SCI-Arc events are always free and open to the public.
In July of 1972, on the heels of the revolutionary 1960s, an era of social unrest interwoven with radical shifts in our collective cultural, scientific, and artistic imagination, a group of rebels and idealists dared to imagine a new kind of architecture institution—a school without walls—and SCI-Arc was born. The school has functioned since as a scion of visionary thinking, a hub for exploratory discourse, and a laboratory for innovating the medium of architecture.
For 50 years, SCI-Arc has been restless, bold, and optimistic. We celebrate the relentlessness of the figures and forces that created a movement never-before-seen in architecture education, that embraces the audacity of ever-shifting visions ahead.SCI-Arc is ecstatic to share plans to honor its monumental 50th anniversary this year—a year which has seen extraordinary parallels in the social and cultural foundations from which the school originally emerged; a time indelibly shaped by climate crises, a global pandemic, and racial uprising.
Starting this month, and throughout 2022, the school will be commemorating this banner milestone with special events, lectures, podcasts, public programs, exhibitions, editorial features, community initiatives, and more to honor the myriad contributions SCI-Arc has made to revolutionizing architecture and architecture education across the past five decades.
SCI-Arc’s always-extraordinary public programs will be organized this year by category, falling under SCI-Arc Lectures, SCI-Arc Exhibitions, SCI-Arc in the Community, SCI-Arc Futures, and SCI-Arc Mythologies.
In addition to a phenomenal and illuminating series of lectures and exhibitions, SCI-Arc Channel will be releasing the 50 + 50 Film Series, engaging various topics around the school, entitled (respectively) Into Past and Future, Architecture and the Arts, A College Without Walls, Archiving the Future, A Thesis School, Exhibitions and Curatorial Perspectives, and Building a Legacy. Editorial series SCI-Arc Histories will regale the stories and characters of SCI-Arc’s rich legacy in writing.
SCI-Arc’s Main Event returns with a special gala celebration honoring architect Frank Gehry, visual artist Alison Saar, Walt Disney Imagineering, and the Herald Examiner Building/Georgetown Company. Attendees will enjoy the most remarkable work of SCI-Arc students on display at a preview of Spring Show, as well as a gala dinner, awards, and after-hours party.
A 50th Anniversary Podcast will provide a monumental, historical look back at the founding of SCI-Arc as a radical alternative to architecture education in the 1970s, hosted by History + Theory Coordinator Marrikka Trotter, and featuring Shelly Kappe, Thom Mayne, Ahde Lahti, Bill Simonian, Glen Small, Vicky Simonian, Margaret Crawford, Annie Chu, Sylvia Lavin, and Jim Stafford, among many others.
School-wide symposia will entail lively, interactive discourse, including a dual series of talks SCI-Arc: Tables + SCI-Arc: Chairs, wherein faculty, students, and renowned figures in the field will delve into the state and future of the discipline.
Taking the lead in reimagining the limits of architecture, our past propels us into the future, producing the next generation of risktakers who will push us towards what the next 50 years can be. Join us in celebrating SCI-Arc, as we recollect the past 50 years to reimagine the next 50.
More information can be found on the SCI-Arc website here.
Admission and access to SCI-Arc-hosted public events and exhibitions are always free and open to the public. Visit https://sciarc.edu/events/ for any updates, changes, and for more information about upcoming lectures. All events begin at 6pm unless otherwise noted and are broadcast live online on SCI-Arc’s Vimeo and Facebook page.
