An art exhibit by prominent architect A. L. Aydelott will be featured in the Reading Room Gallery of the Art and Architecture Building until Jan. 30. The College of Architecture and Design at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, is hosting the exhibit.
An emeritus Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, Aydelott has served as visiting design critic and architect-in-residence at Yale University and the Carnegie Institute of Technology.
Though quite an accomplished architect, Aydelott has spent much of the last 30 years pursuing a career in art. He is most fascinated by the marvel and craftsmanship of Gothic cathedrals.
Free and open to the public, the A. L. Aydelott exhibition, “Architecture: Now and Then,” features the architect’s watercolor paintings of prominent cathedrals from around the world and photographs of the Pet Building and Pet Plaza in St. Louis, Mo., one of his most noted design projects.
The paintings in the exhibition depict cathedrals in such places as Amiens, Chartres, Mont St. Michel and Paris, France; Durham and Worchester, England; Florence and Siena, Italy; Salzburg, Austria; and Segovia, Spain.
The exhibition also includes photographs of various rooms and office spaces within the Pet Building, built as the Pet, Inc. headquarters, home of Pet Milk Co., in 1969.
Aydelott’s designs of Pet Building and Pet Plaza are reflective of the “brutalist” architecture style of the day, which was touted as forward-moving, modern urban design. Brutalist buildings have rough, blocky appearances and are mostly comprised of concrete and brick. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2004 and is now being converted into luxury apartments.
Aydelott has designed numerous government buildings; commercial buildings; the U. S. Embassy in Manila, Phillippines; and a hospital in Lima, Peru. He received his bachelor’s degree in architecture from the University of Illinois. He moved to Memphis in 1938 and served in World War II in the late 1940s. After returning from war, he began his own firm, which remained open until 1973.
The Aydelott exhibition at UT is part of a traveling exhibit shared by Auburn University, Mississippi State University, Tulane University, University of Arkansas, University of Texas and Washington University. It is sponsored by Christian Brothers University in Memphis, where Aydelott helped design the campus.
For more information on the exhibit, call (856) 974-5267.
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Contacts:
John McRae, dean of College of Architecture and Design (865) 974-5267, jmcrae1@utk.edu
Kristi Hintz, UT media relations, (865) 974-3993, khintz@utk.edu
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