FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The Calvin Master Plan:
Through the Eyes of Frank Lloyd Wright

An Exhibition of architectural thoughts and drawings
October 5 through November 2, 2001
Reception October 5, 7-9pm
This is an exhibition of the growth and development of the master plan initiated by William B. Fyfe, the architect of the Calvin Campus in1956. Fyfe arrived in Grand Rapids with an idea of what he wanted, thankfully and due in large measure to mentor Frank Lloyd Wright he reconsidered. He took seriously the principles of allowing the structures to grow up out of the site in order to serve the life of Calvin College and Seminary. He spent many weeks and months with the planning committee including William Spoelhof, the college president, Dr. John Krominga, Seminary president and Henry DeWitt, Vice President for Administration developing the vision for Calvin College and what should be its life here at Knollcrest Farms. Walking the fields, crossing through the fencerows and discarding his earlier ideas and prejudices, Fyfe developed an experientially informed vision of what Calvin would be and how the campus could best serve that vision.
A master plan is never static, if it is it fails. The exhibition will present successes and failures, as well as great delights along the way. Frank Lloyd Wright’s commitment to structural elements rising out of the site is presented. Bands of glass are used so that the interior and exterior are integrated one with the other. In order to remain humane, instead of embodying a western arrogant hierarchical, authoritarian and domineering campus, low rooflines were used. We have an organic campus.

Disappointments include the disappearance of the small sumac grove. Sumac is a midwest plant admired by Wright and Fyfe. This sumac grove once existed in the center of campus on a small hill at the corner of Heminga Hall, victim to one of the recent landscaping campaigns. The exhibit presents master planning as a work in progress begun in 50’s, continuing to the present. You will see multiple proposals for directions taken or built, alternate plans, and other directions never taken, all embodying that ongoing and changing life of Calvin, its goals, and visions of what it might be now as it completes its’ 125th year, as well as entering the twenty-first century.
Charles Young, former Campus Facility Planner and Professor of Art and Architectural History, curator of the exhibit, will conduct two critiques of the master plan for the Seminary and the College and its history. October 5, 7-9pm the reception will take place with the critique titled The History of Master Planning at Calvin at 8pm. A Reception honoring the Calvin Campus Physical Plant will take place Monday, October 15, 3-5pm with a discussion including Charles Young, Frank Gorman and William Spoelhof at 4pm titled Calvin Seminary Through the Eyes of Frank Lloyd Wright. In addition there will be a video documenting Fyfe, during one of his last visits to campus, commenting on the history of the campus and his visions of what it might yet become.
The barrier-free Center Art Gallery, located on the lower level of the Spoelhof College Center, is open Monday through Thursday from 9 am to 9 pm, Friday from 9 am to 5 pm, and Saturday from 12 pm to 4 pm. There is no admission charge. For more information call 616 957 6271.