Norman Foster - Corgan Prize 2011

The Following is excerpted from a feature appearing on Corgan.com: 

"The Corgan Prize is a travel-study program that provides the opportunity for one person in the firm to conduct an individual study of specific architectal or interior design subjects that are of interest to the contestant. The winner of The Corgan Prize is slected from an essay entry describing where they would like to travel, the sutdy subject, what they intend to achieve, the their study plan, and most improtantly how the experiences will be conveyed to others in the firm.

New York Corganite and winner, Chris Sale, selected the architectural works of Norman Foster. He travelled to twelve projects completed by Foster + Partners in New York, Washington D.C., Boston, Berlin and London, as well as two projects by close Foster collaborators. Armed with a flip video camera and a sketch pad, Chris compiled the 'findings' of the trip into a short documentary film which was screened in Corgan's New York and Dallas Offices.

Chris recalls, "The three projects that really spoke to me were the Reichstag Building in Berlin, the Museum of Fine Arts Bpston, and Hearst Tower in New York. Each project responded to a complex set of constraints, worked with an existing building, and addressed long wish lists from their responective clients. It was amazing to see how the limitations and complexities of each project actually fostered stronger, more creative solutions to the problemes posed." 

For him, a highlight of the trip was not only seeing the building in person, but also getting to experience the buildings in use. Since so many of the projects were mseums and galleries, he had the opportunity to see some outstanding exhibitions at top museums in the U.S. and Europe. Chris described the experience as, "providing a far richer perspective than a photo could even begin to portray...Life doesn't get much better than a high tea sitting under Foster's famous glass canopy at the Great Court of the British Museum in London either!"

Please enjoy the following copy of the film posted below.