Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Quake City, from the series San Francisco Project: Inhabiting the Quake, 1995; graphite and pastel; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Photon Kite, from the series Centricity, 1988; graphite on paper; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of the Members of the Architecture + Design Forum, SFMOMA Architecture and Design Accessions Committee, and the architecture and design community in honor of Aaron Betsky, Curator of Architecture, Design and Digital Projects, 1995-2001; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Unified Urban Field, from the series Centricity [no. 37], 1987; graphite on paper; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of Ned and Catherine Topham and the Accessions Committee Fund; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Conflict Space 4, 2006; crayon and acrylic on linen; Collection SFMOMA, purchase through a gift of anonymous donors and the Accessions Committee Fund; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Nine Reconstructed Boxes, 1999; plastic models and ten sketches; Collection SFMOMA, Accessions Committee Fund purchase; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Meta-Institute, 1996; chipboard, wood, paper; Courtesy Austrian Museum of Applied Arts / Contemporary Art (MAK); © Estate of Lebbeus Woods; photo: © Wolfgang Woessner/MAK

Lebbeus Woods, Architect

Lebbeus Woods, Einstein Tomb, 1980; aluminum; Courtesy Aleksandra Wagner; © Estate of Lebbeus Woods

February 16 - June 02, 2013

Architect Lebbeus Woods (1940-2012) dedicated his career to probing architecture's potential to transform the individual and the collective. His visionary drawings depict places of free thought, sometimes in identifiable locations destroyed by war or natural disaster, but often in future cities. Woods, who sadly passed away last year as planning for this exhibition was under way, had an enormous influence on the field of architecture over the past three decades, and yet the built structures to his name are few. The extensive drawings and models on view present an original perspective on the built environment — one that holds high regard for humanity's ability to resist, respond, and create in adverse conditions. "Maybe I can show what could happen if we lived by a different set of rules," he once said. SFMOMA has collected Woods's work since the mid-1990s, amassing the broadest collection of his work anywhere; the exhibition will feature these holdings, as well as a selection of loans from institutional and private collections.