SCI-ARC LECTURES
Michael Rotondi
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Héctor Esrawe
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Ana María León
February 9, 6pm PT
Virtual Lecture
Mario Gooden
February 23, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Erin Besler (M.Arch '12)
March 2, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Anupama Kundoo
March 9, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Sekou Cooke
March 21, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Liam Young
March 30, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Catherine Opie
April 6, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Eric Owen Moss
October 5, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Neil M. Denari
November 2, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Deborah Garcia (B.Arch '17)
November 9, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Lauren Halsey
November 30, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Steven Holl
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Bernard Tschumi
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Timothy Morton with Laurie Anderson
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Shigeru Ban (B.Arch '80)
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
David Adjaye
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Zhu Pei
TBA, 6pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
SCI-ARC EXHIBITIONS
Lucy McRae
FUTUREKIN
February 18 - April 17
Reception: February 18, 5pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery
Spring Show: The Land of Ahhs
Curated by Jeremy Kamal
Hartley, Kordae Henry, and
William Virgil
Opens May 1 to the public
Throughout SCI-Arc
Purchase tickets for the VIP
preview on April 30
William Virgil
July 8 - August 21
Reception: July 8, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery
Selected Thesis
September 23 - October 2
Reception: September 23, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery
Damjan Jovanovic
Lifeforms.io
October 21 - December 18
Reception: October 21, 6pm PT
SCI-Arc Gallery
SCI-ARC FUTURES
SCI-Arc + Laboratory
for Suburbia
March 31, 12pm-2pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
Duel + Duet
TBA Fridays, 5pm PT
W.M. Keck Hall
SCI-Arc Tables
Symposium
TBA
W.M. Keck Hall
SCI-Arc Chairs
Symposium
TBA
W.M. Keck Hall
SCI-ARC IN THE COMMUNITY
Inscriptions:
Architecture Before
Speech
Edited by K. Michael Hays
and Andrew Holder
February 25, 5pm PT
Book Launch
Black Lives Matter
Week of Action
TBA February
W.M. Keck Hall
Getty + SCI-Arc
Symposium
TBA Fall 2022
W.M. Keck Hall
UNDER PRESSURE.
Essays on Urban Housing.
By Hina Jamell
March 18, 5pm PT
Book Launch
Main Event:
Honoring Frank Gehry, Alison
Saar, the Herald Examiner
Building/Georgetown Company,
and Walt Disney Imagineering
Purchase tickets at sciarc.edu/mainevent.
April 30
Dinner: 6pm
After-hours party: 8:30pm
Throughout campus
Queer Perspectives
in Architecture
Film Screening
June 24
W.M. Keck Hall
All-Alumni Reunion
Honoring the Class of 1997
+ Community Block Party
November 5
SCI-Arc/Arts District
SCI-Arc x LACMA
TBA
SCI-ARC MYTHOLOGIES
SCI-Arc:
Electrocardiogram
Designed by Morphosis
April 30
South Gallery Entrance
50th Anniversary
Podcast:
Hosted by Marrikka Trotter,
featuring Shelly Kappe,
Thom Mayne, Ahde Lahti, Bill
Simonian, Glen Small, Jim
Stafford, Vicky Simonian,
Margaret Crawford, Annie Chu,
and Sylvia Lavin, among others
Spotify + iTunes
50 + 50
SCI-Arc Channel Film Series
channel.sciarc.edu
SCI-Arc Histories
news.sciarc.edu
Kappe Diem
Public Programs
Events are broadcast live online on SCI-Arc’s Vimeo and Facebook page.
SCI-Arc Public Programs are subject to change. For the most current information, please visit sciarc.edu or call 213-613-2200.
About SCI-Arc
Southern California Institute of Architecture (SCI-Arc) is dedicated to educating architects who will imagine and shape the future. It is an independent, accredited degree-granting institution offering undergraduate and graduate programs in architecture. Located in a quarter-mile-long former freight depot in the Arts District in downtown Los Angeles, the school is distinguished by its vibrant studio culture and emphasis on process. SCI-Arc’s approximately 500 students and 80 faculty members, most of whom are practicing architects, work together to reexamine assumptions, create, explore, and test the limits of architecture. SCI-Arc faculty and leadership have garnered more than 500 national and international design awards and recognitions, including Progressive Architecture awards, American Institute of Architects (AIA) awards, and the prestigious Jencks and Pritzker architecture prizes. In DesignIntelligence’s 2020 US survey, SCI-Arc ranked #2 in Design Technologies, #3 Most Hired From, and was top 10 among the nation’s Most Admired Undergraduate Programs in Architecture. SCI-Arc is located at 960 E. 3rd Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013. www.sciarc.edu
