Charles Renfro of Diller Scofidio + Renfro to Present 2008 Birdair Lecture at UB

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The annual Birdair Lecture, sponsored by the Birdair Corporation and presented by the University at Buffalo School of Architecture and Planning, will be given by Charles Renfro, partner in the world-renowned architectural firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro.

The illustrated talk, which will discuss the work of the firm, will take place at 5:30 p.m. April 2 in 147 Diefendorf Hall on the UB South (Main Street) Campus. It is free, open to the public and will be followed by a reception.

Diller Scofidio + Renfro is particularly well known for its interdisciplinary approach to architecture. It was founded in 1979 by Elizabeth Diller and Ricardo Scofidio, the first architects to receive a MacArthur Fellowship. Renfro, a member of the firm since 1997, has been a partner since 2004.

One of its most famous commissions was for the Blur Building, on Lake Neuchatel for Swiss Expo 2002, a structure that Architecture Magazine called "(an) inhabitable cloud whirling above a lake."

The building is marked for its "tensegrity" (a portmanteau for tensional integrity), and for the "architecture of atmosphere," for which the firm is known.

The lightweight structure houses 31,500 high-pressure mist nozzles that create a fog mass that defines the building. Water, in this sense, serves as the building material.

Renfro has described the firm as "interested in having all of our work be about place: about the place that it's made, about the history of the place, the cultural identity of the place."

"Everything is drawn out of that milieu," he said, "and because of that, our work is very porous, very open: provocative, easily engaged, I hope."

Diller Scofidio's most recent completed project is the 62,000-square-foot Boston Institute of Contemporary Art, which opened in 2007. Located on Fan Pier in the south Boston harbor, it includes galleries, a performing arts theater, restaurant, bookstore, education/workshop facilities and administrative offices.

The architects suggest that the building design "negotiates between two competing objectives: to perform as a dynamic civic building filled with public and social activities and as a controlled, contemplative atmosphere for individuals interacting with contemporary art. The 'public' building is built from the ground up; the 'intimate' building, from the sky down."

Currently Diller Scofidio + Renfro are designing the renovation and renewal of Lincoln Center, a project which includes the expansion of several cultural facilities, the improvement of public spaces and the addition of new amenities. It will be completed for the center's 50th anniversary in 2009.

In addition they are working on other transformative urban projects in New York City including the master plan for the Brooklyn Museum of Music cultural district, and the High Line. This adaptive reuse of an abandoned elevated railway along the West Side of Manhattan has been identified by New York magazine as "the greenest, hippest, most-watched urban transformation in the city."