The Ant Farm Antioch Art Building (or AFAAB), a currently abandoned studio art building, was designed in 1971 by radical architecture and art collaborative Ant Farm and is located on the campus of Antioch College, a liberal arts college and historical hotbed of American left political activism in the 1960s and 1970s. Ant Farm, who had never built anything besides plastic inflatables before getting the contract from Antioch, lived in a treehouse while they worked on this open, flexible space, which was designed for interdisciplinary artistic mingling.
The building resembles a nightclub or a factory located on the edge of a bucolic, wooded college campus. The AFAAB building is one of the few built legacies of that era of architectural experimentation. Its surviving mass offers itself as a tool for experimenting with new proposals for future-oriented, ecologically conscious re-use and re-design strategies for architecture and the environment in which education and the built realm work in unison.
In this tour, led by Punk Preservationist Liz Flyntz, you'll walk around the exterior of the currently disused building and discuss its construction, recent addition to the National Register of Historic Places, and potential for adaptive reuse. Note that due to recent damage to the glass roof of the building, entry into the space is no longer permitted. We will also walk around and discuss the other three National Historic Register listed buildings on campus, one of which is the second oldest LEED certified building in the country.
Details
Free and open to the public, but parking is $10. Advance registration required.
Parking proceeds go to benefit Antioch Community Government. Please park in the Corry Street lot nearest the Art Building, near the Foundry Theater and the Sculpture Annex. Spots will be marked for tour participants.
Meet in the parking lot of the campus Foundry Theater.
This event is part of Docomomo US Tour Day 2022.
