AIR UP!
Tuesday July 29, 2014

AIR UP!
July 29, 2014, 7pm
Film Screening followed by a Q&A with Jack Masey
In 1967, in an effort to attract the most talented architects and exhibition designers in the United States, the United States Information Agency’s design chief Jack Masey organized a competition to design the US Pavilion at Asia’s first Category One World’s Fair—Expo ’70 Osaka. The winning design team—which prevailed over submissions by Isamu Noguchi, George Nelson, Minoru Yamasaki, James Stewart Polshek, Paul Rudolph and others—was the New York partnership of architects Davis & Brody, and exhibition designers Chermayeff, Geismar & deHarak. Their concept, an air-inflatable pavilion, soon fell victim to serial Congressional funding cuts and was entirely redesigned twice before EXPO ’70 opened. Despite a 50% cut in its funding, the team managed to produce a US Pavilion for Expo ’70 that featured the largest, lightest clear-span air-supported roof ever built. Even with its “extraordinarily economical $4.5 per sq. ft. cost”, the US Pavilion at EXPO ’70 became “a master work of structural elegance and…technological advances.” And, the project came in on time and under budget.
Air Up! Construction of the US Pavilion at EXPO ’70 Osaka–a Japanese-language documentary film with English sub-titles–details the construction and inflation of the radically-engineered pneumatic dome designed for the US Pavilion at EXPO ’70 Osaka.
The screening was followed by a Q&A with Jack Masey, former Director of Design for the USIA, and design chief for USIA’s major exhibitions and Expos including Expo ’70 Osaka.
This film was screened in conjunction with a day-long symposium/event hosted by OfficeUS in Venice, Italy at the Arsenale as part of the Monditalia ‘Freeport’ series of the 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale, la Biennale de Venezia.
AIR UP!
Construction of the US Pavilion at EXPO ’70 Osaka –
A United States Information Agency Project
Film Sponsor:
Ohbayashi-Gumi, Ltd.
Film Production:
Nichiei Shinsha
Commissioner General of U.S. Pavilion:
Howard L. Chernoff
Deputy Commissioner General for Planning and Design:
Jack Masey
Davis, Brody, Chermayeff, Geismar, deHarak Associates
Principals:
Lewis Davis, Samuel M. Brody, Alan Schwartzman,
Ivan Chermayeff, Thomas H. Geismar, Rudolf deHarak
Project Architect:
Yasuo Uesaka
Senior Exhibition Curator:
Phyllis Montgomery
Senior Exhibition Designer:
David Sutton
Structural Engineers:
David Geiger—Horst Berger
Mechanical Engineers:
Cosentini Associates
Landscape Architects:
M. Paul Friedberg & Associates
Lighting Consultant:
Howard Brandston Lighting Design, Inc.
Audio-Visual Consultant:
Will Szabo Associates Ltd.
General Contractor, Co-Architect:
Ohbayashi-Gumi, Ltd.
Film Restoration:
Beverly Payeff-Masey, MetaForm Design International
Mina Chow, AIA, NCARB, U.S.C. School of Architecture, Los Angeles
Clark Muller, Colorist, , Venice, California
Translation ( 翻訳 ):
Yusuke Isotani ( 礒谷有亮 )
Subtitles:
Joann Huang
Arianne Kouri
MetaForm Design International
Special Thanks:
Irina Chernyakova
Mina Chow
Eva Franch i Gilabert
Joann Huang
Yusuke Isotani
Arianne Kouri
Jack Masey
Ana Miljački
Clark Muller
Brendan Rooney
OfficeUS, 2014 Venice Architecture Biennale
Beverly Payeff-Masey
Ashley Schafer
Storefront for Art and Architecture