Strada Novissima

Venice Biennale comes to San Francisco

Venice 1980

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Paris 1981

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San Francisco 1982

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Venice 1980 • Paris 1981 • San Francisco 1982 •

The first Venice Biennale of Architecture in 1980 featured a controversial, but evocative exhibition curated by Paolo Portoghesi titled The Presence of the Past. The highlight was the Strada Novissima—a fabricated urban street composed of three-story facades designed by an array of prominent and up-and-coming international architects from Michael Graves to Rem Koolhaas.

The exhibition was later shipped to San Francisco and installed at Fort Mason Center in 1982—bringing the debates about history and urbanism, Modernism and Postmodernism, to the city by the bay.

Charles Moore
Frank O. Gehry
Hans Hollein
Stanley Tigerman
Massimo Scolari
Thomas Gordon Smith
Studio G.R.A.U // Hans Hollein
Michael Graves

“COME … FEEL the Presence of the Past, acclaimed in Venice, now making its only appearance in North America … the definitive look of postmodernism … Linger over a cup of espresso … it may not be for everyone, but it’s not just for architects.”

— TV ad campaign for the San Francisco exhibition by Bruce Burtch (Public Relations Group)

Fort Mason Center

“More people and more different kinds of people will be exposed to post-moderism than ever before.”

The Presence of the Past

In bringing The Presence of the Past exhibition to San Francisco, the “Friends of the Biennale” also commissioned new facades by four local architects—Batey & Mack, Daniel Solomon, William Turnbull, and SOM—as well as an entry gate, Italian marketplace, and sponsor’s pavilion, all of which were installed at Fort Mason Center.

Set against the backdrop of a former military site that had recently been adapted as a cultural center, The Presence of the Past was a vital exploration of history and communication in architectural design.

While many of the facades included direct references to historical architecture—classical columns, pediments, and the like—that had been eschewed in Modernism, other facades explored vernacular materials or communication through visual language. At a time when orthodox Modernism was under scrutiny for its trend toward corporate banality, The Presence of the Past exhibition was designed to explore new and old possibilities “beyond Modernism”—whether or not everyone ascribed to the label of “Postmodernism.”