Metro Pulse/Artbeat/Bruce McCarty Architecture Retrospective

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What:
Bruce McCarty Architecture Retrospective

Where:
UT’s Ewing Gallery, the Art & Architecture Building, 1715 Volunteer Blvd. (call 974-3200 for information)

When:
Through March 1, with a reception in the gallery for Bruce McCarty on Sunday, Feb. 22, from 2-5 p.m.

Bruce McCarty architecture retrospective comes to UT

by Heather Joyner Spica

The ego thrill of producing architecture must be mind-boggling (as are some architects’ egos). Whereas an artist’s efforts might be displayed in the far reaches of a museum that many people never visit, an architect’s output is hard to avoid, particularly if it’s Knoxville’s City County Building or downtown library. One not only looks at the fruits of an architect’s labor, one enters his work—somewhat like eating an apple instead of just eyeing one at the market.

For the rest of the month and a day, two- and three-dimensional representations of work by Knoxville architect Bruce McCarty and various partners can be seen at UT’s Ewing Gallery. And if representations aren’t enough, viewers find themselves within a McCarty (father and son-designed) building as they take in the show across the way from the elder McCarty’s Communications Building, Clarence Brown Theatre, and Humanities & Social Science Building, among other structures. Even if one frequents such places and is not struck by aesthetic aspects of the architecture itself, he or she might feel comfortably oriented and simply at ease. As designer Coco Chanel purportedly put it, you don’t necessarily notice what a well-dressed woman has on, you only get the impression that she looks terrific. One might perceive McCarty’s architecture along the same lines, and to quite an extent, it’s what Knoxville is wearing.

Born the third of four brothers in 1920, McCarty grew up in Wisconsin. And he might have remained in Frank Lloyd Wright territory if he hadn’t fallen for a Knoxville woman named Elizabeth Hayes. Introduced to each other when Army Air Corps fighter pilot McCarty was in training at UT, the two married in 1945. After the birth of son Hayes the following year, McCarty worked as a draftsman for Barber & McMurray prior to earning an architecture degree from the University of Michigan. Due to Hayes’ family ties, and because Knoxville was a promising place to begin practice as an architect, the couple returned to Tennessee (where children Doug and Sarah were born).

As master architect for the 1982 World’s Fair, McCarty impressed visitors from all over the world with his site-sensitive plans. Decades earlier, his designs for affordable modular houses (several hundred of which have been built since the late 1950s) were promoted by NBC, the Hotpoint Corporation, and the National Association of Homebuilders.

The exhibition, with its range of drawings and models, serves to acknowledge not only McCarty’s accomplishments, but his creative process and the aura surrounding his thinking. It also acknowledges a number of firms and partnerships (including that of the architect with his son Doug, who became president of McCarty Holsaple McCarty in 1984).

“Bruce McCarty has left a legacy of architecture and advocacy for architecture that has improved the quality of life in East Tennessee,” says Marleen Kay Davis, former dean of UT’s College of Architecture and Design. “With an attention to qualities of light and scale, his buildings have a variety of spaces that promote a sense of community and interaction.”

Not every Knoxvillian adores McCarty’s brand of what could be called down-to-earth Modernism, but it appears to be enduring with grace; the dominant material of UT’s Art and Architecture Building is warmer and more welcoming because it is almost a quarter of a century old.

Beyond specific building projects, McCarty has contributed to the city in other ways. While busy with commissions in the 1970s, he established the East Tennessee Community Design Center to provide pro-bono design for groups without financial resources. Evidently, McCarty cares very much about improving his environment in as many ways possible. Most impressive of all, perhaps, is McCarty’s continuing devotion to architecture. The Ijams Nature Center and aspects of the new McGhee Tyson Airport were designed by McCarty after his 75th birthday, and he designed the West Knoxville AAA office and the latest addition to Westminster Presbyterian Church within the past two years. Like Wright, McCarty is enjoying longevity of both body and spirit. And we’re all better off because of it.