Blostein/Overly Architects: Beth Blostein and Bart Overly
Submission 0116
Marquee Event
“The Battle of Gettysburg,” Paul Dominique Phillippoteaux’s
original marquee event for Boston’s Cyclorama, was a topic for intellectual
operation in its reproduction and in its content. Reproduction: three more
copies toured in other cycloramas across the nation in the late 19th century.
One was reformulated, cut apart and used to make tents on a Shoshone Native
American Reservation. Content: the events of a dynamic battle of separate
interests collapsed in a singular space.
Reproduction: like the tents, we thought of returning this original “inside”
in a modified and unwrapped form that acts as a landscape marquee for the
BCA Plaza. The surface can be entered into at many points, a changing canvas
of event space. Like the theatrical marquee, the underside becomes a crystalline
advertising canopy for the BCA associated businesses and performances.
Content: this unwrapped landscape smoothly negotiates a variety of fluid and
spontaneous events related to both the South End and the BCA. This reintroduces
the privileged position of horizon in the original installation, moving visitors
between ground and 10’-0”. It allows for accessible entry to the
cyclorama level and also provides zoned spaces for the cafes and galleries
at ground level.
The resulting and repeating saddle shape is inherently strong while remaining
thin. A glass mosaic secured between stainless steel mesh panels will allow
spaces for gathering, shading and diffuse light.
