[photo credit: ArtCenter College of Design]
The film, directed by Gina Angelone of SA KWA Pictures, is a portrait of Olin, the landscape architect whose body of work — according to ArtCenter — includes Bryant Park in New York, the gardens of the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the grounds of the Washington Monument, and Columbus Circle. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with Angelone, moderated by ArtCenter Illustration Department Chair Ann Field, and is presented in partnership with the American Institute of Architects, Pasadena and Foothill Chapter.
ArtCenter College of Design, founded in 1930, has been located in Pasadena since 1976. ArtCenter FullCircle, which the college describes as its membership community of alumni and supporters, is the host organization for the screening. The Hillside Campus is at 1700 Lida Street.
According to the ArtCenter FullCircle event page, the reception begins at 1 p.m., doors open at 1:50 p.m., and the screening begins at 2 p.m. The AIAPF event listing describes the program as running from 1 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., with doors at 1:45 p.m. for general admission. Film-only admission is $25. The pre-screening reception and film together are $50.
The pre-screening reception will be held in the Faculty Dining Room on the second floor, with the film shown in the Ahmanson Auditorium, according to the event invitation distributed by ArtCenter FullCircle. Parking is available in the South Parking Lot.
ArtCenter describes the film as “an intimate evening of film and conversation exploring the work and perspective of Laurie Olin, a visionary designer whose landscapes have shaped how we experience public space.” In a separate statement on its event page, the college says the documentary “offers a quiet and reflective exploration of how design shapes human experience and our relationship to place, through the perspectives of Olin and his most beloved work in the United States, including Bryant Park, the gardens of the Getty Center, the grounds of the Washington Monument, and Columbus Circle.”
Olin is a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects and received the 2012 National Medal of Arts, according to materials published by the Harvard Graduate School of Design and the New York Botanical Garden, which have hosted previous screenings of the film. He is emeritus professor of landscape architecture at the University of Pennsylvania and former chair of the Department of Landscape Architecture at Harvard University.
Olin’s Los Angeles connection runs through the Getty Center, whose gardens his firm designed in collaboration with architect Richard Meier’s office and consultant Dan Kiley, according to The Cultural Landscape Foundation. The museum opened in 1997.
Angelone, founder of SA KWA Pictures, completed “SITTING STILL” in 2024 with grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Graham Foundation, The Philadelphia Foundation, The William Penn Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania, among others, according to her firm’s biography. The film also features architects Frank Gehry and Billie Tsien and landscape designer Walter Hood, according to the film’s distributor and screening venues.
In an interview with the Mount Desert Islander published last August, Angelone described the film’s long development. “It took 10 years from having the idea, beginning the research, to starting to film in 2016,” she said. “When you’re featuring someone’s life philosophy and there are eight years between the interviews and the film’s release, a lot can change. That’s not the case with Laurie; the film carries the important messages and social concerns that he’s been thinking about for 50 years.”
Angelone, in the same interview, described the production as a family undertaking. “The three of us, along with Laurie and the crew, did a 30-day trip around the country, finishing up the filming,” she said. “My son shot 70% of the film, which is amazing, and Laurie became very close to me and my sons. It’s a very handmade, family-made film.”
Field, the post-screening moderator, has chaired ArtCenter’s undergraduate Illustration Department since 2004 and is listed among the college’s department chairs in its leadership directory. Her work, according to the college, is featured in the Smithsonian National Design Museum.
The AIA Pasadena and Foothill Chapter, which is co-presenting the event, was chartered on June 25, 1948, according to the chapter’s published history.
Registration information is available on the ArtCenter FullCircle events page and the AIAPF event listing. The AIAPF page indicated 97 spaces remained available at the time of access.
“It’s wonderful to get his message, legacy, thinking, out to a broader audience,” Angelone said in the Mount Desert Islander interview. “There’s a core audience — anyone interested in environment, architecture and landscape.”
