Wright Auction

Of the Buildings of Disaster series, Constantin Boym writes: “Some of these buildings may have been prized architectural landmarks, other – nondescript anonymous structures. But disaster changes everything. The images of exploded buildings make a different, populist history of architecture, one based on people’s emotional involvement rather than on scholarly appreciation.” Boym Partners first conceived of the idea in 1997 as Souvenirs for the End of the Century.  The first edition was released in 1998 and it was controversial yet well received. When the World Trade Center fell on September 11, 2001, the Boym Partners re-released their World Trade Center miniature as a fundraiser and they then later added The September 11th Memorial Set featuring the Twin Towers and the Pentagon.

Some of these buildings may have been prized architectural landmarks, other – nondescript anonymous structures. But disaster changes everything. The images of exploded buildings make a different, populist history of architecture, one based on people’s emotional involvement rather than on scholarly appreciation. 
Constanin Boym

Production of the first edition of the Buildings of Disasters series ended at the century’s close but the events of September 11th prompted the Boyms to add to the collection miniatures memorializing other tragedies both past and recent such as Hurricane Katrina, the Iraq War and the siege in Waco, Texas. In total, the Building of Disaster series includes twenty-five different disasters from all over the world.

Today, Buildings of Disaster are no longer in production and the provocative miniatures can be found in numerous museum collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, The Israel Museum in Jerusalem and the Museum of Contemporary Design and Applied Arts in Lausanne.  

This lot is comprised of twenty-one works from the Buildings of Disaster (Souvenirs for the End of the Century) series—miniature replicas of famous structures where a tragic event has occurred. Lot includes the following works:

Ford’s Theater April 14, 1865
The Triangle Shirt Waist Company March 25, 1911
Texas School Book Depository November 22, 1963
Lorraine Motel April 4, 1968
The Watergate June 17, 1972
Three Mile Island March 28, 1979
The Dakota December 8, 1980
Chernobyl April 26, 1986  
The World Trade Center Feb 26, 1993
Waco, Texas April 19, 1993
O.J. Simpson Car Chase June 17, 1994
Federal Building April 19, 1995
The Alma Tunnel Paris Aug 31, 1997
The Unibomber Cabin 1997  
Texas A&M Bonfire Tower Nov. 18, 1999
The Pentagon Sept 11, 2001
The World Trade Center Sept 11, 2001
Hands of Victory Baghdad 1989-2003 
Neverland Ranch 1993/2005
New Orleans Superdome August 29, 2005
Osama Bin Laden House May 2, 2011