RAGDALE SELECTS WINNER FOR OUTDOOR ‘RING’ INSTALLATION
Artist Residency Program Brings Back Historic Performance Space with Design Competition
LAKE FOREST, IL –April 25, 2013 – Ragdale, one of the country’s largest, nonprofit,artist residency programs, has selected a proposal by Stephen Dietrich Lee of New York and his associates as the winning design for its outdoor installation and performance space.
In January 2013, Ragdale launched its first-ever international, design competition to invite architects and designers to submit full-scale projects and installations to explore contemporary interpretations of the original Ragdale Ring, an outdoor performance space designed by architect Howard Van Doren Shaw
in 1912.
“A hundred years later, we want to highlight contemporary leaders in architecture and design by giving them a distinctive platform to showcase their work—a historic artists’ community on 50 acres of native prairie,” said Jeffrey Meeuwsen, Executive Director of Ragdale. “At Ragdale, we encourage and support artists as they take creative leaps. This competition is a natural extension of our mission. It also establishes a unique venue in which hundreds of artists and audience members can engage all summer long.”
The Winning Design
A jury of architects and artists evaluated the submissions from around the country and selected Lee’s proposal for its visionary and functional design. The structure is based on a repetitive pattern of wooden elements that creates a dynamic, sculptural, lacework installation to define an outdoor performance area behind the historic Ragdale House.
“Stephen Lee’s winning design blurs the distinction between art and architecture, creating a dialogue between the two disciplines,” says Zurich Esposito, executive vice president of the Chicago chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA), juror, and a member of Ragdale’s board of directors. “The structure will serve as a gathering place, reinvigorating the historic campus of Ragdale as a place of dynamic artistic and architectural experimentation.”
The design team was awarded a $10,000 production grant to fund the project and a design/build residency of up to six weeks. Construction on the temporary structure will begin in May, with the public unveiling scheduled for a June 15 benefit at Ragdale. The unveiling will include open-air performances by nationally recognized musicians, dancers, actors, and poets.
The Design Team
Lead designer Stephen Dietrich Lee is currently project manager at Sweeney Conroy, Inc. in New York City. His design credits include private residences, educational buildings at Columbia University, and museums such as the Automobile Museum in Saratoga Springs, NY, and the Alice T. Miner Museum in Chazy, NY. He received his master’s degree in architecture from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Design in 2005.
“I was intrigued by the simplicity of manipulating a single, repetitive module to create a temporary Ragdale Ring that is both dramatic and functional,” said Lee. “The organic, geometric structure is composed of stitched wood pallets of the same shape, height, and weight that are then daisy-chained to one another, creating a zigzag pattern. Developing a repeatable pallet was economical and provided valuable volume with very little material. The pallet jointing permits a great deal of flexibility, creating a curved, porous structure that marks the performance space.”
Other members of the design team include:
Ciro Cuono of Cuono Engineering PLLC, Port Chester, NY, an engineer who brings more than 13 years of experience in structural design. He has designed with reinforced concrete, steel, wood, masonry, and aluminum for residential and commercial buildings.
Michael Douglas McAtee is a licensed architect with a diverse range of project experience ranging from campus master planning to site furniture design, who has several previous successful collaborations with Mr. Lee. He is currently a project manager with Mode Architects in Chicago.
Nat Oppenheimer, PE, LEED AP, executive vice president at Robert Silman Associates in New York. He has extensive experience in areas of new construction, renovation, sustainable engineering, and historic preservation. He serves as principal-in-charge of much of the firm’s institutional work.
Russell Davies, PE, who is assisting in the structural analysis.
A Legacy Dating Back a Century
The competition marks the 101st anniversary of the first Ragdale Ring designed by Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw in 1912. The Shaw family used the space as an outdoor garden theatre to stage plays written by Howard’s wife, Frances Shaw.
“The Ragdale Ring Project is such an exciting initiative because it both re-affirms our mission to support innovative work from contemporary artists and designers, and re-envisions the Shaw family’s persistent commitment to creativity,” says Ann Merritt, a member of Ragdale’s board of directors and a juror for the competition. “We hope this nod to Ragdale’s past will be an opportunity to support innovative new work that will, in turn, transform our landscape, and continue the Shaw family tradition of providing both a vibrant and nurturing atmosphere for artistic inspiration.”
The Ragdale Foundation
The Ragdale Foundation is an internationally recognized, nonprofit, artist residency program that provides time and space for creativity to more than 150 artists, writers, and composers each year. Built in 1897, Ragdale is located on the grounds of Arts and Crafts architect Howard Van Doren Shaw’s summer home in Lake Forest, IL, 30 miles north of Chicago. For more information about Ragdale, please contact (847) 234-1063. Or visit www.ragdale.org. Ragdale is located at 1230 N. Green Bay Road, Lake Forest, Illinois 60045.
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