Modern Domestic Architcture in and Around Ithaca, Ny: the “Fallingwaters” of Raymond Viner Hall

MODERN DOMESTIC ARCHITCTURE IN AND AROUND ITHACA, NY: THE “FALLINGWATERS” OF RAYMOND VINER HALL

A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts

by Mahyar Hadighi January 2014

This research examines the role of Modern architecture in shaping the

American dream through the work of a particular architect, Raymond Viner Hall, a

Frank Lloyd Wright follower, in Ithaca, NY. Modernists’ ideas and Modern architecture played significant roles in the twentieth century post-depression urban history. Although the historic part of historic preservation does not commonly refer to twentieth century architecture, mid-century Modern architecture is an important part of the history and its preservation is important. Many of these mid-century Modern examples have already been destroyed, mainly because of lack of documentation, lack of general public knowledge, and lack of activity of advocacy groups and preservationists.

Attention to the recent past history of Ithaca, New York, which is home of

Cornell University and the region this research survey focuses on, is similarly not at the level it should be. Thus, in an attempt to begin to remedy this oversight, and in the capacity of a historic preservation-planning student at Cornell (with a background in architecture), a survey documenting the Modern architecture of the area was conducted. In the process of studying the significant recent history of Ithaca, a very interesting local adaptation of Wrightian architecture was discovered: the projects of

Raymond Viner Hall (1908-1981), a semi-local Pennsylvanian architect, who was a

Frank Lloyd Wright follower and son of the chief builder of Fallingwater.

As a result, this paper concentrates on the architecture of Raymond Viner Hall, its adaptation of Wright’s Fallingwater and other Usonian and Prairie houses, as well

i as its significant participation in the recent past history of architecture in the Ithaca area. Ultimately, this work explores the significant Modern architecture of Tompkins

County, designed by locally, nationally and internationally known architects, chiefly associated with the Department of Architecture at Cornell University. By telling the story of Modernism in Ithaca, this thesis seeks to help preserve the recent past history of architecture in the area.

The first building built in a Modernistic manner in the Ithaca area was designed by Raymond Viner Hall and built by his father. Raymond Hall’s participation in the history of Modern architecture of Ithaca is significant. Although

Raymond’s architecture was noted in the mid-twentieth century architectural journals, his architecture has not been fully explored. This paper documents Raymond Viner

Hall’s architecture in the Finger Lakes region and could be served as a reference for further research. It is an effort to protect and conserve Modern architecture of the

Ithaca area.

ii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Prior to his study in the Graduate Program in Historic Preservation Planning at

Cornell, Mahyar Hadighi studied, researched, practiced and taught as an architect, mainly in Iran. He contributed to different local, national and international projects in the field of architecture, art, urban design, and historic preservation. Mahyar received several academic and professional scholarships and awards in both Iran and the USA.

iii

This master’s thesis is dedicated to one and all who love me…

iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research project would not have been possible without the support of many people. I wish to express my gratitude to my thesis committee members,

Professor Dr. Michael Tomlan and Professor Jeff Chusid. I also wish to thank other past and present faculty members of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at

Cornell University including, but not limited to, John Reps, John Clair Miller, Mary

Woods, George Hascup, and John Zissovici. I would also like to express my appreciation to Dr. Nicolette de Csipkay and Rose Wellman for their great editorial assistance.

This research was supported by Historic Ithaca Inc., Cornell University, and a

Barclay Jones Research Grant, provided by Historic Preservation Planning Alumni

Inc.

v TABLE OF CONTENTS

Abstract i Biographical sketch iii Acknowledgments v Table of contents vi List of figures viii Introduction 1 1. The Development of Modern Architecture 5 I. The Rise of Modern Architecture 7 II. Post World War II Modern Architecture in the United States 24 III. The End of Modernism 26 2. Modernism in and Around Ithaca, NY: A Brief History 30 3. Frank Lloyd Wright and Fallingwater 82 I. Frank Lloyd Wright 84 II. Fallingwater 89 4. Raymond Viner Hall’s Architecture in Ithaca, NY 103 I. Raymond Viner Hall; A Biographical Sketch 104 II. Lynn Hall 105 III. Raymond Viner Hall’s Architecture 109 IV. Hall’s Participation in Ithaca, NY 113 1. The Walter and Martha Crissey Residence 115 2. The W. E. Dennis Residence 118 3. The James Lynn Hoard Residence 120 4. The Fletcher Woodcock Residence 124 5. The Victor K. D. Ross Residence 127 6. The Edward H. Litchfield Residence 130 5. Preserving Modern Architecture 135 I. Preservation of Modern Architecture; A Brief History 137 II. Preservation of Modern Architecture in the United States 139

vi III. Preservation of Modern Architecture; Challenges 142

IV. Recommendations 146

Conclusion 149 Bibliography 151

vii LIST OF FIGURES

1. Robie House, Chicago (1909), F.L. Wright. Image from www.architecture.about.com. 12 2. Schroder House (1924), Rietveld. Image from www.dwell.com. 12 3. The Bauhaus, Dessau, Germany (1925-26), Gropius. Image from arthistoryfeathers.wordpress.com/. 13 4. Villa Savoye in Poissy, France (1928-31), Le Corbusier. Image from finaleproject.files.wordpress.com. 14 5. Fallingwater (1935), F. L. Wright. Image from wright-house.com. 15 6. First Unitarian Meeting House in Madison (1949-51), F.L. Wright. Image from newamericanvillage.blogspot.com. 18 7. Sibbett House, San Francisco (ca. 1941), W. Wurster. Image from www.ou.edu. 19 8. Equitable Building, Portland (ca 1950), Bellusci. Photo by Helen S. O'Brien (postcard Rich and Phine Company, Portland). 20 9. The Aalto House (house and office) Helsinki, Finland (1934), Alvar Aalto. Image from www.mimoa.eu. 21 10. Unité d'Habitation de Marseille, Marseille, France (1952), Le Corbusier. Image from www.essential-architecture.com/STYLE/STY-M10.htm. 22 11. Farnsworth House, Plano, IL (1951), Mies van der Rohe. Image from eng.archinform.net/projekte/2096.htm. 23 12. Vanna Venturi House (1962), Robert Venturi. Image from www.archdaily.com. 26 13. Philip Johnson and the AT&T building model. Image from archimodels.info. 28 14. AT&T building in NYC (1984), Philip Johnson. Image from www.achievement.org. 28 15. The Walter and Martha Crissey Residence, Ithaca, NY (1941), east view, Raymond Hall. Image by the author. 32 16. Newman lab at Cornell (1947), SOM. Image by the author. 33

viii 17. Cornell Engineering Quad in 1964 . Image from Cornell Alumni News, Vol. 67, NO. 1 (July 1964). 34 18. Current Aerial view of Engineering Quad. Image from Google Maps. 35 19. Thurston Hall in the Engineering Quad. Image by the author. 36 20. Carpenter Hall in the Engineering Quad. Image by the author. 36 21. Upson Hall in the Engineering Quad. Image by the author. 37 22. Hollister Hall in the Engineering Quad, the central portion. Image by the author. 38 23. Hollister Hall in the Engineering Quad, the entrance. Image by the author. 38 24. Lustron House at 102 Homestead Rd, Ithaca, NY (1949). Image by the author. 39 25. Lustron House at 102 Homestead Rd, Ithaca, NY (1949). Image by the author. 39 26. Olin Library at Cornell (1957), Charles Warner. Image by the author. 41 27. Olin Library at Cornell (1957), Charles Warner, north elevation. Image from University Archives, http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu. 41 28. Clark Hall at Cornell (1965), Charles Warner. Image by the author. 42 29. Clark Hall at Cornell (1965), Charles Warner, interior. Image by the author. 43 30. Clark Hall at Cornell (1965), Charles Warner, interior. Image by the author. 43 31. Original Mallot Hall at Cornell (1963), Charles Warner. Image by the author. 44 32. The John Reps House (1954-1961), Original vs. Addition. Image by the author. 46 33. The original John Reps House (1954) under construction. Image from the Reps slide collection. 46 34. The Reps House (1961), Tom Canfieald. Image by the author. 47 35. Dillingham Center at Ithaca College (1969), Tom Canfield. Image by the author. 48 36. Dillingham Center at Ithaca College (1969), Tom Canfield. Image by the author. 48

ix 37. Dillingham Center at Ithaca College (1969), Tom Canfield, interior. Image by the author. 48 38. Dillingham Center at Ithaca College (1969), Tom Canfield. Image by the author. 49 39. Hill Center at Ithaca College (1964), Tom Canfield. Image by the author. 50 40. Hill Center at Ithaca College (1964), Tom Canfield. Image by the author. 50 41. Space Science Building at Cornell (1967-87), Ballinger. Image by the author. 51 42. Space Science Building at Cornell (1967-87), Ballinger. Image by the author. 51 43. Emerson Hall at Cornell (1968), Franzen. Image by the author. 53 44. Bradfield Hall at Cornell (1969), Franzen. Image by the author. 54 45. Bradfield Hall at Cornell (1969), Franzen. Image by the author. 54 46. VRT at Cornell (1974), Franzen. Image by the author. 55 47. VRT at Cornell (1974), Franzen. Image by the author. 55 48. Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell (1974), Franzen. Image by the author. 56 49. Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell (1974), Franzen. Image by the author. 56 50. Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell (1974), Franzen. Image by the author. 56 51. Fairview Heights in 1964, Marcel Breuer. Image from Ithaca’s Neighborhood the Rhine, the Hill and the Goose Pasture. 58 52. Fairview Heights in 2010, Marcel Breuer. Image by the author. 58 53. Arch and Esther Dotson House (1966), Richard Meier, before restoration. Image from http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. 59 54. Arch and Esther Dotson House (1966), Richard Meier, after restoration. Image by the author. 60 55. Arch and Esther Dotson House (1966), Richard Meier, after restoration. Image by the author. 60 56. Contemporary Trends, Ithaca, NY (1969), John Miller. Image by the author. 61 57. Contemporary Trends, Ithaca, NY (1969), John Miller. Image by the author. 61 58. Fire Station #9, Ithaca, NY (1969), John Miller. Image by the author. 62

