A traveling fellowship in Architecture

1992 Competition Overview

In the spirit of Le Corbusier’s 1929 project for a Mundaneum: “a world cultural capital,” and its predecessors such as Patrick Geddes’ Outlook Tower and Anderson and Hebrard’s World Center of Communications: we propose a Columbus Institute for the Study of Exploration and Discovery. In 1992 this institution will not celebrate simply the anniversary of Columbus’ epic voyage, but also review the epoch of widening horizons inaugurated by that mythic event, including the end of the era of terrestrial exploration and discovery, and the turn to other inner and outer spaces.

The site is Columbus Circle in New York City and the core of the Institute’s exhibits and collections will be a Map Area–including facilities for the production of new maps, a Library–based on both conventional and CD-ROM information retrieval, and a sequence of exhibits containing evidence of human discovery.