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ALUMNI INTERVIEW — March/April 2006

Architect Amy Larimer designs winning centerpiece of McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum

By Amy F. Reiter

Amy Larimer '99 FAA, MARCH '01 FAA, doesn't need words to describe emotions and ideas.

Take one of her student projects, for example.

Larimer and Bernstein Photos courtesy of McCormick Tribune Foundation

Describing grief, the architect-to-be constructed a cocoon a person would wear like a dress. Like the emotion, the dress would shroud its wearer. Then its fabric would gradually wear away.

Jeffery Poss '78 FAA, MARCH '80 FAA, a University of Illinois associate professor of architecture, remembers Larimer's grieving dress well. "This beautiful physical metaphor," he said, "almost brought me to tears."

And, of course, there was the time she boxed up the Alma Mater in cardboard for a class on art in public spaces. That also got people's attention.

Fewer than five years after leaving the U of I, the architect and artist is winning international attention and accolades for her ability to capture complex ideas with art.

In July, she and her design partner, Peter Bernstein, beat out more than 700 applicants from around the world to win the McCormick Tribune Freedom Museum's juried design competition. The prize: $100,000 and a space for their sculpture in the rotunda of the Chicago museum, set to open in April.

The 10,000-square-foot museum, located in the Tribune Tower in Chicago, highlights First Amendment rights by encouraging visitors to understand and value freedoms found in the United States.

For Larimer's and Bernstein's project, the two designed a celebration of the First Amendment, which was ratified on Dec. 15, 1791 (the sculpture is appropriately titled "12151791"). The art work centers on more than 800 pieces of writing from that date forward, including songs, speeches, chants and protests. Each piece is etched through a stainless steel plane and hung on cords in chronologically descending order - a "vertical time line" as Larimer called it - from the rotunda's ceiling.

When light shines from the ceiling, it catches the words and casts their shadows on the planes below. "The idea is that the words pass from plane to plane and reflect," she said. "It's really a conversation."

While Larimer, who lives in Redwood City, Calif., ended up a competition winner, her path to getting there was serendipitous. In looking at design Web sites, she saw the contest "and just was instantly fascinated and excited about it," she said. As quickly as that, the sketch of an idea formed in her head, and she brought the project to her work partner, Bernstein, who jumped aboard.

Bernstein praises Larimer's ability to constantly think about how people fit in and react to art and architecture - fields she finds unable to separate. "Amy has a ... kind of human-space perspective," he said. "She's just an extremely sensitive person and also really good about getting down to work."

Larimer's hard-working nature was evident even at the U of I.

"I'm a sucker for an all-nighter," she said. "Being in the studio in the design courses, I felt very much at home."

To Poss, that time in the studio, combined with Larimer's talent, has paid off. "Her work really does have an edge to it," he said. "It's typical of her way of approaching it, is to define the project on her own terms."

In defining "12151791," Larimer hoped the sculpture would be "a timeless piece for the museum," celebrating those who have taken risks to ensure our freedoms, she said, and would start people thinking about the value of free speech.

After all, the stories of those 800 people whose words are etched into the sculpture's steel wouldn't have been told without it.

Amy F. Reiter, MS '03 COM, is a reporter at The News-Gazette in Champaign.