x 59. The new Mallot Hall at Cornell (1977), John Miller. Image by the author. 63 60. The new Mallot Hall at Cornell (1977), John Miller. Image by the author. 63 61. The Miller Residence (1974), John Miller, interior. Image by the author. 64 62. The Miller Residence (1974), John Miller. Image by the author. 64 63. The Cornell Store (1970), main entrance. Image by the author. 65 64. The Cornell Store (1970), main entrance. Image by the author. 65 65. Downtown Bank, Ithaca, NY (c. 1967), William Downing. Image by the author. 67 66. Uris Hall at Cornell (1970-72), Bunshaft. Image by the author. 68 67. Uris Hall at Cornell (1970-72), Bunshaft. Image by the author. 68 68. Scattered Housing Project in Ithaca, NY (1971), Werner Seligmann. Images from Syracuse University School of Architecture website. 70 69. Scattered Housing Project in Ithaca, NY (1971), Werner Seligmann, interior. Images from Syracuse University School of Architecture website. 70 70. Scattered Housing Project in Ithaca, NY (1971) under construction, Werner Seligmann. Images from Syracuse University School of Architecture website.70 71. Center Ithaca, Ithaca, NY (1981), Werner Seligman, current condition. Image by the author. 71 72. Center Ithaca, Ithaca, NY (1981), Werner Seligman, interior, current condition. Image by the author. 71 73. Center Ithaca, Ithaca, NY (1981), Werner Seligman, current condition. Image by the author. 71 74. The house at 2 Cornell Walk, Ithaca, NY (ca. 1971), Bodil Somkin. Image by the author. 72 75. The house at 2 Cornell Walk, Ithaca, NY (ca. 1971), Bodil Somkin. Image by the author. 72 76. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, original building (1973), I. M. Pei. Image by the author. 73 77. Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell, addition (2011), John Sullivan. Image by the author. 73

xi 78. Grumman Squash Courts at Cornell (1975), Jerry Wells. Image by the author.74 79. Grumman Squash Courts at Cornell (1975), Jerry Wells. Image by the author.74 80. Uris Library addition at Cornell (1980-82), Gunnar Birkerts. Image by the author. 75 81. Uris Library addition at Cornell (1980-82), Gunnar Birkerts. Image by the author. 75 82. Snee Hall at Cornell (1984), Mario Shack. Image by the author. 76 83. Snee Hall at Cornell (1984), Mario Shack. Image by the author. 76 84. Carl Sagan studio, Ithaca, NY (renovated in 1992), Jullian de la Fuente, exterior. Images from Architectural Digest magazine. 78 85. Carl Sagan studio, Ithaca, NY (renovated in 1992), Jullian de la Fuente, interior. Images from Architectural Digest magazine. 78 86. The Cube House, Ithaca, NY (1995), Simon Ungres. Image by the author. 79 87. The Cube House, Ithaca, NY (1995), Simon Ungres. Image by the author. 79 88. Frank Lloyd Wright’s portrait by Al Ravenna, 1954. Image from Library of Congress. 84 89. Fallingwater (1935-37), F.L. Wright. Image by the author. 85 90. Fallingwater (1935-37), F.L. Wright, first floor plan. Image from etereastudios.com. 90 91. Fallingwater Privacy Diagram. Image by the author. 92 92. A comparison of schematic plan of Fallingwater and Mies van der Rohe’s 1923 project for a brick villa. Image from Fallingwater Rising. 93 93. Fallingwater (1935-37), F.L. Wright, section. Image from GreatBuilding.com. 94 94. Fallingwater in 2012, F. L. Wright. Image by the author. 95 95. Fallingwater in 2012, Unobstructed corner windows. Image by the author. 96 96. Fallingwater in 2012, Unobstructed corner windows. Image by the author. 96 97. Fallingwater, Unobstructed corner windows. Image from icor1348.com. 96 98. Fallingwater, Unobstructed corner windows. Image from icor1348.com. 96

xii 99. Fallingwater in 2012, concrete trellis over the driveway. Image by the author. 96 100. Fallingwater, fireplace in the living room. Image from icor1348.com. 97 101. A Map showing locations of Port Allegany, PA, Mill Run, PA, Buffalo, NY. and Ithaca, NY. Base Map from Google Maps. 98 102. Walter Hall in Fallingwater project. Image from smethporthistory.org. 100 103. Lynn Hall in 1940s, Hall family. Image from smethporthistory.org. 105 104. Lynn Hall in 1940s, Hall family. Image from smethporthistory.org. 105 105. Lynn Hall in 1940s, Hall family. Image from smethporthistory.org. 106 106. Lynn Hall in April 2010, Hall family. Image from wikimedia.org. 108 107. Frick Bakery, Elkland, PA (1935), Raymond Hall. Image from Elkland Journal. 109 108. McKean County Memorial Park (1935), Raymond Hall. Image from William Scott collection. 109 109. House #10 (1948), Raymond Hall. Image from America's Best Small Houses. 110 110. House #10, (1948), Raymond Hall. Image from America's Best Small Houses. 110 111. House #10 (1948), Raymond Hall. Image from America's Best Small Houses. 110 112. House in St. Marys, PA (1948), Raymond Hall. Image from Progressive Architecture. 111 113. Three schools designed by R.V. Hall. Images from 1972 Hall’s Firm Brochure. 112 114. Ithaca map with Raymond Hall’s projetcs. Base map from Google Maps. 113 115. The house at 177 Westhaven Rd, Ithaca, NY. Image by the author. 114 116. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Crissey Residence (1941). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library. 116 117. The Crissey Residence, Ithaca. NY (1941), Raymond Hall, east view. Image by the author. 116

xiii 118. The Crissey Residence, Ithaca, NY (1941), Raymond Hall, interior. Image by the author. 117 119. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Dennis Residence (1945). Image from http://www.smethporthistory.org/raymondvinerhall/rvhome.html. 118 120. The Dennis Residence, Ithaca, NY (1945), Raymond Hall, the three-story glass wall. Image from Dennis family collection. 119 121. The Dennis Residence, Ithaca, NY (1945), Raymond Hall. Image from Dennis family collection. 119 122. The Hoard Residence, Ithaca, NY (1949), Raymond Hall, interior, current condition. Image by the author. 120 123. The Hoard Residence, Ithaca, NY (1949), Raymond Hall, east view in 1949. Image from Hoard’s family slide collection. 121 124. The Hoard Residence, Ithaca, NY (1949), Raymond Hall, west view in 1949. Image from Hoard’s family slide collection. 121 125. The Hoard Residence, Ithaca, NY (1949), Raymond Hall, west view, current condition. Image by the author. 122 126. The Hoard Residence, Ithaca, NY (1949), Raymond Hall, interior, current condition. Image by the author. 122 127. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Hoard Residence (1949). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library. 123 128. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Hoard Residence (1949). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library. 123 129. The Woodcock Residence, Ithaca, NY (1948-49), Raymond Hall, southeast view. Image by the author. 125 130. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Woodcock Residence (1948-49). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library. 126 131. The Ross Residence, Ithaca, NY (1950), Raymond Hall, altered exterior. Image by the author. 128 132. The Ross Residence, Ithaca, NY (1950), Raymond Hall, interior under renovation. Image by the author. 128

xiv 133. Raymond Hall’s drawing for the Ross Residence (1950). Image from Hall Collection, CMU library. 129 134. The Litchfield Residence, Ithaca, NY (1952), Raymond Hall, street view. Image by the author. 131 135. The Litchfield Residence, Ithaca, NY (1952), Raymond Hall, living room. Image by the author. 131 136. The Litchfield Residence, Ithaca, NY (1952), Raymond Hall, west view. Image by the author. 132 137. Robie House, Chicago (1908-10), F. L. Wright. Image from cchenut.wordpress.com. 140 138. Pope-Leighey House (1939), F. L. Wright, current condition in Alexandria, Virginia. Image from ronbluntphoto.com. 141

xv INTRODUCTION

Jane Jacobs’s effort to save historic structures with the intention of providing diversity in cities marked the start of the great historic preservation movements of the

1960s and 1970s. Since that time, particularly in the United States, the concern for historic preservation has steadily burgeoned, as have studies of regional architecture.

For example, recent studies by Cornell University, Historic Ithaca, the Office of the

Tompkins County Historians, as well as individual historians, have focused on researching and documenting the historic structures of Tompkins County and the city of

Ithaca. Importantly, however, here and in most other regions of the United States, no comparable research or attention has been given to 20th century modern architecture.

Published and unpublished studies about the history of architecture in America have characteristically concentrated on a specific period or style, or on a generalized mapping of its development from the American Colonial period to the point of publication. One researcher who examines American architectural history from the 14th century to the postmodern era is David P. Handlin, whose book American Architecture first appeared in 1985, with a second edition released in 2004. Kenneth Frampton,

Columbia University Ware Professor of Architecture, also wrote an important history, specifically focusing on the modern era, entitled Modern Architecture, a Critical

History, published in 1980, 1985, 1992, and 2007. Frampton also edited American

Masterworks (1995, 2008).

On the whole, however, modernism has received scant attention. For example, in Ithaca, New York, home of Cornell University, although there has been vast research

1 about the historic structures and sites of the area, due to the efforts and support of

Michael and Mary Tomlan and other faculty members of the Historic Preservation

Program, there is no published or even unpublished investigation of the modern buildings in the area. Likewise, a more recent book entitled The Architecture Heritage of Tompkins County1, while surveying and documenting the area’s significant historic buildings and sites, included only one of the county’s modern buildings.

In general, then, despite all of the studies, investigation and documentation of historical American architecture, and specifically, of Tompkins County, modern architecture has remained a neglected subject. Here, I hope to begin to address this gap by researching and documenting the significant recent past properties of the area, much of which was designed by nationally and internationally recognized architects associated with the Department of Architecture at Cornell University. It is also my intent that this thesis provide a unified document that can serve as an introductory reference for further researchers of modernism in this area.

It is worth recalling here that more than one kind of knowledge is utilized in efforts to preserve and conserve districts, properties, buildings and objects. Michael

Tomlan notes, "Aesthetic, economic, historic and social concerns are the four principal motivations for preservationists."2 As a historic preservation student in the graduate field of planning, with a background in architecture, I have tried to address these different motivations and approaches. First, I conducted a windshield survey of the variety of buildings and properties in Tompkins County. Then, with the guidance of my

1 Lynn Cunningham Truame and Carol Kammen, The Architectural Heritage of Tompkins County, (Ithaca, NY: The Office of the Tompkins County Historian, Historic Ithaca, and the DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 2002). 2 Michael Tomlan, Handy Thesis Notes, Sheet#106, "Research Methodologies and Historic Preservation", 1982; 1996.

2 thesis chair members, Professor Michael Tomlan and Professor Jeffrey Chusid, and the help of other faculty members of the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning at

Cornell University, we defined boundaries to limit my research for purposes of efficiency and usefulness.

