Coincident with the twenty-fifth anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the Berlin Wall Pavilion is a temporary installation to display four panels of the Berlin Wall on loan to the University of Virginia. The panels feature Dennis Kaun's 'Kings of Freedom' graffiti mural. The installation juxtaposes a larger steel pavilion - on axis with the Jeffersonian grid - with an inner display case rotated along with the panels and symbolically faccing due-west.
The intentionally bare steel continues to change over the course of the exhibit, mimicking the deterioration of the Wall and contrasting with the permanence of the surrounding campus. The limited material palette and connection details of steel, glass, concrete and gravel were selected for dis-assembly, recyclability, and reuse.
Design: Kathy Grove - AIA & Ben Hays - SE
Structural Engineering: Ben Hays
Contractor: UVA Project Services
Artwork: on loan from The Robert and MeiLi Hefner Foundation