Civita Institute

I've been remiss in not fully explaining these properties I'm trying to document, and I won't pretend to do that in this post, but wanted to give a little more background. NIAUSI was founded in 1981 by Astra Zarina, Tony Costa Heywood and some of the early students of the UW Architecture in Rome and Italian Hilltowns programs to build on the cultural exchange those programs fostered. Over the years, NIAUSI has sponsored dozens of fellowships, sending architects, planners, artists and writers to Italy, and bringing a few Italians in the design fields to Seattle.

Earlier this year, The properties that Astra and Tony have purchased and renovated over the past 50 years were transferred to NIAUSI, part of an incredibly generous donation by Astra and Tony that also includes the furnishings, artwork and program archives. The properties are known as the Civita Institute, and include 3 homes that are available to members and for special programs, as well as the Sala Grande, where the bulk of the library resides, the Garden Apartment, and Tony's current home in Il Ruderone. The sketch below shows the entrance to the properties.

Much of my work to date has been searching through the archives for old drawings, sketches, photographs and other documents that tell the story of these remarkable properties. There are many fascinating distractions. One that particularly struck home was the clipping below from the Roman daily Il Messaggero, featuring the program in 1984, with two photos of yours truly (with the dark hair and beard, lower and bottom left). Sitting with me at the studio table is Lyle "Lilo" Bicknell, and standing in the background is Mei Hickman. The other students in the photos are all from Carnegie-Mellon, I think. I vaguely remember this article coming out during the program that summer, but never saved a clipping myself (or if I did, it's buried who knows where). The archives hold many, much more valuable documents than this, some of which would otherwise be lost. I'll be sharing other finds in future posts.

One constant over all these years has been Tony, who has continued to support NIAUSI in many, many ways, and who oversaw the transfer of the properties this spring, along with current NIAUSI president Steve Day. Among NIAUSI fellows, Tony is best known as our long suffering host, patiently putting up with our clumsy attempts to learn life in an Italian hilltown. These days, he can be found most days enjoying pranzo at the neighboring Alma Civita, usually with the ever-present and often entertaining Sandro Rocchi. Here, the two old friends sit down to a plate of gnocchi al pesto. Buon apetito!