The next step was to make a more careful survey and to document the properties that met our definition. Library research, deed chaining, oral history research, photography, and even measuring were parts of the survey process. Interviews with the current owners of the properties, as well as architects, historians and Cornell faculty members, past and present, including John Reps, John Clair Miller, Werner Goehner, and John Zissovici, provided other important sources of information.

In addition to listing and briefly describing the modern architecture of the area, which is the basis of this study, my research will present a general view of the history of modernism and preservation of modern architecture, as well as a more careful study of a group of residences designed by the not-very-famous, “half local”, Pennsylvania architect, Raymond Viner Hall.

While information about Raymond Hall and his architecture are very limited, one helpful document, in terms of ascertaining Raymond Viner Hall’s contributions, is the hand-written job list that comprises part of the Raymond Viner Hall collection, presently in the keeping of Hall family (Ray Morton Hall and Rhonda Baron-Hall) and

Clinton Piper. Clinton Piper, a Fallingwater archivist who did the National Register

Nomination for Lynn Hall, home of Hall family, rescued the most important parts of the

Raymond Viner Hall collection when it was dumped in Lynn Hall. Piper also helped arrange the making of digital copies of the Hall collection for Carnegie Mellon

3 University Library. Since then, most of the collection has been safely archived with

William B. Scott, an architectural historian. Although the collection includes only some of the projects, a number of newspaper clippings, a few hand-made drawings and hand- written letters, it is the only resource available to Raymond Hall scholars.

The study is presented in five chapters: 1. An overview of the history of

Modernism; 2. A brief history of Modernism in Ithaca/Tompkins County; 3. A brief history of Frank Lloyd Wright and his Fallingwater; 4. A history of Raymond Viner

Hall and his architecture in Ithaca, which was inspired by Wright and his Fallingwater; and 5. A brief history of preserving Modern architecture and its problems, with recommendations for local preservation organizations in Ithaca, NY to preserve the significant Modern architecture of the area.

4 CHAPTER 1.

THE DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE

When we hear the word “preservation,” we usually think it refers to something old: antique jewelry, an ancient pot or jar, or an important historic building. We usually do not consider preserving newer objects because they are still with us, a part of our

“living” culture, and we do not recognize them as having temporal importance beyond their immediate use. We do not think of them as needing preservation. Sooner or later, however, anything new will become old. Not only do physical objects change over time, but attitudes toward them also change.

As a historic preservation student at Cornell with a background in architecture, I discovered that, although there is considerable research about the historic buildings in

Ithaca, there is a lack of study and documentation about the Modern3 architecture of the area. “Modern” is a term used to describe the significant architecture of 1920s through

1980s. There are great examples of Modern architecture in the area dating from 1941 that need to be documented, restored, or preserved from further deterioration.

Prior to listing the Modern buildings in Ithaca and describing the history of

Modernism in the area, it seems necessary to briefly define the style and explain the meaning, history, and various schools of Modern architecture. This chapter provides an

3 In the field of history of architecture, Modern/Modernism (with capital M) refers to an architectural style of the early and mid 20th century.

5 overview of the history of Modernism in architecture in general, and in the United

States, in particular.

6 I. The Rise of Modern Architecture

Although it seems easy for an architecture student or “googler” to pinpoint the origin of modern architecture as beginning around the turn of the 20th century, it is not so simple. As Kenneth Frampton indicates in the introduction of his book, Modern

Architecture, a Critical History, establishing a beginning point for the period of Modern architecture is the first problem in writing about the history of Modern architecture.

How we view and categorize Modern architecture itself is a challenge. It is also critical to decide what material should be included and to be “consistent in the interpretation of the facts,” as Frampton has noted.

While we may not want to go back as far as Renaissance, we must at least return to the mid-18th century, when architects and theorists started to question the classical principles of Vitruvius. Questioning set routine rules has always been a starting point for theoretical change, particularly in modern era. Modern theorists, especially, pay more attention to questioning and criticizing rules. This questioning, along with the development of modern technologies and new materials play a significant role in the formation of Modern architecture.

The Industrial Revolution, which began in England in the late 18th century, made radical changes in every level of civilization all over the world. The Industrial

Revolution was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban. Prior to the Industrial Revolution manufacturing was often done in people’s homes, using hand tools or basic machines.

Industrialization marked a shift to powered, special-purpose machinery, factories and mass production. Industrialization helped to both produce modern thinking and the

7 materials and technologies of what we now call Modern architecture. The heavy industry growth brought a flood of new building materials, such as cast iron, steel, and glass, with which architects and engineers devised structures of unimaginable size, form, and function.

Technology and technical institutions such as the Ecole des Ponts et Chaussees, which was started in 1747, changed perceptions of technology and culture in essential ways. This “cultural transformation” evolved from 1750-1900 through other schools and a variety of architects and theorists. The Ecole Polytechnique and the Ecole des

Beaux-Arts trained students who became important figures in the history of architecture.

For example, Auguste Choisy, the engineer, effectively disposed of the theory of

Structural Classicism in 1899 when he countered Rondelet’s ideas4 with an analysis of the Acropolis: “The Greeks never visualized a building without the site that framed it and the other buildings that surrounded it . . . each architectural motif, on its own, is symmetrical, but every group is treated like a landscape where the masses alone balance out.”5 Choisy’s ideas about the transposition of wooden structures into masonry were put into practice by Auguste Perret, who was working on his reinforced-concrete structures after the traditional method of wood framing. Auguste Perret and Tony

Garnier had learned the principals of Classical “Elementarist” composition from Beaux-

Arts instructor, Julien Guadet, who sought to establish “a normative approach to the composition of structures from technically up-to-date elements, arranged as far possible

4 Jean-Baptiste Rondelet (4 June 1743–25 September 1829) was an architectural theorist of the late Enlightenment and chief architect of the church of Sainte-Geneviève. Rondelet published a treatise on architecture in 1802 entitled Traité de l'art de batir. 5 Auguste Choisy, Histoire de l’architecture (Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1899).

8 according to the tradition of axial composition.” 6 These principals and Perret’s effort to utilize historical typologies and compositions in new materials were later handed down to the pioneer architects of the 20th century, such as his one-time employee, Le

Corbusier.7

During the second half of 18th century in Europe, especially in England, a variety of technical innovations continued the transformation of technology and culture, such as Abraham Darby’s mass-production of cast-iron rails from 1767 which led to

Henry Cort’s development of the process of transformation of cast-iron to wrought-iron in 1784. Despite Abraham Darby’s improvement in the smelting of iron using coke instead of charcoal as fuel, since the product was not suitable as a feedstock for the finery forges used to produce wrought iron, Cort developed his “pudding furnace” to exposed the metal evenly to the heat, which was directed to transformation of cast to wrought iron.8 New construction materials changed the idea of architecture. For example, the first project that every modern architecture textbook starts with is Crystal

Palace. Designed by Joseph Paxton, Crystal palace was made of cast iron and glass for the first world fair, the Great Exhibition of 1851 in London. The significance of Crystal

Palace in the history of early modern architecture, in terms of materiality, structural system, planning, roofing and drainage system, and modularity is widely acknowledged.

Technologies stemming from railway, daily press and telegraph applications, gradually

6 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture, a Critical History (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1992), 19. 7 Frampton, Modern Architecture, 12-20, and Francoise Choay, Le Corbusier (New York: George Braziller, 1960), 10-11. 8 Joseph S. Sporel, “A Brief History of Iron and Steel Production,” Saint Anselm College, http://www.anselm.edu/homepage/dbanach/h-carnegie-steel.htm, and Samuel Smile, Industrial Biography: Iron Workers and Tool Makers (Bremen, Germany: Europ Ischer Hochschulverlag Gmbh & Co. Kg, 2010), 109.

9 changed the concept of space throughout the 19th century—what has been referred to

“territorial transformations”—as well as other urban developments. 9

However, the history of Modern architecture, especially in the U.S., is perhaps most influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie style of architecture, from early 1900-1920. The “Prairie style” began with a publication in 1901 of “A

Home in Prairie Town,” which Wright designed for the Ladies’ Home Journal.10

Prairie houses could be generally characterized by a low-pitched, or flat roof accompanied by widely overhanging eaves, cornices and detailing that emphasized horizontal lines and which were meant to complement the surrounding landscape.

Frank Lloyd Wright was inspired by German architects, specially Gottfried

Semper and Otto Wagner. Gottfried Semper, the nineteenth-century German architect, art historian, and professor of architecture, influenced a generation of Central European followers at the turn of the 20-century with his notion of the textile origins of building.

He motivated Modern architects and designers not only to design cloth and clothing, but to express characteristics of the textile in their buildings and interior designs as well.

While architects such as Otto Wagner in Vienna and Odon Lechner in Budapest designed their buildings with decorative textile-like façades, younger Modernists, including Josef Hoffmann and Adolf Loos, interpreted Semper's ideas more broadly, understanding their application to the design of interior spaces in innovative ways.11

While working for the firm of Adler and Sullivan in Chicago, Wright was also inspired by another German architect, Louis Sullivan. Through his life, Wright

9 Frampton, Modern Architecture, 20-28. 10 H. Allen Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1984), 13. 11 Rebecca Houze, “The Textile as Structural Framework: Gottfried Semper's Bekleidungsprinzip and the Case of Vienna 1900,” Textile, Vol. 4 Issue 3 (Fall2006): 292.

10 acknowledged very few influences but credits Sullivan as a primary influence on his career.12 The active architecture of Chicago at the turn of the 20th century, which is known as the “Chicago School” not only inspired Wright’s architecture, but also influenced other young architects of the time. Chicago architects were among the first to promote the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and they developed a spatial aesthetic, which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in Modern architecture.13 Architects whose names are associated with the Chicago School include Henry Hobson Richardson, Dankmar Adler,

Daniel Burnham, William Holabird, William LeBaron Jenney, Martin Roche, John

Root, Solon S. Beman, and Louis Sullivan. Frank Lloyd Wright started in the firm of

Adler and Sullivan but created his own Prairie Style of architecture.

Two Modern architects from abroad, Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, who worked with Wright, continued to spread his influence to the nation’s residential landscape while providing additional Modernist ideas. Schindler, born in Vienna in

1887, moved to Chicago in 1914 and joined Frank Lloyd Wright’s office in 1917. He started to take on several projects of his own after Wright summoned him to Los

Angeles in 1920 to work on some projects. Another Vienna-born colleague, Richard

Neutra, became a pioneer architect of the Modern Movement in California. Neutra who studied in Vienna under Adolf Loos at the Vienna University of Technology and worked with noted European architects of the time, moved to the United States by 1923 and worked briefly for Wright before accepting invitation from his old friend, Rudolph

Schindler.

