Lot 199: MOORE, Charles.

Wonderwall, New Orleans 1984.
Original pen-and-ink preliminary idea for the Wonderwall on a napkin, 11 pencil and 2 ink sketches on paper of designs for the Wonderwall.
11 x 19 1/2 (280 x 495 mm) and smaller.

"Moore was, with Robert Venturi and Colin Rowe, one of the most influential architectural teachers of his generation. In his lectures and publications, as well as in the buildings he designed, there was a strong sense of architectural history, and of the value of vernacular regional architecture" (Grove Dictionary of Art). Despite its problems, the 1984 World's Fair is fondly remembered by many New Orleans residents and noteworthy architecturally for the groundbreaking post-modern Wonderwall designed by Charles Moore and William Turnbull of the famed California firm MLTW. MLTW emphasized several major themes within their projects. The firm has emphasized the use of elements that suggest the presence of people and which relate to the human body. It also activates spaces by providing a structure that would allow improvised use and which would encourage human interaction. MLTW created active spaces that generated pride of ownership while allowing varied claims of use (see Great Buildings Online). According to the Offical Guidebook of the fair, "the Wonderwall started out as a solution to an architectural problem: How to dress up a street dividing the ultra-modern Exhibition Center from a row of century-old renovated warehouses." The resulting whimsical fantasyland was described as "The Great Wall of China as redesigned by the Marx Brothers." It was inspired by artist-archicect Giovanni Battista Piranesi and reached at its highest point 70 feet, where the Wonderwall was "carried to its mythical extreme as alligators scurry across the top chasing 20 foot pelicans." (14)

NEW ORLEANS, LOUISIANA WORLD EXPOSITION, 1984