IN HIS 
OWN WORDS:
“Well, for me the fact that Phoenix has no waterfront, river, lake, ocean, there’s no constant reminder that the Earth is a living, moving situation, the way that waves depict that. But the coming and going of airplanes here is that registering of the fact that we’re connected to other places.”
Bio Sketch
Wellington Reiter, award-winning architect, artist and urban designer, also serves as Dean of the College of Design at ASU. Educated at Tulane and Harvard, Reiter moved to Arizona from Massachusetts where he was a professor at MIT. Current projects include ASU’s new Downtown Phoenix campus and working with the Phoenix Urban Research Lab. Founder of the company Urban Instruments, Reiter’s installations and drawings can be found in museum collections across the country, including the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
Where to see the Wellington Reiter’s Work
ASU Art Museum
New American City: Artists Look Forward
10th St. and Mill Ave.
Tempe, AZ
Through Jan. 27, 2007
http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu
480-965-2787
Synopsis
As the Dean of the College Design at Arizona State University, Wellington Reiter is spearheading the University’s highly anticipated expansion into downtown. Viewers hear Reiter talk about urban design – that it is much more than laying out a grid, it’s about creating a space where people can work, live and appreciate a quality of life.
Reiter’s success as an urban planner relies on his abilities as a visual artist. Take, for example, Reiter’s series of drawings that are currently on display in “New American City: Artists Look Forward” at ASU’s Art Museum. The drawings explore a futuristic vision of Phoenix’s Sky Harbor Airport. Although they are striking on their artistic merits alone, the representation of the airport as a central component of Phoenix’s urban plan is undeniable. He was inspired to use the airport as a central theme because of its essential nature to life in the Valley, it’s representation of globalization and commerce, and its link to both the anxieties of terrorism and the pleasures of travel.
John Spiak, co-curator with Heather Lineberry of the New American City exhibit, discusses the drawings and likens the airport to the sea ports of other cities that drive commerce and provide a gateway into and out of the city. And as the ports have always provided romantic backdrops for life in large cities, Sky Harbor lends its majestic quality to Reiter’s work.
Related Community Activities
Gallery of Design
Unintended Consequences
ASU College of Design
Forest Mall and University Drive
South Building
Tempe, AZ
Through Nov. 17
http://design.asu.edu
480-965-6693
Phoenix Airport Museum
3400 Sky Harbor Blvd.
10 Exhibits in Terminals 3 and 4
Phoenix, AZ
Ongoing—Permanent displays and rotating exhibits
http://www.phoenix.gov/aviation
602-683-3647
Links
http://asuartmuseum.asu.edu
http://design.asu.edu
http://www.phoenix.gov/aviation