12 Frank Lloyd Wright biography, accessed 12/15/2013, http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html. 13 David P. Billington, The Tower and the Bridge: The New Art of Structural Engineering (Princeton University Press, 1985), 234–5.

Fig. 1: Robie House, Chicago (1909). Example of Wright’s Prairie style. Image from www.architecture.about.com.

After World War I other ideas arose, different from earlier precepts. The architect Theo van Doesburg was the founder of a group called “de Stijl”, which is a

Dutch word for “the Style.” The philosophy of the group was based on functionalism and the elimination of all surface decoration except color. The most complete recognition of “de Stijl” architecture is Gerrit Rietveld’s design for the Schroder House in Utrecht, Netherlands, built in 1924.14

Fig. 2: Schroder House(1924), designed by Rietveld, Netherlands. Image from www.dwell.com.

14 “Art, Design, and Visual Thinking,” http://char.txa.cornell.edu/art/decart/destijl/decstijl.htm.

12 Finding solutions for the problems of the working class after World War I in

Germany became fundamental to the Bauhaus School of design, a group of architects and artists led by Walter Gropius in 1919, in Dessau, Germany. Their concept of architecture was closer to Vitruvius’ in that the architect should be a “masterbuilder” and not just a designer. All engineering and design students took craft courses as well as painting, drawing, and theoretical studies. When Hitler closed the Bauhaus in 1933, most of the teachers emigrated to other schools and other countries, such as the U.S. By the outbreak of World War II most of them were teaching in major schools in the United

States, and thus influenced the entire generation of artists and architects who followed them. Walter Gropius, for instance, became a professor at Harvard University and worked on a series of homes with his colleague at Harvard, Marcel Breuer. Another influential architect was Mies van der Rohe, a German-born student and colleague of

Peter Behrens and director of Bauhaus after Gropius. He moved to the United States in

193715 and became well known at the Illinois Institute of Technology.

Fig. 3: The Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany (1925-26), designed by Walter Gropius. Image from http://arthistoryfeathers.wordpress.com/.

15 Treena Crochet, “International in America, The Origins of Modern Houses Stem from Abroad,” Old Houses, (December 2003), 70-77 and “Art, Design, and Visual Thinking.”

13 The International Style, the largely European Modern architecture characteristic of the 1920s and 1930s, borrows its name from an exhibition catalogue written by

Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson in 1932. They organized and managed the

International Exhibition of Modern Architecture at the Museum of Modern Art in New

York City, which introduced more Americans to the new ideas in building and landscape design. Today, the International Style is still what most people understand to be Modern architecture. Purity of forms, the honest use of materials, avoidance of ornamentation, and conceptual simplicity are basic tenets of the International Modern

Style. 16

Fig. 4: Villa Savoye in Poissy, France (1928-31), designed by Le Corbusier. Image from http://finaleproject.files.wordpress.com.

In the journal L’Esprit Nouveau and his book, Vers une architecture, Le

Corbusier identified five points of architecture which became standard reference for the aspiring Modern architect: the mass of the structure must be lifted off the ground, with the support of pilotes, so that the ground appears untouched; the floor plan must be

16 Henry Russell Hitchcock, and Philip Johnson, The International Style (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997).

14 uncluttered and open; the façade must not depend on supporting walls; typically, windows should be long horizontal strips so as to incorporate the surrounding views into the living space; and (if desired) buildings should feature roof-top gardens.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s career reached its peak in the late 1930s with

Fallingwater, which he designed for the Kaufmann family in Pennsylvania.

Fallingwater was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.17 The early

Modern architecture of the Ithaca area was designed by Fallingwater’s chief builder,

Walter Hall, and his son. This building was largely indebted to Wright’s architecture.

Fig. 5: Fallingwater (1935), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Image from wright-house.com.

In The Architectural Record between the years of 1949 and 1954, Wright tried to explain his idea of Modern architecture using the term “organic architecture.”18 He defined it in several different ways, but the basic principle binding these definitions was

17 “Fallingwater,” National Historic Landmark Summary Listing. National Park Service. Retrieved 2008- 07-02. 18 Michael A. Tomlan, “Architectural Press, U.S.” in Encyclopedia of Architecture: Design, Engineering & Construction, ed. Joseph A. Wilkes and Robert T. Packard (New York: Wiley, 1990), 286-291.

15 that in architecture, all parts were related to the whole as the whole was related to the parts. In May 1952, Wright wrote an article entitled, “Organic Architecture Looks at

Modern Architecture,” wherein he pronounced that “any ‘international style’ would probably be a cultural calamity fit for fascism but intolerable to democracy” and that

“Modern architecture is Organic architecture deprived of a soul.” 19 Above all, Organic architecture sought to provide shelter for human life: “Roofs either flat or pitched, hipped or gabled but always comprehensive Shelter.”20 Ornaments were not acceptable:

”Ornament was non-existent unless integral.”21 Wright also discussed a structural system that would replace the traditional wooden frame-bearing wall. He believed that a screen or envelope was preferable to a face or façade, and he emphasized a new functional role for the walls of a building. He described the relationship as “Walls bec[come] screen, often glass screen, and the new open-plan spread[s] space upon a concrete ground-mat: the whole structure [is] intimate and wide upon and of the ground itself”22, going on to explain how, “This ground-mat floor eventually cover[s] and contain[s] the gravity-heating system (heat rises naturally as water falls) of the spaces to be lived in: forced circulation of hot water in pipes embedded in a broken stone bed beneath the floor slabs (soon misnamed ‘radiant-heat’).”23 As a result, “Even the walls play a new role or disappear. Basement and attics disappear altogether.”24 Wright tried to implement a new space for living in a scale appropriate to humans, a more free space due to the “freedom of plan and structure.”

19 Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, ed., “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” in Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings (New York: Rizzoli, 1995), 45. 20 Frank Lloyd Wright, in Frank Lloyd Wright Collected Writings, Bruce Brooks Pfeiffer, ed. (New York: Rizzoli, 1995), 47. 21 F.L.Wright, “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” 47. 22 F.L.Wright, “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” 47. 23 F.L.Wright, “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” 48. 24 F.L.Wright, “Organic Architecture Looks at Modern Architecture,” 48.

16 In July 1953, R. J. Anderson, editor of Architectural Forum, noted that “no longer [was] it possible to explain modern design as ‘simply functional,’” and he announced that Forum was starting a new series of discussions on this theme. At the end of his editorial, Anderson predicted that, “Our architecture some day will take an important place in history with the Greek, the Gothic and Renaissance.”25 The first of this series was “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” by Eero Saarinen, one of the younger architectural leaders of the time. Saarinen began his article with the notion that architects were at the beginning of a whole new period of design. He believed that in the future, when historians looked back, they would view the more traditional architects of this time as “scenery builders buil[ding] Gothic colleges and

Roman banks—false facades borrowed from a former time,”26 unacceptable because such buildings did “not even recognize the spiritual side of architecture.”27 Instead

Saarinen celebrated a smaller group of architects, who seemed to distinguish themselves not by the size of their buildings, but by their intellectual and creative contribution; they were the “form-givers.” Saarinen went on to describe six easily discernible branches of

Modern architecture that he divided into two main groups: those he referred to as

“individualists, romanticists or humanists,” and those he called “classicists or functionalists [whose work was] sometimes labeled as the ‘International style.”28 For a better understanding of how Modern architecture can be defined and delimited, it is necessary to explain the six branches of the mid-twentieth-century architecture defined

25 R. J. Anderson, “Great Architecre Is More Than Efficient Shelter,” Architectural Forum, July 1953, 110. 26 Eero Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” Architectural Forum, July 1953, 111. 27 Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 111. 28 Eero Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” Architectural Forum, July 1953, 111.

17 by Saarinen. An elucidation of these branches are further helpful for outlining a boundary for any Modern case study including the present research in Ithaca, NY.

1. Wright and Organic Unity

The strongest influence on the first category, which might be called “the expression of the individual,” originates in Frank Lloyd Wright’s early 20th century notions of “organic” unity, free and fluid space, the inseparable relation of nature and building, the importance of natural and local materials, and in his earmark modular design. Saarinen compared Wright’s influence on modern architecture to a tree trunk from which the several branches of modern architecture have grown. He wrote,

“Today, once more, with our growing maturity, we are recognizing a new significance in Wright’s work, even beyond the fertility of the great tree trunk: its spiritual quality.”29

Fig. 6: First Unitarian Meeting House in Madison (1949-51), designed by F.L. Wright. Image from http://newamericanvillage.blogspot.com.

2. Wurster, Belluschi and Handicraft Architecture

One group of architects influenced by Wright’s reverence for nature, materials and his open plan were the so-called American Individualists. This group was searching

29 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 112.

18 for their own form in architecture by emphasizing architectural attention to the particulars and problems imposed by local conditions and traditions. William Wilson

Wurster (1895-1973) was one of them. Wurster was an American architect and architectural teacher at the University of California, Berkeley and at MIT, but he is best known for his residential design in California. Wurster designed hundreds of California houses in the 1920s through the 1940s, using indigenous materials and privileging a direct, simple style suited to the climate.

Fig. 7: Sibbett House, San Francisco (ca. 1941), designed by W. Wurster. Image from ttp://www.ou.edu/.

Another architect in this group was Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994), who was born in Italy and moved to the U.S in 1923. He got his second degree in civil engineering at

Cornell University. He is known as a key innovator in the development of an elegant

Modernism, especially in residences suited to the materials and climate of the Pacific

Northwest. However, his position as a leader in the Modern movement was secured with his design of the Commonwealth Building, a 14-story commercial office tower in

Portland, Oregon, also known as Equitable Building (1944-48). With sheer vertical planes, this flat-roofed, glass-enclosed box (noted as one of the first glass box towers

19 ever built) presented features that became the standard in later office buildings across the United States. His work won him widespread admiration and resulted in his appointment as Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts

Institute of Technology. Belluschi designed several significant Modern buildings in

Northwest, as well as Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, San Francisco, and other cities. 30

Fig. 8: Equitable Building, Portland (ca. 1950), designed by Belluschi. Photo by Helen S. O'Brien (postcard Rich and Phine Company, Portland).

3. Aalto and the European Individualists

The architectural movement in the north European countries was related to the work of the American Individualists, and there was a substantial exchange of ideas

30 “Pietro Belluschi (1899-1994)” in “The Oregon Encylopedia,” accessed 2/5/13, http://www.oregonencyclopedia.org.

