Wright Lecture Series

This series of free lectures begins at 7pm and takes place in the Monona Terrace Lecture Hall.  Featured are a variety of local, regional and international guest speakers discussing topics that range from popular Wright-built designs, to current trends and issues in architecture.  Sponsored by Southwest Chapter AIA Wisconsin, Monona Terrace, and Frank Lloyd Wright© Wisconsin.

Here's what some past participants had to say:

"Very worthwhile series. I love how there are so many different perspectives on Frank Lloyd Wright's work and its influences. I think it's great that Monona Terrace hosts this series and keeps its FLW heritage alive and vibrant.” --Anonymous, fall 2009

“I wish these went year-round.  Always impressed by the audience gathered and Qs asked.” --Anonymous, winter 2010

“I am a young professional in Madison. I find the lectures very educational, entertaining and enjoyable! Thank you for making them available for free to the public. I look forward to future lectures.” --Anonymous, fall 2009

Thursday, September 16
Lecture: "Design and Construction: Hand and Mind, the work of Rockhill and Associates and Studio 804"
Presented by Dan Rockhill, JL Constant Distinguished Professor of Architecture at the University of Kansas and Executive Director of Studio 804

The work of the firm, Rockhill and Associates, is tightly bound to the natural milieu and culture of the Kansas region. In the spirit of regionalism, the areas archetypal forms, Spartan aesthetics, frugal methods, and relationship to nature permeate the results. They are the recipients of numerous awards, most recently; Residential Architect magazine’s Firm of the Year, one of Natural Home magazine’s Top Ten Green Architecture Firms, and Architecture magazine’s “Home of the Year.” The work has appeared in nearly two hundred international books and journals and has recently been recognized for the 2006 Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award.

Thursday, October 7
Lecture: "Buildings We Love to Hate"
Presented by Robert Bruegmann, University Distinguished Professor of Art History, Architecture, and Urban Planning, University of Illinois-Chicago, Author of Sprawl, A Compact History, 2005, and The Architecture of Harry Weese, 2010 

The University of Wisconsin wants to tear down the Humanities Building. Built in the 1960s it is routinely described in the press as a big, hulking structure in the Brutalist style, dysfunctional and out of keeping with the rest of the campus. However, the building was designed by Harry Weese of Chicago, one of the country’s most successful and sensitive architects in

the postwar years. And exactly the same characterizations are heard about many other buildings of this same era by some of America’s best architects-- Boston City Hall, for example, or the Art and Architecture Building at Yale or the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago. Is it possible that it’s the era of the building and not its design that is the problem and that as tastes change we will look at this building quite differently? In fact something similar has happened with some of the most thoroughly disliked buildings of previous eras from the work of Frank Furness in Philadelphia in the late 19^th century to National Gallery of Washington in the 1940s. In this lecture, Bruegmann will offer some thoughts on why in every generation certain buildings are reviled and why, one generation later these aesthetic opinions are so often reversed and the once-rejected buildings come to be perceived as good designs and as historic landmarks. 

Thursday, November 4
Lecture: "Frank Lloyd Wright's Non-Architectural Sources"
Presented by Sidney Robinson is a member of the American Institute of Architects, Emeritus Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Illinois-Chicago, and is presently on the faculty of the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture.

The power of Frank Lloyd Wright's creativity is demonstrated by the wide range of sources on which he based his architecture. He exercised his remarkable interpretive ability on Louis Sullivan's ornament, Japanese prints, music, and his own ornament. Wright's interpretation of non-architectural sources is the clearest evidence of his goal to make architecture integral and inclusive, not a commodity driven by fashion. Dr. Sidney K. Robinson will address what sources Wright used and how he used them to make architecture.

Thursday, November 18
Lecture: "10-20-20 Problem Solving: PechaKucha"

The AIA Southwest Wisconsin Chapter and Monona Terrace invite you to our second annual 10-20-20 Presentation Event: Problem Solving. Discover how creative professionals wrestle with design dilemmas, learn from failures and ultimately, make our world more functional, beautiful, and inspiring.

What is 10-20-20? The concept is simple: Each of 10 presenters shows 20 images for 20 seconds apiece to express his or her problem-solving prowess. Naturally, we’ve invited only the very best from fields such as Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Industrial Design, Fashion, and Graphic Design to attempt this arduous feat. Will they use their convergent thinking abilities to crack the conundrum of fitting it all into 6 minutes and 40 seconds?

Wisconsin Film Festival