley Pastore with her design titled Pants