20 between the two. Eero Saarinen commented, “In these countries the principle of functionalism were merged happily with what was already a sound attitude toward design, and local and human needs were sensitively integrated with the influence form the Continent.”31 Saarinen continued that, at the time, some architects representing this trend “stayed away from early beliefs in the machine era and, like Alvar Aalto, into a new romanticism.”32

Fig. 9: The Aalto House (house and office), Helsinki, Finland (1934), designed by Alvar Aalto. Image from http://www.mimoa.eu.

As can be deduced, there was much in common between the three Wright-influenced styles discussed above. The following three groups worked more directly in the

“International Style.”

31 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 113. 32 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 113.

21 4. Le Corbusier—Function and Plastic Form

This branch of modernism (Corbusier and his followers) was based primarily on principles of functionalism, belief in the machine age and in the validity of urbanism.

They tried to explore the sculptural and plastic qualities of architecture. Although form follows function and structure in this approach, there is a controlled guidance to create effects like those found in abstract painting and sculpture—an aesthetic emphasizing the

“plastic and textual qualities and the relationships of parts.”33

Fig. 10: Unité d'Habitation de Marseille, Marseille, France (1952), designed by Le Corbusier. Image from http://www.essential-architecture.com/STYLE/STY-M10.htm.

5. Gropius—An Architecture for the Machine Age

In the between wars the Bauhaus group recognized that there was a new industrial era and the role of all design--“from an ashtray to a city plan”--must express that way of life. This approach was articulated by Walter Gropius, Bauhaus’ leader and primary spokesman, and came to generate a philosophy that spread over Europe and ultimately became an influential part of American thinking. In America the emphasis

33 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 114.

22 had been more strongly on architecture than on design, but with the influence of

Gropius and his followers a whole new generation of well-trained architects began to re- shape American cities.34

6. Mies van der Rohe, the Form-giver

Another branch derived from the Bauhaus centered on the belief that the architect’s duty was to “make a proud order out of the form-world”, or, more precisely, out of the industrial era. Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the most famous form-giver of this school, “deliberately limited the problem, working in depth rather than in breadth.”35 He concentrated on “structural clarity.” Unlike Le Corbusier, who tried to fit the shape of the building into a functional space, Mies framed up regular structures within empty regular spaces, and then arranged and rearranged interiors like so many theater stages that could suit successive and varied uses. The resultant beauty of his work added a new dimension to architecture.36

Fig. 11: Farnsworth House, Plano, IL (1951), designed by Mies van der Rohe. Image from http://eng.archinform.net/projekte/2096.htm.

34 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 114. 35 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 114. 36 E. Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” 114.

23 II. Post World War II Modern Architecture in the United States

Although more modern architecture was built in the U.S. than in any other country after World War II, it was minimally endorsed by the public. Several avant- garde European architects who had immigrated to the States, such as Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, worked hard to develop modern ideas in architecture and teach them to their American students.

However, they were not teaching what “the people” wanted. One of the most important criticisms of Modernism in architecture at the time--discussed by historians to this day--is that its purposes were not agreeable to or suitable for its supposed beneficiaries. In 1965, Catherine Bauer, distinguished American housing critic commented that throughout the post-War period, Modernists generally persisted in thinking about housing as if they were still living in 1930s—in a time with no expectation of economic growth. While “Existenzminimum” (“which celebrated the spartan beauty of minimal standards”37), standardization, and collectivism were the three principles that had been guiding architects in their studies of housing, the vast majority of Americans wanted none of them. Their dream was to own a house in the suburbs.38

There was an “eclipse of the new deal”39 from 1934 to 1964 through works of

Buckminster Fuller, Philip Johnson, and Louis Kahn. Johnson’s idea of architecture can be categorized under the Mies van der Rohe school of Modern architecture. Although

Eero Saarinen did not allocate a separate “school” for Fuller and Pier Luigi Nervi, he

37 Marc Treib and David Gebhard, An Everyday Modernism: The Houses of William Wuster (Berkeley and Los Angeles, California: University of California Press, 1999), 189. 38 David P. Handlin, American Architecture (New York: Thames & Hudson, 2004), 232-236. 39 Kenneth Frampton, Modern Architecture, a Critical History (London: Thames & Hudson Ltd, 1992), 238.

24 did mention their name as engineer-scientists, referring to their work as “other investigations, which will play a dominant role in the shape of things to come.”40 When it comes to Louis Kahn, he may be “One of the most influential architects of the mid-

20th century” 41 and that while “Louis Kahn (1901-1974) realized relatively few buildings, [. . .] the formal restraint and emotional expressiveness of his Jonas Salk

Institute, Kimbell Art Museum and the Capital Complex in Dhaka are regarded as an inspired progression from the International Style.”42

For Kahn architecture always started from concept, even if he let form be modified by the program. In 1959 he began a six-year project to construct the Jonas

Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla, California. This was one of his famous works and one which he could rightly claim had achieved a spiritual connotation for his program, while Kahn’s ability to organize a whole full-service floor under each laboratory won him equal praise for his practicality. As a result, Kahn became a major influence on future architects.

Although Louis Kahn was not commissioned for any work in the Ithaca area, his impact in the history of modern American architecture is significant and, more to the point, his monumentality seems to have influenced Ulrich Franzen’s design of four buildings at the Cornell University campus in Ithaca.43

40 Eero Saarinen, “The Six Broad Currents of Modern Architecture,” Architectural Forum, July 1953, 114. 41 “Louis Kahn, Architect (1901-1974),” Design Museum, accessed 10/09/11, http://designmuseum.org/design/louis-kahn. 42 “Louis Kahn, Architect (1901-1974),” Design Museum. 43 Peter Blake, The Architecture of Ulrich Franzen (Basel; Berlin; Boston: Birkhauser, 1999).

25 III. The End of Modernism

In the 1970s there was a reaction against the Modern Movement. This cultural shift came to be known later as Post-Modernism, which means “after modernism.” “As did many earlier twentieth-century design movements, Post-Modernism began with a treatise,”44 this one published in 1966 by Robert Venturi, one of Kahn’s students. The publication was entitled “Complexity and Contradiction in Architecture,” and it was acknowledged by Vincent Scully as “the most important writing on the making of architecture since Le Corbusier’s Vers une Architecture45 of 1923.” 46 Even before its publication, in 1962 Venturi had designed a house for his mother, Vanna, in Chestnut

Hill, Pennsylvania, which anticipated these “after modern” principles. A modest building, it is nonetheless loaded with references to prior architecture, from the arch-like molding above the entry to the split-pediment-like massing of the full block.47

Fig. 12: Vanna Venturi House (1962), designed by Robert Venturi. Image from http://www.archdaily.com.

44 Michael Fazio, Marian Moffett, and Lawrence Wodehouse, A World History of Architecture (London: Laurence King, 2008), 517. 45 Means “Toward an Architecture,” translated in English with the title of “Towards a New Architecture.” 46 Fazio, A World History of Architecture, 517. 47 Fazio, A World History of Architecture, 518.

26 One of the first people that actually used the term “Post-Modern” was the landscape architect and designer, Charles Jencks, who pronounced Modernism’s death at precisely 3:32 pm on July 15, 1972. This was the moment when the mass housing development of Pruitt-Igoe in St. Louis, Missouri was demolished. Minoru Yamasaki, the architect of the World Trade Centre, had designed this housing project along

Modernist precepts and it had opened for residents in 1954. By the late 1960s, however, the complex was plagued by vandalism and had become internationally infamous for its poverty, crime, and segregation. Effectively, it became the symbol of the failings of the

Modern Movement.48 However, The Pruitt-Igoe Myth, a well-researched documentary about the project, shows that the failure of Modernism is not so simple when the facts are taken into consideration. Many diverse elements prompted the white middle-class to move to the suburbs, taking jobs with them, and causing the abandonment of the

Pruitt-Igoe building.

Philip Johnson, who co-authored The International Style: Architecture Since

1922 when he was a 26-year-old graduate of Harvard, took the center of the Post-

Modernist stage with his design of the American Telephone and Telegraph headquarters in New York City in 1984. In creating this building with partner John Burgee, Johnson broke completely with the Miesian tradition. In fact, his client had said emphatically that the company did not want another glass box. 49 This building became the determining sign of Post-Modern architecture’s victory over Modern architecture.

48 Heinrich Klotz, History of Post-Modern Architecture (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1998). 49 Fazio, Moffett, Wodehouse, A World History of Architecture, 520.

Figs. 13-14: Philip Johnson and the AT&T building model (left). Image from http://archimodels.info; AT&T building (1984) (right). Image from Academy of Achievement website, http://www.achievement.org.

28 There has been always criticism about Modernism. Leon Krier, one of the most influential new-traditional architects and planners noted that “Most avant-garde architects not only live in traditional buildings themselves—they go on vacation in traditional buildings, they send their children to school in traditional buildings. It’s good enough for them, but not for the masses.”50 Alice Friedman, an American Art historian, criticized Modern architects for their “gender-based” designs.51 For example, she argued that both Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House (1945-51) and Philip

Johnson’s Glass House/Guest House complex (1949) are designed based on the gender of the clients: an unmarried middle aged woman and a gay man. Friedman and other historians truly believed that Farnsworth House, particularly, and international style

Modern architecture, generally, “owes its stature to its spiritual rather than its functional values.” 52 The most considerable criticism of Modern architecture is about its relationship to site and context and the idea of “non-site.” However, this comment generally refers to the International Style and is not limited to Modern architecture. In comparison to classical architecture, Modern buildings, especially those related to Frank

Lloyd Wright, are often built to have a connection with their surroundings.

50 Steve Delahoyde, “Prince Charles’ Ally Leon Krier Continues His Anti-Modern Tour,” Unbeige online journal, November 23, 2009, http://www.mediabistro.com. 51 Alice Friedman, Women and the Making of the Modern House: A Social and Architectural History (New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1998), 127-159. 52 Dirk Lohan, Mies van der Rohe: Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1945-50 (Tokyo: Global Architecture, 1976), 4.

29 CHAPTER 2.

MODERNISM IN AND AROUND ITHACA, NY: A BRIEF HISTORY

Ithaca, NY was never “known” for its Modern architecture. A simple windshield survey at the very early stage of my study clarified that there are several significant

Modern buildings in and around Ithaca, NY. By in and around, I roughly mean

Tompkins County, one of the sixty-two counties of New York State, located in the

Finger Lakes region. Since Ithaca is the case study region of this research, a compact study of the history of Modernism in the area is necessary.

