On August 16, more than 400 visitors endured the sweltering Midwestern heat to celebrate the opening of the fifth edition of Exhibit Columbus, a biennial event that explores the intersection of community, architecture, art, and design while celebrating the modern architectural legacy of Columbus, Indiana. The main event featured a comprehensive walking tour that guided attendees through all 13 installations, including six projects by University Design Research Fellowship winners, four from J. Irwin and Xenia S. Miller Prize recipients, two community-led initiatives, and one environmental graphics package created by Sing-Sing.
This year's contributors responded to the curatorial theme "Yes And," a concept borrowed from improvisational theater that encourages performers to accept and build upon another performer's ideas. For Exhibit Columbus, this approach was designed to honor the town's architectural heritage while envisioning new possibilities for the future. The curatorial team included Joseph Altshuler and Zack Morrison of Could Be Design, who participated in the previous Exhibit Columbus cycle; Mila Lipinski, an architectural associate from Columbus who works at Duvall Decker; Rasul Mowatt, a writer and educator who serves as department head and professor at North Carolina State University; Elizabeth Blasius and Jonathan Solomon of Chicago-based Preservation Futures; and Too Black, an Indianapolis-based poet, scholar, organizer, and filmmaker.
The festivities began the evening before the walking tour with a welcome reception at the Inn at Irwin Gardens, the original home of the Irwin family. The gathering brought together participants, curators, board members, donors, special guests, and media representatives in an atmosphere of excitement and anticipation. Mark Elwood, board of directors chair of the Landmark Columbus Foundation, compared the event to the Olympics, noting, "You train for two years and then you get two weeks to perform." Later in the evening, the party moved to the top of a downtown parking garage to witness the debut of "Joy Riding" by Studio Barnes, an interactive speaker assembly inspired by the Midwest's car culture.
The six University Design Research Fellowship projects showcased diverse approaches to community engagement and architectural intervention. "Inside Out" by Chandler Ahrens, Constance Vale, and Kelley Van Dyck Murphy from Washington University featured a tower constructed from model interiors of the town's renowned buildings, populated with Girard-inspired dolls created by local youth. Akima Brackeen from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign created "Pool/Side," which installed a shallow wading pool within a purple plinth positioned in front of I.M. Pei's Cleo Rogers Memorial Library.
"The Steel Horsie" by Andrew Fu, Aaron Goldstein, and Aleksandr Mergold from the New Jersey Institute of Technology presented a demountable space frame constructed from signpost extrusions and anchored by blocks of recyclable scrap metal. Michael Jefferson and Suzanne Lettieri from Cornell University's College of Architecture, Art, and Planning developed "Apart, Together," featuring a lenticular sign with chroma-keyed colors that came alive through an augmented reality app programmed with films and local archival footage.
A collaborative effort called "PUBLIC/SCHOOL/GROUNDS" was created by César Lopez, Jess Myers, Amelyn Ng, and Germán Pallares-Avitia from the University of Virginia School of Architecture, Syracuse University School of Architecture, Columbia GSAPP, and Rhode Island School of Design, respectively. This project created a playscape inspired by school buildings and lined with custom carpets to serve as an outdoor classroom. Sarah Aziz from the University of New Mexico School of Architecture and Planning contributed "A View of the World from Indiana," which featured a dozen bathtub Madonnas adorned with sculptures of Midwestern architects under a crane-supported banner reading "NOTHING TO SEE HERE."
However, this year's exhibition was not without controversy. Aziz's installation, located on the lawn of St. Peters Lutheran Church, which includes a K-8 school, was removed after the opening weekend. Aziz reported that she wasn't provided a clear reason for the removal and faced several false accusations. Some of the wooden figures, carved by artist Steve Carner, featured nude forms. When Aziz offered to cover the figures with cloth, Carner became upset and limited the display time of his artworks to three weeks. Originally, the shrines were intended to showcase models of prominent buildings from the twelve Midwestern states, but in early July, Aziz decided to include the sculptures instead.
According to Aziz, these changes were approved by all parties involved, while Landmark Columbus Foundation executive director Richard McCoy stated that Solomon and the foundation worked with Aziz to review the new concept to ensure the entire piece was suitable for public display. McCoy noted that additions and changes continued throughout the installation process, some of which were neither understood nor approved. St. Peters reviewed the work during installation and initially allowed it to remain on their property for the weekend, with the banner displayed only during the opening days.
After the church complained, Exhibit Columbus directed Aziz to remove the entire installation. McCoy clarified that the request applied to the totality of the installation, not just specific sculptures. The official press release stated that the work was removed "due to Sarah Aziz's late and unapproved changes to the concept and its resulting on-site execution. As installed, the work did not meet Exhibit Columbus's high standards." In an email newsletter sent after the opening, St. Peters wrote that "the outcome of this partnership was not what we had hoped for, and it left us very disappointed." Aziz reported that the fragile installations were damaged when relocated to a garden across from the church, where they remained on display.
The four Miller Prize installations demonstrated equally innovative approaches to site-specific design. ADWO's "Ellipsis" addressed the vacant lot left by the prominent Victorian Irwin Block building, which burned down in December 2022. The installation featured an elliptical pavilion with tripod-like columns anchoring cables and bamboo shades, surrounded by planted berms. ADWO cofounder Emanuel Admassu connected the concept of an ellipsis—the three dots signaling absence—to the geometry of an ellipse, while cofounder Jen Wood discussed fire as both a disruptive force and an agent of repair, restoration, and resilience. The surrounding berms were landscaped with native plant species.
Studio Cooke John's "Lift" transformed the sunken courtyard of First Christian Church by translating the grid pattern of Eliel Saarinen's facade to the ground level, creating inhabitable spaces through a series of frames. These portals were enhanced with large fabric banners inspired by kites, with tall elements visible from the street level to attract curious passersby. Founder Nina Cooke John envisioned the space as a hangout area and saw it as realizing "a desire to let everyone in Columbus and beyond know that this congregation is a living, breathing, and welcoming community."
Charlie Vinz of Chicago-based Adaptive Operations created "Accessing Nostalgia" at the Crump Theatre, Indiana's oldest known theater still in operation. Vinz repurposed metal siding as roofing for a wood-framed canopy, underneath which the building's earliest wall, dating from 1871, is now displayed. On the theater's facade, 130 silhouettes of Columbus residents who have helped maintain the building are arranged in the shape of an arched window that originally existed in the early 20th century. Vinz explained that he was considering "the traps of nostalgia when engaging in progressive preservation."
Studio Barnes's "Joy Riding," constructed by Matchless Builds, featured a trunk-like interactive sound system that is Bluetooth-enabled, allowing visitors to connect and play their own music during designated hours. Designer Barnes told the crowd he was inspired by "the feeling you got when you first passed your driver's test, got your license, and told your parents, 'I'm leaving, and I don't know how long I'll be gone.' And then you blast the music really, really loud, and you're doing everything with your friends." Barnes thanked the city of Columbus "for allowing us to break all of your rules, because there are a lot of rules."
