Collective Stewardship: Richard Serra In Memoriam

Join us for an evening of stories from architects Richard Gluckman NA (Gluckman Tang), Hiroshi Okamoto (OLI Architecture), and Galia Solomonoff(SAS/Solomonoff Architecture Studio; formerly of OpenOffice), reflecting on the challenges and lessons learned while designing, building, and installing some of the best known temporary and permanent stagings of sculptor Richard Serra NA’s(1938-2024) signature corten steel works. Sites include New York’s Gagosian Gallery, Dia:Beacon, the Museum of Islamic Art Park (Doha, Qatar), and Serra’s final pavilion for the piece, Passage of Time, the 217-foot long, 540,000-pound sculpture anchoring the Berkowitz Contemporary Foundation’s (BCF) 15.5-acre Longleaf Art Park in Walton County, Florida.

RESERVATIONS: Admission is free but reservations are required.

ACCESSIBILITY: This venue is fully accessible to wheelchairs. To request a free ASL (American Sign Language) interpretation or CART (Communication Access Real-Time Translation) captioning service, email your request at least three weeks in advance of the event to [email protected].

About the Speakers

Richard Gluckman NA, FAIA has occupied a special place in the world of art and design, since establishing his architectural practice in New York City in 1977, creating distinctive spaces and buildings for artists, public arts institutions, art foundations, galleries and art collectors. In recent years, Gluckman has applied his unique design sensibility, informed by decades of collaboration with artists and curators, to projects for universities, resorts, developers, and private clients. Gluckman’s design approach is defined by an emphasis on architecture as an experiential opportunity; as a frame for art and human activity.

Richard Gluckman has been a visiting critic and lecturer at Harvard University, Yale University, University of Pennsylvania, Parsons The New School for Design, and Syracuse University. He is a recipient of the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Award, and the Interior Design Hall of Fame Award. He has served on the boards of The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts and the Van Alen Institute. He currently serves on the board of Socrates Sculpture Park.

Gluckman received a Bachelor of Architecture and a Master of Architecture from Syracuse University’s School of Architecture. He received the George Arents Award from Syracuse University in 2006, and he was Chair of the University’s School of Architecture Advisory Board from 2003-2014.

Hiroshi Okamoto, AIA is an architect and co-founder of OLI Architecture PLLC in 2010. He has been the design principal and project architect for the MuXin Art Museum (2011-2015), the Chengdu Silk Art Culture Museum (2012-2016), and the Museum of Islamic Art Renovation (2015-2017) in Doha, Qatar. From 2001 to 2012, Okamoto worked with I. M. Pei on the Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens (2001-2002); as a Designer, Site Representative and Construction Administrator of the Museum of Islamic Art, Doha (2001–2008); and as the Project Architect of the Chapel at the Miho Institute of Aesthetics (2008-2012) in Shigaraki, Japan, I.M. Pei’s last project. From 2008-2012, Mr. Okamoto was an independent design consultant and the Design Architect and Project Manager for the Museum of Islamic Art Park in Doha, where in collaboration with Richard Serra he designed, at the end of the manmade park peninsula, a cantilevered stone pier for Serra’s sculpture 80-foot-high sculpture 7 (2011).

Other notable projects include: the Tencent Shanghai office design (2017-2018); the design of the Anji Play Kindergarten and Early Childhood Education Center (2015–Present) in Japan; and the London Cross Pavilion (2015-2020): a purpose-built, private commission in Westchester NY, to house Richard Serra’s London Cross (2014), which was first shown in the Gagosian Gallery in London. The Pavilion, his second collaboration with Serra, was a 2021 World Architecture Festival Finalist, and the winner of the 2020 AIANY Projects Award of Merit. Okamoto graduated from Cornell University with a B.Arch (1992) and from MIT with a Master of Science degree in Architectural Studies (2000).

Galia Solomonoff, AIA is an architect and professor at Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation (GSAPP) in New York. In 2004, Galia founded the award-winning design firm Solomonoff Architecture Studio, SAS, which specializes in integrating contemporary art with architecture. Galia's firm has collaborated with over 50 artists on various projects, including designing art spaces, homes, studios, museum exhibitions, and site-specific installations. With artist Robert Irwin and OpenOffice, her previous firm, Galia converted a 1929 Nabisco factory into Dia:Beacon, winning acclaim and awards. More recently, Galia designed the Art Alliance in Philadelphia, homes for Timothy Schmit of The Eagles in California, Taylor Swift on Cornelia Street, Kappo Masa for Chef Masa at 980 Madison Avenue, and art exhibits for The Jewish Museum and Americas Society in New York. Since January 2023, Galia has been the director of Housing Lab, a think tank funded by Columbia University to study how to make housing more affordable for all New Yorkers.

Solomonoff also has taught at The Cooper Union, RISD, Princeton University, and Yale University, where she was honored with the Louis Kahn Junior Chair. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Architecture from City College, CUNY, and M.Arch from Columbia University. Originally from Argentina, Galia lives with her family in Chelsea. Her firm, SAS, is located in Westbeth, West Village.
Collective Stewardship is the National Academy of Design’s series of free, in-person and virtual, educational public programs that focus on artist and architect foundations and the different approaches and solutions for the planning and preservation of their legacies for the public good and future public accessibility. The ongoing series of talks, panels, and workshops features living legacy projects and foundations with public missions, coupling purposeful storytelling with specific information about the preparation and tools needed to build an accessible archive.

Previous Collective Stewardship Programs
Collective Stewardship: Artists' Legacy Foundation

Collective Stewardship: Art Omi Pavilions

Collective Stewardship: Visual AIDS x NYU Fales Library

Image: Installation of Torqued Ellipse 1, 1996, Dia:Beacon circa early 2000’s. Photo: Lyn Rice

Host or Publisher National Academy of Design