Although Modernism in architecture is most commonly understood as the style of International-Style architects such as Le Corbusier, in the present study a more specific definition of the Modernism is used to characterize the architecture in the Ithaca area. It is a mixture of International style with the Corbusier’s points of architecture, the Organic architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright, the monumental architecture of Louis

Kahn and Late Modernists, and even a measure of local Modern thrown in. Indeed, it comprises a mixture of all the Modern schools described by Saarinen. Ultimately the purity and simplicity of form, the honesty in the use of material, and avoidance of ornamentation—all elements of International Style—are combined with a respectful acknowledgment of nature.

This chapter will provide an overview of the history of Modern architecture in

Tompkins County and the town of Ithaca, which is home to the two influential institutions: Cornell University and Ithaca College. It will mention the major figures

30 that actively participated in the history of Modern architecture of the area and at the same time list some of its Modern buildings.

While the first project built in the area in Modern manners was a residential building designed by a half local architect outside the Cornell campus, the first project at Cornell, which was the second in the area was a planning project: the Engineering

Quad. The first Modern building on Cornell campus was designed by the office of

SOM and was also built in roughly the same era. One would assume that the city of

Ithaca and Cornell University, with one of the most well-known architecture programs in the country, would have several buildings, including examples of Modern architecture, designed by the architecture faculty. However, most of the architecture faculty members at Cornell were and still are theorists and not active practitioners.

The first Modern building of the area and other buildings designed by Raymond

Viner Hall in Ithaca, were influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s school of architecture.

There are also examples of academic architecture both at Cornell campus and Ithaca

College influenced by the International Style, including Le Corbusier, Gropius, and

Mies van der Rohe’s schools of architecture. As it was mentioned, Louis Kahn’s monumental architecture inspired Ulrich Franzon’s buildings at Cornell.

31 The first evidence of a Modern architecture in Ithaca/Finger Lakes region was a building designed by Raymond Viner hall, son of Walter Hall, a Frank Lloyd Wright follower and the chief builder of Fallingwater. In 1941, Raymond Viner Hall and his father designed and built a lake house on the west side of Cayuga Lake. Before the end of the decade, Raymond Hall had built five more houses in his father’s stead. Clearly, their attempts at Modernism in the Ithaca area had been influenced initially by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright. This discussion will be extended in a future chapter in this thesis.

Fig. 15: The Crissey Residence, Ithaca, NY (1941), designed by Raymond Hall and his father, east view. Image taken by the author.

Indeed, a considerable number of buildings were designed and built in the mid- century that were not residential. These works must be considered briefly if only to demonstrate the influence of Modernism in the region. While most residential construction continued to favor traditional style and forms, many of the publicly visible new buildings were Modern.

32 In 1947, the office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill built the first Modern building on the Cornell University campus--namely, Newman Laboratory.53 This architectural firm, in collaboration with local practitioners, King & King Architects, then followed up with Savage Hall, the second Modernist building, south of Newman

Laboratory. These buildings owed more to the ideas of Le Corbusier than other prominent designers of the period. They are characterized by simple forms, lack of ornamentation, and almost no use of naturally available materials and their appearance is very severe.

Fig. 16: Newman lab, Cornell University (1947), designed by SOM. Image taken by the author.

The Engineering Quad (Quadrangle), at the south end of Cornell’s main campus, is notable for being the first attempt of Modern planning in the area. Designed in the late 1940s and early 1950s, it was based on Harvard Quad, but was designed to be built on quite a different kind of site, the one previously occupied by the old Armory and faculty housing, which was sloping. As a result of this sloping site, the project clearly

53 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/23/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2029.

33 distinguishes itself from its role model, Harvard Quad. Crucially, the engineering Quad was not just a landscape between buildings, but a designed space among buildings.

This Quad, in contrast with other Cornell Quads such as the historic Arts Quad, exemplifies twentieth century Modern design particularly well with its asymmetry of balanced spaces.

Fig. 17: Cornell Engineering Quad in 1964 includes (clockwise) Phillips, Upson-Grumman, nuclear reactor, Kimball-Thurston-Bard, Hollister, Carpenter, and Olin. Image from Cornell Alumni News, Vol. 67, NO. 1 (July 1964).

It is easy to see that the designs of most of the buildings around the Quad were based on the master plan with collaboration of Perkins & Wills firm and other architects with a Modern design theme. Although the Engineering Quad has undergone major changes in recent years, particularly with the completion of Duffield Hall in 2004 and

Frank HT Rhodes Hall designed by Gwathmey in 1990, it is still a significant model of

34 Modern planning in the area. While there is no need to discuss the Modern buildings of the surroundings to highlight the significance of the Modern plan of the Quad, some of the major participants are explored in the next paragraphs.

Fig. 18: Current Aerial view of Engineering Quad. Image provided by Google Maps.

Thurston Hall

The first building in the Quad, Thurston Hall was designed by Shreve, Lamb &

Harmon and built in 1951 at the south part of the Engineering Quad. Thurston Hall, a four-story red brick and limestone building located at 130 Hollister Dr., houses

Theoretical and Applied Mechanics. One of its most interesting architectural features is the way in which the set back area and the three stories above the first red brick floor, expresses itself in seven tall and vertical bays. 54

54 “Cornell University Facility Service,” http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2037T.

Fig. 19: Thurston Hall in the Engineering Quad, looking north to south. Image taken by the author.

Carpenter Hall

Carpenter Hall, designed by Perkins & Will in 1956, is a two-story building with a flat roof, covering a gross area of 50,577 sf. Located at the northeast corner of the

Engineering Quad, Carpenter Hall is the Engineering library and administration building. Its most noteworthy feature is how the rectangular piers of the loggia on the first floor, made of Ithaca gray-brown stone, continue through to the second story.55

Fig. 20: Carpenter Hall in the Engineering Quad, south façade from Campus Rd. Image taken by the author.

55 “Cornell University Facility Service,” http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2042.

36 Upson Hall

Located at 124 Hoy Rd, Upson Hall occupies the southeast corner of the Quad.

The building, fundamentally a horizontal block with a flat roof, was designed by

Perkins & Will collaborating with McGuire & Bennett, and was also built in 1956. It sits on a blind loggia sustained by rectangular supports clad in gray Ithaca stone. One of the significant features of this building is the use of alternating strips of yellow terracotta panels to divide the upper stories, which form the main rectangular box and are clad with limestone panels. Unfortunately, the construction of Rhodes Hall and

Duffield Hal have significantly decreased the contribution of Upson Hall to the eastern part of the Quad.

Fig. 21: Upson Hall, view from the Engineering Quad. Image taken by the author.

Hollister Hall

Hollister Hall, with its L-plan, occupies the southwest corner of the Engineering

Quad and is located at 527 College Ave. Designed by Perkins & Will in collaboration with Hofman, Levatich & Taube, Hollister Hall was built in 1957 in the International

Style and covers a gross area of 115,288 sf. Similar to the other buildings around the

37 Quad, the building, a horizontal block, sits on a blind loggia held by rectangular supports clad in gray Ithaca stone. The upper stories are framed in limestone panels; the infill is glass; and, in the façade of the central portion, strips of red terracotta panels, between the panes of glass, divide the stories. Ithaca stone is also used in the stair tower in the southeast corner facing the collegiate Gothic Myron Taylor Hall.56

Figs. 22-23: Hollister Hall in the Engineering Quad, the central portion (left) and the entrance (right). Images taken by the author.

A residential project that must be noted is an example of Lustron House in the area. Lustron Houses offered a unique prefabricated housing system, presenting itself as an innovative solution for the problem of providing housing for returning soldiers after World War II. The initial Lustron Home was a 1,000 SF unit, two-bedroom, one bath, all clad with porcelain-enameled metal surfaces (interior and exterior). It had concrete slab floors, built-in closets and cabinets, and radiant ceiling heating system.

The first homes were manufactured in 1948 but, unfortunately, by 1950 the factory was closed down due to production problems and a lack of governmental funding (Lustron

Houses were government subsidized). Although about 2,680 of these houses were built, sadly only 1,500 of these unique homes survive today. Luckily, in Ithaca, one can see at

56 “Cornell University Facility Service,” http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2046.

38 least two of them: one, built in 1949, is located at 102 Homestead Road, and the other, built in 1950, at 111 Halcyon Hill.57 Although the design and the appearance of these two houses were not Modernistic, the idea, the concept, and the system of prefabrication were quite Modern.

Fig. 24-25: Lustron House at 102 Homestead Road, Ithaca, NY (1949). Images taken by the author.

Charles H. Warner, Jr., founder and senior partner of Warner, Burnes, Toan &

Lunde, and a faculty member of Cornell University, contributed in designing early

Modern buildings of the Ithaca area. A graduate of Choate, Wesleyan University and

Columbia University, Warner, designed numerous university buildings, hotels,

57 “Lustron Preservation Organization,” accessed on 8/3/11, http://www.lustronpreservation.org/, and “Lustron Connection,” http://www.lustronconnection.org/whatislustron.html.

39 conference centers, and other like works, both in the U.S. and abroad. He took special interest in designing the Olin Library, in 1957, where he paid particular attention to the parameters of locality. In particular, he intentionally incorporated local stone into the base of the building and acknowledged the stone row by mimicking their mansard roofs.

Warner went on to create the original Mallot Hall in 1963-64 and the more corporately

Modernistic inspired Clark Hall in 1965. Warner died at age of 93 in 2004. 58

Olin Library, located at the south end of the Arts Quad at Cornell campus, was the result of a competition between selected firms. The selected project, a design of the office of Warner, Burnes, Toan & Lunde, was a seven-story, rectangular mass emphasizing straight horizontal and vertical lines. The project sought to reference the roof of the University’s oldest building nearby with its modified mansard copper roof.

It actually formed a third side to the historic Arts Quad with this mansard roof. The rough-hewn stone retaining walls extending outward from the first floor both expand the public research area of that floor and open up views of the Arts Quad for the researchers.59 The roof of the extended area, surfaced with grooved stones, features granite walkways and benches for students who want to use the roof top terrace as a study space. This design seeks to express the flow of the heavy mass on top of the extended roof terrace by making the first floor transparent. The John Olin Library opened in February 1961 with a total cost of $5.7 million.60

58 New York Times, November 9, 2004; and “Cornell University Library,” accessed on 6/16/11 http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/exhibitions/olinat50/architecture; and http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/exhibitions/olinat50/inauguratingolin. 59 “Cornell University Library,” http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/exhibitions/olinat50/architecture, accessed on 6/16/11. 60 http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu/exhibitions/olinat50/inauguratingolin, accessed on 7/13/11.

