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Posted 09.16.10 | PERMALINK | ESSAY

Open Plan, 1978

Vignelli's posters both mirrored and communicated the transformations at the Institute.

For its tenth anniversary, the Institute, supported by a $350,000 grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, turned the Architecture lecture series into an academic evening program, still addressed to the general public; thus it expanded its focus and in a sense reinvented itself as a cultural institution. Open Plan was conceived as four interrelated courses on “Architecture,“ “The City,“ “The Arts“ and “Design," with the goal of discussing the role of architecture in American culture.

The Open Plan poster had a large print run and was distributed to architecture schools and professional offices across the country; as such it helped to attract significant new attention to the Institute. With each event staged as a debate between opposing positions, Open Plan capitalized on the social network of the Institute.

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