EMPAC to show movie about its architect
TROY, N.Y. >> One local arts and entertainment venue is celebrating a victory with a movie screening about the architect that built it.
In 2001, Sir Nicholas Grimshaw and his practice won the architectural competition for the design of the Curtis R. Priem Experimental Media and Performing Arts Center (EMPAC) at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, a unique structure on campus that changed the skyline of the Collar City.
Throughout the building’s construction, the collaboration between Grimshaw Architects, now just Grimshaw, and Rensselaer was very close in all details of the project.
On Monday, March 27, EMPAC and the Rensselaer School of Architecture will screen the new documentary Some Kind of Joy: The Inside Story of Grimshaw in Twelve Buildings at 6 p.m. in the EMPAC theater. Admission is free.
The film will be introduced by Grimshaw partner William Horgan, who was the lead project architect for EMPAC.
Directed by Sam Hobkinson, Some Kind of Joy revisits key projects from the history of this renowned architectural practice. From Nicholas Grimshaw’s first scheme, created in 1967, to iconic projects like Bath Spa, Southern Cross Station, the Eden Project, Fulton Center, and EMPAC, the film offers first-hand accounts from the people who brought these buildings to life, and shows the inspiration, design, and occasional trials and tribulations of delivering out-of-the-ordinary buildings.
After the screening, William Horgan will hold a question and answer session for the audience to get to know the EMPAC project within the context of Grimshaw’s architectural legacy.
Sir Nicholas Grimshaw opened his firm, Nicholas Grimshaw & Partners, in 1980 and currently operates offices in London, Melbourne, Sydney, and New York City with his 17 partners. The firm is regarded as a pioneer of “high-tech architecture,” which integrates elements of industry and technology into its design.
Today, EMPAC hosts artists and researchers to produce and present new work in a building designed with sophisticated architectural and technical infrastructure. Four on-site venues and studios enable audiences, artists, and researchers to inquire, experiment, develop, and experience the ever-changing relationship between humans and technology.
Furthermore, EMPAC serves as an icon of the New Polytechnic, a new paradigm for cross-disciplinary research and learning at Rensselaer, the nation’s oldest technological research university.
Further information about this film screening can be found at empac.rpi. edu.