Fig. 26: Olin Library (1957), designed by Warner, Burnes, Toan & Lunde. Image taken by the author.

Fig. 27: Olin Library (1957), north elevation, designed by Warner, Burnes, Toan & Lunde, Image from University Archives, http://olinuris.library.cornell.edu.

Clark Hall, located at 142 Sciences Drive, Ithaca, New York, was also designed by the office of Warner, Burns, Toan & Lunde in 1965. This 243,902 SF building in

Cornell campus consists of a cube supported by and rising from a low rectangular base.

Clark Hall offers Modernistic design throughout in numerous ways. The façade of the raised cube has concrete bas-relief panels situated between concrete columns.61 The base itself presents as a two-story building in classic 1930’s Modernist style. The second floor, which is extended beyond its support (which is the first story), features a band of dark glass, framed with dark steel, held between two thick concrete slabs.

61 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/23/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2082.

41 Finally, the opening at the center of the first story, which defines the entrance, particularly epitomizes Modern ideas of the era in the manner by which its open space

“invites” the passerby and the way that the outside materials try to enter. Clark Hall, the old Physical Science building at Cornell, however, has been always criticized for its inconsistency with the surrounding “historic” architecture. According to a local newspaper, for instance, it was an “attempt to join two buildings of little merit with a modern building of no merit other than its newness adds nothing to the unity of the unity of the campus.”62 This might be one of the reasons that the University decided to fill the open space in front of the building with a new construction. The recently finished new Physical Science Building is located in East Avenue, between Clark Hall,

Baker laboratory, and Rockefeller Hall and blocks Clark Hall from Arts Quad and East

Avenue, the main road through the campus. Designed by the Boston-based Kotter, Kim

& Associates, the new Physical Science Building is often acknowledged as one of the more successful examples of adding a new construction in a historic context.

Fig. 28: Clark Hall (1965), designed by Warner. Image taken by the author.

62 “Cornell Architecture: New Buildings Detract,” The Cornell Walk, VOL 1, NO. 2 (October 10, 1964).

Figs. 29-30: Clark Hall (1965), designed by Warner, interior. Images taken by the author.

Malott Hall, located at 212 Garden Ave. Ithaca, New York, is the home of the

Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University.

Designed by the architects Warner, Burns, Toan, and Lunde, it was constructed in 1963 to the cost of $1.5 million. Although basically a simple box mass, this building showcases Modern principles in some significant ways. The patterning of its facade heightens its appearance. Strip windows band the top and bottom floors, while tall thin windows separate concrete panels at the middle floor. Thin, rectilinear concrete columns spanning the building's height in front of the windows extend to a protruding cornice line. There is no ornamentation. However, this strong line is horizontally enhanced by a concrete cantilevered plane of the same thickness overshadowing the door. The entry itself appears as a slot of glass centered between the rhythm of windows, columns and panels. Finally, above the cornice, a thin receded portion of the

43 building extends to a second cornice line ending at the roofline.63 The building was renovated in 1977 to a cost of $1.1 million, which will be discussed more later in this chapter.

Fig. 31: Original Mallot Hall (1963), designed by Warner. Image from www.Gowalla.com.

Another Cornell educator and designer who worked diligently during the 60s and had impact on the history of Modernism in Ithaca was Thomas Harrison Canfield

(b. 1916). When Howard Dillingham, the fourth president of Ithaca College, and his wife Dorothy envisioned the creation of a new Modern campus on South Hill, later to be described in Time magazine as “the miracle on the hill,” they chose Canfield as the architect. He designed 15 buildings for the college in just a decade, while heading up the design team of Tallman & Tallman, Architects. Canfield had received his Bachelor of Architecture degree from Ohio State University in 1939, and after serving with the

Navy during World War II, he joined the faculty of Architecture at Cornell in 1947. 64

In addition to teaching at Cornell he was a partner of Frederick M. Wells who became

63 “2081-MALOTT HALL Facility Information,” accessed on 6/3/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu. 64 Charles W. Pearman, John Reps, Alexander Kira, “Thomas Harrison Canfield,” “Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement,” http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/17813.

44 Andrew Dickson White Professor of Architecture at Cornell in 1950.65 Together they designed a number of contemporary-Modern homes in the area. The author had the privilege of providing a Historic Structure Report66 for one of these homes, which

Canfield designed for his friend and colleague, John Reps.

The original house of John W. Reps, currently a Professor Emeritus at Cornell in the Department of City and Regional Planning, who taught there from 1952 to 1987 and was the head of the program from 1952 to 1964, was constructed in 1954 by National

Homes Corporation, with a standard pre-designed plan.67 The house is located at the corner of Needham Place and King Road on the edge of the Cornell Height Historic district and the village of Cayuga Heights in Ithaca, NY. In 1961 John Reps and his wife decided to add more space to the house and asked Thomas Canfield to design an addition to the original house. The two-story addition was built in 1962. During the construction the architect decided to dig more into the ground in the space between the first floor and the foundation and make additional basement space for the family. The addition is a rectangular mass with low-pitched, gabled roof, perpendicular to the original part, made with hollow concrete blocks (CMU) painted light blue. The second story exterior wall in the west side of the addition is covered with the same vertical wood siding of the original house.

65 “Four Faculty Members—MacLeod, Robinson, Gates, Wells—Given Endowed Professorships,” Cornell Daily Sun, Volume 68 (September 18, 1950): 21. 66 Historic Structure Report (HSR) is the most essential document used in the preservation of historic structures. The purpose of a HSR is to serve as a planning document before any involvement in repairing or replacing any of the material of the historic building. 67 The Reps family asked to re-plan the interior by changing the location of the kitchen, which was approved by the construction company.

Fig. 32: The John Reps House (1954-1961), Original vs. Addition. Image drawn by the author.

Fig. 33: The original John Reps House (1954) under construction. Image from the Reps slide collection.

Fig. 34: The Reps House (1961), designed by Tom Canfield. Image taken by the author. Note the new entrance door, which was removed (Fig. 25) and reused during the construction of the addition.

Thomas Canfield went on and joined the office of Tallman & Tallman

Architects, where “he was virtually on a non-stop series of ‘Esquisses’.”68 The resulting series of Modern buildings included the exceptional design of the Dillingham Center.

This significant Brutalism-Modern building was built in 1969. Serving as a theater as well as housing classrooms, this building is presently the home of Ithaca College’s

Department of Theater Arts and Philosophy (as well as, previously, Communications).

The three-story, 71,000 SF concrete building was built as part of “the miracle on the hill” project.69 In 2009, with a budget of $5 million, the office of HOLT Architects and

Christa Construction renovated it, a renovation which included high-end finishes, state-

68 Charles W. Pearman, John Reps, Alexander Kira, “Thomas Harrison Canfield,” “Cornell University Faculty Memorial Statement,” http://ecommons.library.cornell.edu/handle/1813/17813. 69 “ HCAP,” accessed on July 19, 2011, http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p860.

47 of-the-art acoustics, new lobbies, two new elevators, and an exterior electric transformer vault.70 This renovation is completely in keeping with the historic fabrics and maintains

Modernist ideas throughout.

Fig. 35: Dillingham Center, Ithaca College (1969), designed by Tom Canfield. Image taken by the author.

Figs. 36-37: Dillingham Center, Ithaca College (1969), designed by Tom Canfield. Images taken by the author. Fig. 37, the interior shot, shows the renovation done by HOLT Architects.

70 “Christa Construction,” accessed on July 19, 2011, http://www.christa.com/index.asp?PageId=17&CatId=4&ProjId=197.

Fig. 38: Dillingham Center, Ithaca College (1969), designed by Tom Canfield. Image taken by the author.

Hill Center, another design of Thomas Canfield for Ithaca College while a partner of Tallman and Tallman Architects, was built in 1964.71 Made of concrete and brick, it houses a variety of sports halls as well as the School of Health Science and

Human Performance at Ithaca College. Another outstanding example of the area’s

Modern architecture, it, too, was built as part of “the miracle on the hill.”72

71 Ithaca College Master Plan Report, prepared by Sasaki Associates. 72 “ HCAP,” http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p860, accessed on July 19, 2011.

Fig. 39-40: Hill Center, Ithaca College (1964), designed by Tom Canfield, front entrance (top) and back of the building. Images taken by the author.

Because of his noteworthy work for Ithaca College, Canfield was awarded an honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts by the College. He continued his practices and academic contributions until 1976 when he retired and moved out to the countryside of

Ithaca.73

73 Pearman, “Thomas Harrison Canfield.”

50 The Space Sciences building or the Center for Radiophysics and Space

Research, also called “NASA Building,”74 was another attempt to produce a Modern building at Cornell University in the mid-twentieth century. Located at 122 Science

Drive on Cornell campus, the building was designed by the office of Ballinger and built in 1967. The brick and stone-façade structure was built as a new space for the Space

Science Research with a total budget of $1.5 million. The original four-story building, with a net area of 23,200 SF, was designed such that two additional stories could be added later. In 1987 the two floors were added by Holt Architects of Ithaca. Although it is hard to distinguish the original and the addition from a distance, a closer view reveals the difference.

Figs. 41-42: Space Science Building at Cornell (1967-1987), designed by the office of Ballinger (addition by HOLT Architects). Images taken by the author.

Ulrich Franzen was another figure in Modernism in the area. Born in Germany in 1921 to a family of writers and artists, after Hitler came to power, he and his family

74 The building was built under a facilities grant from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. That is why it was often called the “NASA Building” (Paul Weissman, “Dedication Set for Space Center,” The Cornell Daily Sun, VOL LXXXIV, NO. 32, 1967).

51 immigrated to the United States. After attending Williams College in 1942, he continued at Harvard University Graduate School of Design, where he received his

Master of Architecture degree. He was most heavily influenced by Walter Gropius and

Marcel Breuer, and also his teacher, I. M. Pei. He opened his own firm in New York

City in 1955. During his stint in Pei’s office he contributed to work on the Mile High

Center in Denver, which clearly demonstrated an affinity to Mies van der Rohe’s high- rise apartments on Lake Shore Drive in Chicago.75 According to Franzen, “Architecture is the servant of its time and significant designs are experiments of an era. The buildings that are designed become footprints of our own socio-cultural history, reflections of the ideas and concerns of an era, and not those of an individual.”76 As with the other Modernist architects, his contribution to the Ithaca area emphasized his interest in materials and “the use of powerful forms” rather than ornamentation.

