Cecil Alexander (left) sitting with Atlanta Mayor William B. Hartsfield (right) in 1958. Georgia State University Library.

Wednesday April 30, 2014 – Saturday May 24, 2014

Letters to the Mayor

April 30 - May 24, 2014

Opening: April 29, 7pm

As a civic figure, the architect has the privilege and responsibility to articulate and translate the collective aspirations of society, and specifically of those not able to sit at the decision-making tables. 

Throughout history, architects have engaged with this responsibility and the structures of economic, political and cultural power in different ways and with varying degrees of success. With the rise of globalization and the homogenization of the contemporary city, the role of the architect in the political arena has often been relegated to answering questions that others have asked. While designing the next economically driven cultural-iconic-touristic object, an increasing amount of both architects and with them, politicians, have forgotten the ethics that should be associated with architectural practice and the potential of design in the construction of public life. 

Letters to the Mayor presents fifty letters written by international architects to the political leaders of more than 20 cities around the world. Each letter provides a space of reflection for the architect to present ideas and methodologies and express some of the concerns and desires that might contribute to action within political spheres. 

Letters to the Mayor also presents the eighteen finalists of the Competition of Competitions, a project launched in 2013 that invited interdisciplinary teams of architects, artists, economists, philosophers, writers, and citizens at large to formulate their visions of the future of architecture and cities in the form of a competition brief. With the intention to provoke long-standing conventions of the architecture competition, the first edition of the Competition of Competitions drew more than 100 entries, which were reviewed by a jury of professionals and visionaries including Amale Andraos (Architect, Work AC), Paola Antonelli (Architecture Curator, MoMA), and Michael Sorkin (Architect and architecture critic).  

Letters to the Mayor is thus a compilation of briefs, facts, desires and dreams for the construction of our cities foundations and horizons. All competition briefs and letters will be sent to each respective City Mayor after being presented at the Storefront gallery.  

The winners of the Competition of Competitions will be announced at the public opening of the exhibition on April 29 at 7pm.

Participating Architects

Ellie Abrons, Emilie Abruzzo, Nora Akawi, Azra Aksamija, Zahra Ali Baba, Arielle Assouline-Lichten, Ana Dana Beros, Browyn Breitner, Alessandra Cianchetta, Sonja Duempelemann, Keller Easterling, Frida Escobedo, Yvonne Farrell, Daisy Froud, Rosalie Genevro, Cristina Goberna, Selva Gürdoğan, Greta Hansen, Joyce Hwang, Catherine Ingraham, Catherine Johnson, Julia King, María Langarita, Alexandra Lange, Ana María León Crespo, Ariane Lourie Harrison, Jing Liu, Yeoryia Manolopoulou, Mpho Matsipa, Mitch McEwen, Shelley McNamara, Meredith Miller, Elizabeth O'Donnell, Marina Otero, Mariana Pestana, Rocío Pina, Anna Puigjaner, Danielle Rago, Suchi Reddy, Dagmar Richter, Florencia Rodríguez, Rebecca Rudolph, Saskia Sassenm, Deborah Schneiderman and Scott Lizama, Annabelle Selldorf, Maria Smith, Michael Sorkin, Esther Sperber, Martha Thorne, Nathalie de Vries, Marion Weiss, Sarah Whiting, Mabel Wilson, Kim Yao, Marisa Yiu, Alejandro Zaera Polo, Mimi Zeiger, Zoka Zola, and more.

Competition of Competitions Finalists

ReDesign the Discipline of Architecture 

The Architecture Lobby

Open Source Open Space: Hacking the Built Environment 

Boot/Trunk [Nicole Lindahl, Louise Mackie and Samantha Senn]

dePOLITIsign: An open call for the redesign of a USCIS office 

Min Chen & Kristin Enright

Amazonia 2020 

Civic Projects [Kati Rubinyi, Deborah Richmond , Michael Powell, Ewan E. Branda]

Deploy Yourself, Not Your Designs 

The Coalition for the Improvement of Refugee Camps [Mary Monroe, Lee Dykxhoorn]

Second Nature 

El Corbusier

The City is The Room. The Room is The City. 

FormFictionFormat [Elena Palacios Carral, Manijeh Verghese]

Labyrinth

grey_matter(s) [Annie Charleston, William McCommon, Megan McDonough, Shota Vashakmadze]

NO TITLES, A Campaign for Illegal Architecture 

GroundLAB [Sean Billy Kizy, Sara Lum, Rakia Seaborn, Nicholas Sharma]

Taking Buildings Down

INC_A

The Discreet Architect

Local Provision Studio [Valeria Federighi, Janet Yoon]

Nature, Error, Babies 

Metonymy's Architecture [Tom Nurmi, Jeffrey Dunn, Meagan Lehr, Erika Wilder]

Off-the-Radar: The Architecture of Non-Existing Space 

Mitnick-Roddier [Mireille Roddier, Keith Mitnick]

Rezoning the 5th Façade: Redefining New York's City Roof Scape 

normaldesign [Matthias Neumann in collaboration with Shane T. Umman]

The Next Suburb

The Thirteenth Hour

Future Factory

Gretchen Wilkins [with Ian Nazareth and students Matthew Ellis, Ken Yip Lai, Sarah Moussa, Francisca Rodriguez, Nicholas Stathopoulos]

BLISS: Better Living through Intuitive Soft Surveillance 

Yeadon Space Agency

Into the Void: An Architectural Competition on Emptiness

Zooburbia [Felipe Orensanz, Rodrigo Duran]

> via Storefront for Art and Architecture