Building an Idea. Mckim, Mead, & White and the American Academy in Rome (1914-2014)

In 2014, the American Academy in Rome celebrates the centenary of its main building, the only project designed by the legendary architectural firm McKim, Mead White in Europe. Marking the occasion, this exhibition of drawings, plans, photographs and other archival material, curated by noted architectural historian Marida Talamona, traces the design, construction and early critical reception of the structure.

Unlike many other foreign academies in Rome, the McKim, Mead & White building was conceived and constructed as the physical manifestation of a powerful generative idea: that the arts and humanities flourish and grow when they exist together in a single, residential context. The exhibition will feature unpublished designs and plans that have recently resurfaced in the Archivio di Stato di Roma and in the Archivio Storico Capitolino with additional material from the Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica. These institutions, along with the Ordine degli Architetti di Roma, are collaborating with the American Academy to realize the exhibition and catalogue. Architect Umberto Riva is responsible for the exhibition design.

Replete with essays by Marida Talamona, Barry Bergdoll, Francesca Romana Stabile, Paola Porretta, and current Rome Prize Fellow Lindsay Harris, among others, the illustrated catalogue promises to be the most definitive resource to date on the McKim, Mead White building.