SITE 04: Minoru Yamasaki's McGregor Memorial Conference Center

Library Street Collective is excited to announce the fourth iteration of SITE: Art and Architecture in the Digital Space, launching on May 19th, 2022 and set against Wayne State University’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center, a masterpiece by world-renowned architect Minoru Yamasaki. Completed on May 18, 1958, the design of the McGregor Conference Center marks an important shift in Yamasaki’s career following a six month trip through Asia and Europe in 1955. In the decade leading up to the McGregor commission, the architect adhered to the strict modernist principles prescribed by Mies Van der Rohe and Corbusier, but his time abroad inspired a personal shift through which he realized that “beauty, elegance, and human welfare trumped strict adherence to formal principles.” The Architectural Record declared that the McGregor was “as graceful and sun-filled as a dream palace,” confirming Yamasaki’s success in creating a structure that was in harmony with both man and environment. The architect’s transformation from formalism to humanism in design mirrors a concept inherent to the idea of the dream palace: a place that presents us with the mystery of the subconscious and a confrontation with what lies beyond the boundaries of our limited awareness. It is within this context that we examine the works of artists David Altmejd, Olga de Amaral, Radcliffe Bailey, Judy Bowman, Elmgreen & Dragset, Sam Friedman, Matt Kleberg, Paul Kremer, Alicja Kwade, and Erwin Wurm.