Watch the ACAW 2022 Opening Keynote, “Orange County Art Museum, From ACAW to Reality”
The 2022 ACAWorkshop kicked off on Monday, August 15th with a live-only opening keynote from Stan Su (Technical Director – RIOS) and Erik Verboon (Principal | Director of Enclosure Engineering – Walter P Moore). For those that didn’t attend the event, the recording is available to view below.
The ACAW 2022 team prototype presentations are also available to view on the event website.
At ACAW 2017, Stan Su led the Morphosis team as they explored the viability of using curved terra cotta panels in a hot, arid environment – a concept that would later evolve into the new Orange County Museum of Art design. The keynote presentation discusses the results of this exploration and the process of designing the building skin. A distinctive façade featuring undulating bands of terra cotta wraps around the OCMA and continues inside, beckoning visitors to enter. Boston Valley worked closely with Morphosis to assist in the design of the terra cotta units and fabricate this assembly.

Visual mockup of the OCMA curved terra cotta assembly fabricated by Boston Valley.

OCMA Reception Lobby construction progress.
Besides daily work sessions, team participants at this year’s workshop were able to tour the Boston Valley Terra Cotta facilities, Buffalo’s grain elevators at Silo City (courtesy of Rigidized Metals), and the Frank Lloyd Wright Darwin Martin House. Each day also included lectures and presentations on studies in terra cotta by the university teams — Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, UB School of Architecture & Planning, Pratt Institute, North Carolina State University, Iowa State University, and Washington University of St. Louis.

OCMA Reception Lobby construction progress.