ON EXHIBIT: BEN’S HOUSE: Designing History at Franklin Court

BEN'S HOUSE
Designing History at Franklin Court
In the early 1970's, as America was preparing for its bicentennial, an extraordinary solution to an age old problem was rising in the back alley of old city Philadelphia.  Benjamin Franklin's life and legacy would be a central story in those celebrations, yet his life-long home on Orianna Street, an obvious site for a museum, was lost in the nineteenth century leaving no visual record of its appearance.  The resulting solution, an imaginative reconstruction consisting of a "ghost" structure representing the original house, a garden, an above ground archaeological display and underground museum spaces, was the work of a design team including world-renowned architects, Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown.  Franklin Court, as it became known, challenged the prevailing norms for the interpretation of archaeological and historic sites, especially sites that no longer existed.  This exhibition, curated by Frank Matero and Bill Whitaker, School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, explores the making of Franklin Court through a selection of original sketches, models and period photographs, to understand the context of its creation and itsenduring legacy

6:00 PM October 8, 2009
OPENING RECEPTION for BEN'S HOUSE:  Designing History at Franklin Court
KROIZ GALLERY/Architectural Archives
220 South 34^th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19104
(215) 898-8323