LOS ANGELES, CA.- This summer, the Hammer Museum will present a new sculptural work by Los Angeles-based architect Greg Lynn. A fantastical attraction for visitors of all ages, Fountain will be located in the museum’s outdoor courtyard. The work is a functioning fountain made entirely out of found large plastic children’s toys that have been cut and reassembled in multiple layers, with water spouting from its top and pooling at its base. Constructed from more than seventy-five prefabricated plastic whale and shark teeter-totters welded together and unified by the application of white automotive paint, Fountain will be a gathering place during the warm summer months.

Greg Lynn’s Fountain is the first in a new series of projects focused on architecture and design. Taking place approximately once a year over the next three years, these projects will focus on the presentation of new works by architects and designers and will be placed in different locations around the museum. Organized by Sylvia Lavin, Director of Critical Studies and MA/PhD Programs UCLArchitecture.

Greg Lynn, the 2008 Venice Biennale Golden Lion recipient, has been a faculty member at UCLA since 1996. He is principal of Greg Lynn FORM, a design team combining specialization in exotic form and creative ease with cutting edge design, manufacturing and construction techniques germane to the aeronautic, automobile and film industries of Southern California. Forbes magazine named Lynn one of the top ten trend-setters in Architecture in 2005. In 2002 he led a group of UCLA students to participate in the Venice Biennale of Architecture. His work has been exhibited extensively throughout the world with recent exhibitions in 2008 including “Out There: Architecture Beyond Building,” Venice Biennale, “Performalism: Form, Function and Performance in Digital Architecture,” Tel Aviv Museum of Art, Israel; and “Greg Lynn, Blob Wall” at SCI-ARC, Los Angeles. He is the recipient of a 2004 Progressive Architecture Award, and the American Academy of Arts and Letters Architecture Award in 2003. His work with United Architects includes finalist competition schemes for the World Trade Center Site Design Competition and the new headquarters for the European Central Bank.