May 25, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Ann Hudner, 401 454-6342, ahudner@risd.edu; Brien McDaniel, 401 454-6342, bmcdanie@risd.edu

RHODE ISLAND SCHOOL OF DESIGN SELECTS RAFAEL MONEO, INTERNATIONALLY ACCLAIMED ARCHITECT, TO DESIGN NEW RISD CENTER

RISD Receives Over $12 Million in Gifts and Pledges for New Innovative Facility to be Built on its Campus

PROVIDENCE, RI -- Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) has selected internationally and critically acclaimed architect Rafael Moneo to design the RISD Center, a new innovative facility to be built on its campus. The RISD Center will combine the expansion of the museum of art, the library and the creation of a new communal space for the RISD community.

"Known for his artistic vision, creative problem-solving, and tremendous range, we are very pleased that Rafael Moneo will guide us in defining the RISD Center's architecture," stated Roger Mandle, RISD President. "We believe the RISD Center will truly become a defining facility that will clarify and strengthen the college's critical role in 21st-century art and design."

In support of this major initiative, RISD has received over $12 million in gifts and pledges, including a gift of $9 million given in honor of Malcolm and Beatrice (Oenslager) Chace. In 1983, Rhode Island School of Design bestowed an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts to Mrs. Chace.

The new RISD Center will bring together the college's multiple constituencies--students, faculty, staff, alumni--by providing major new spaces for unprecedented integration of the activities of the library, museum of art and the college to advance collaboration across the RISD community. The facility will serve as an entry point to experience the richness of the RISD educational mission by studying the arts of the past to creating and envisioning the arts of the future. The RISD Center will link disciplines, academic departments, and diverse constituencies in an exciting forward-looking context.

"I am delighted having received the confidence of RISD to be the architect of such an attractive project," commented Rafael Moneo. "Since the very first moment I saw the site...I was intrigued thinking about what would be the architectural solution for this daring project."

Based in Madrid, Spain, Rafael Moneo is considered a realist architect. For Moneo, realism implies, above all, close attention to the specifics of each problem. It means entering into all of the complexities of a given project in accordance with the concrete presence and constituent character of its own reality.

His best known and widely published works are the National Museum of Roman Art, Mérida, Spain; the Museums of Modern Art and Architecture in Stockholm Sweden; the Barcelona Concert Hall and Cultural Center; the "Kursaal" Concert Hall and Cultural Center in San Sebastian; Diagonal Building, in collaboration with Manuel de Solá-Morales, Barcelona; and the Davis Museum and Cultural Center at Wellesley College, Massachusetts. Other projects in his native country include the Spanish Ministry of Transportation, Madrid; San Pablo Airport, Seville; the Pilar and Joan Miró Foundation, Mallorca; the Villahermosa Palace, Madrid; and the Bank of Spain, Jaén. Most recently, he completed the Audrey Jones Beck Building, an addition to the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, and is currently engaged in projects for the Cranbrook Academy of Art and the residence of the Spanish Ambassador in Washington, DC.

Rafael Moneo first came to the United States in 1976 as a Visiting Fellow at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies of New York City and then at the Cooper Union School of Architecture. In 1985 Rafael Moneo was named Chairman of the Architecture Department of the Harvard University Graduate School of Design, a position he held until 1990. He continues to remain active at this university in addition to lecturing around the world at major colleges, universities and museums.

Among the numerous awards that have been bestowed upon Moneo include the Gold Medal for Achievement in the Fine Arts by the Spanish Government (its highest award), the Gold Medal of French Academy of Architecture and the Gold Medal of the International Union of Architects. In 1996, Moneo was named the ninetieth Laureate of the Pritzker Architecture Prize. He is the first Spanish architect to be selected for his profession's highest honor.

"Rafael Moneo is one of the premier architects in the world" stated Bill Lacy (FAIA), President, Purchase College, State University of New York, and Director of the Pritzker Architecture Prize Competition. "His ability to solve complex design problems in tight urban settings makes him an ideal choice for the RISD Center. There is a timeless, yet contemporary quality in each of his building designs."

In a recent survey of newspaper architecture critics in America, administered by the National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University in New York City, Rafael Moneo was selected as one of the "Top-Rated Living Architects."

RISD received nearly thirty invited submissions from firms world-wide to be considered for this project. The four finalists who were selected from the initial field included Heikkenen-Komonen Architects (Helsinki, Finland); Steven Holl Architects (New York City); Rem Koolhaas, Office of Metropolitan Architecture (Rotterdam, Netherlands); and Rafael Moneo (Madrid, Spain).

Overseeing the international architect search was the Architect Selection Committee: Jane Chace Carroll and Philip Tobey, RISD Trustees; Roger Mandle, RISD President; Joe Deal, RISD Provost; Phillip M. Johnston, Director of The RISD Museum; and Elizabeth Grossman and Gabriel Feld, RISD faculty. Advisors to the Architect Selection Committee were Andrew Klemmer, of the Paratus Group and Bill Lacy.

Since its founding in 1877, Rhode Island School of Design has earned a worldwide reputation as the preeminent art and design college in the country. Today, with over 16,000 alumni, the college enrolls approximately 1,800 students and 200 graduate students from the United States and more than 47 countries, offering degree programs in the fine arts, architecture and design disciplines and art education. Academic programs include research and design initiatives, the exploration of art criticism and contemporary cultural concerns as well as international exchange programs. Each year, RISD hosts prominent and accomplished artists, critics and authors to its campus. Included within the college is The RISD Museum, housing 80,000 works of art in its permanent collection. RISD information: 401 454-6100