Specifically, he was probably influenced by his years at I. M. Pei’s office, as well as by his appreciation for the work of Louis Kahn. In his commissions at Cornell, unlike his previous work, the governing discipline was not necessarily structure. Instead, it was what Louis Kahn used to call the “servant space” (mechanical system), which required assemblies of shafts for air-exhaust and air-intake and various other services like elevators, cables, and fire stairs. “Kahn’s work appealed to me because he was another theologian of visual form,”77 Franzen said. He designed five buildings for the Cornell campus: Martha Van Rensselaer North addition (1968), a dramatic, cantilevered wing, situated at the north side of the Georgian Revival style brick building designed by

William Haugaard; Emerson Hall (1968); Bradfield Hall (1969); VRT, the Veterinary

75 Blake, Peter, The Architecture of Ulrich Franzen (Basel; Berlin; Boston: Birkhauser, 1999), 6-9. 76 Blake, The Architecture of Ulrich Franzen, 44. 77 Blake, The Architecture of Ulrich Franzen, 44.

52 Research Tower (1974); and the Boyce Thompson Institute (1978). In 2001 The North

Wing of Martha Van Rensselaer was declared structurally unsafe and unfortunately demolished in 2006.78 Inspired by Louis Kahn and I.M. Pei’s architecture, Franzen’s work at Cornell not only solved complex technical problems, but also was sculpturally notable. 79 In the following, these buildings and their architectural details are discussed in greater detail.

Emerson Hall, the oldest remaining structure designed by Franzen at Cornell, is located at 236 Mann Drive on the Cornell University campus. As a part of the complex of Agronomy Buildings, it was designed by Franzen in 1968 and was built just prior to the noteworthy Bradfield Hall (1969) right behind it. The building’s connection to the surroundings, the way that the architect expressed the flow of heavy mass, and the clever use of Modernist “tricks” throughout, mark this building as one of Franzen’s most exceptional works.

Fig. 43: Emerson Hall (1968), designed by Franzen. Image taken by the author.

78 Blake, The Architecture of Ulrich Franzen, 44-45. 79 “Franzen’s buildings at Cornell, among the best structures done in the U.S. in the second half of the century, are remarkable not only because they are sculpturally impressive (which they unquestionably are); but also because they successfully solve extremely complex technical problems, so difficult to solve in themselves, that have often escaped solutions by some better known architects” (Blake, 45).

53 Bradfield Hall, an eleven-story lab building designed by Ulrich Franzen, was completed in 1969 with total budget of $6.2 million. Named after Richard Bradfield, an internationally recognized soils specialist and Professor Emeritus at Cornell, it formed part of the Agronomy Building complex (Emerson Hall and Bradfield Hall), all designed by Franzen. As the tallest building on the Cornell campus, the building is mostly used for climate control labs. There are no windows on the first ten floors, giving it a strikingly Modernist effect. 80 Influenced by Louis Kahn’s work, particularly his laboratory buildings at the University of Pennsylvania, Franzen tried to expand his system of vertical services, simultaneously developing ways of “expressing” the vertical shafts in a more sculptural way. The result seems more powerful and sculptural than

Kahn’ building at the University of Pennsylvania.

Figs 44-45: Bradfield Hall (1969), designed by Franzon. Images taken by the author. Image at right shows Bradfield Hall and Emerson Hall together.

80 http://www.eas.cornell.edu/cals/eas/facilities/bradfield/index.cfm accessed on 6/3/11.

54 The Veterinary Research Tower, a nine-story brick and glass building located at

618 Tower Road in Ithaca NY, was also designed by Ulrich Franzen in 1974 for Cornell

University’s Veterinary Research. A 125,507 SF building, it was designed to harmonize with the surrounding architecture, not by emphasizing ornamentation but rather by emphasizing a stylistic character similar to Franzen’s concept of the Boyce

Thompson Institute. The design effectively responds to the two different utilizations of the building: 1) offices for professors and graduate students; and 2), a completely controlled and sealed laboratory for virus research. The angled northern façade, where the office space is located, is clad in grey tinted glass that is situated in narrow metal mullions, contrasting effectively with the brown brick of the south façade, where the laboratory is found. These two areas, featuring highly specialized exhaust systems are set in a common bond.81

Figs. 46-47: The VRT (Veterinary Research Tower) at Cornell (1974), designed by Franzen. Images taken by the author.

81 Blake, The architecture of Ulrich Franzen, 118, and “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/23/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=1140.

55 Emphasizing Modernist edicts of the use of materials and powerful forms rather than ornament, Ulrich Franzen built the 116,854 SF Boyce Thompson Institute in 1978.

The building, located at 533 Tower Road on the Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY, is constructed with brown brick set in common bond. Particularly noteworthy is the interplay of the brick pattern with long strips of black glass windows and projecting panels throughout the massive structure that characterizes Franzen’s architectural presentation of the building.82

Figs. 48-50: Boyce Thompson Institute (1978), designed by Franzen. Images taken by the author.

82 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/23/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=1076.

56 One exception to the Modernists who designed academic buildings is the architect Marcel Breuer. He must be mentioned for designing a mid-density residential complex with a med-rise tower and townhouses in 1964. “The most dramatic housing, which was built in Ithaca during the postwar period, stands on Maple Avenue, almost in the shadow of Schoellkopf Stadium.”83 It is known as Fairview Heights.

In the early 1960s, Norbert Schickel, Jr. and William Schickel, two sons of

Dr.Norbert Schickel, wanted to develop a "significant project.” They selected Marcel

Breuer to design it. The site is located on the intersection of Maple Avenue and Cornell

Street and includes a six-story high rise containing 108 apartments (studio to three- bedroom) and forty-two townhouses. There are ten 3-bedroom townhouses on the east side of the tower and thirty-two 2-bedroom around a courtyard on the west side of the tower. The interiors were originally designed, and the furnishings were selected by

William Schickel. Like other Breuer’s architectures, Fairview Heights and townhouses were made in a very intelligent modular system. The first group occupied the complex in 1964. Unfortunately, at the present moment, although the project is physically in good shape, the current owner--the third owner of the complex does not care about the historic integrity of the buildings.84

83 Carlo U. Sisler, Margaret Hobbie, and Jane Marsh Dieckmann, Ithaca’s Neighborhood the Rhine, the Hill and the Goose Pasture (Ithaca, NY: DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1988), 201. 84 Carlo Sisler, Ithaca’s Neighborhood, 201-202, and Cornell Alumni News, Vol. 67, No. 1, July 1964.

Fig. 51: Fairview Heights, designed by Breuer, in 1964. Image from Ithaca’s Neighborhood, 20285.

Fig. 52: Fairview Heights, designed by Breuer, current condition in 2010. Image taken by the author.

Richard Meier designed one of his very early works during his last year of graduate studies at Cornell in 1966. More recently, in 2008, Meier designed and built

Weill Hall for Cornell University.

During his last year of the architecture program at Cornell, Richard Meier designed a house for one of his professors and his wife. Arch and Esther Dotson House,

85 Carlo U. Sisler, Margaret Hobbie, and Jane Marsh Dieckmann, Ithaca’s Neighborhood the Rhine, the Hill and the Goose Pasture (Ithaca, NY: DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County, 1988), 202.

58 located on Updike road in Ithaca, NY, was constructed in 1966. The owners were one of the early experimenters of solar panels in the area.86 Although the building was designed with white color cladding, for the duration of the lifetime of its owner, the

Dotsons, it was painted in red. The architect, who is known for working only with white cladding, was not happy with that change. Given time however, and after several changes and additions to the house, the current owners, Mr. and Mrs. Cooper, with the help of architect Jake Rudin and Erin Pellegrino renovated the house and restored the color to its original white.

The author helped Historic Ithaca, a non-profit local preservation organization, to hold its annual event in this property after the renovation-restoration project. The preservation project was widely appreciated by the participants.

Fig. 53: Arch and Esther Dotson House (1966), designed by Richard Meier, before restoration project in 2011. Image from http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.

86 http://www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/meier.htm, accessed on 6/1/11.

Figs. 54-55: Arch and Esther Dotson House (1966), designed by Richard Meier, after restoration project in 2011. Images taken by the author.

John Clair Miller, currently a Professor Emeritus at Cornell, is another architect who participated in the history of Modern architecture of the Ithaca area. After receiving his Bachelor of Architecture Degree from Ohio State University in Columbus,

Ohio, he was awarded a scholarship for graduate study at Cornell University. Later he worked at the offices of Davis Brody and Associates Architects in New York City before returning to Cornell to teach in the architecture program, where he remained from 1977 to 2003. He was a principal at Levatich and Miller Architects in Ithaca, between 1965–72, and from 1972 to 77 served as a principal at Levatich Miller

Hoffman PC Architects + Planners, also in Ithaca. He designed three buildings while with Levatich, Miller, and Hoffman: Contemporary Trends, and Fire Station Number 9 in 1969, and the addition to the Mallot Hall at Cornell campus in 1977. Levatich,

Miller, and Hoffman also designed the Tompkins County Hospital in 1979. From 1978 to present Miller has been a principal at John Clair Miller Architects, in Brooktondale,

New York.

60 One of the examples of Modern architecture in downtown Ithaca is the home of

Contemporary Trends, a family owned store and show center for contemporary furniture and accessories. Designed by John Miller, both its brick and concrete exterior and its un-painted concrete-block interior present textural contrast with the displayed accessories. True to precepts of Modernism, form follows function and all the ornamental details are actually structural or functional elements. The building, which was constructed in 1969 at a total cost of $160,000, provides for different sizes and orientations of interior spaces and showrooms, which greatly facilitates showing a large variety of furniture and other contemporary merchandise.87 The Modern storefront and entrance, a pedestrian arcade facing the street, is clearly inspired by the historic storefronts of buildings in the area, but at the same time provides an impressive contrast to them.

Figs 56-57: Contemporary Trends (1969), designed by John Clair Miller. Images taken by the author.

The new Fire Station Number 9 was also designed by John Clair Miller.

Constructed on College Avenue in Ithaca, New York in 1969, it cost a total of

87 Levatich, Mileer, Hoffman PC Brochure (Ithaca, NY: Craft of Ithaca, 1975)

61 $350,000. In addition to the engine room with two fire truck spaces, this brick building provides residential quarters for two firemen and ten student bunkers, as well as for social space for the firemen.88 The interior has been “severely altered to accommodate a change from residential volunteer students to full time regulars.”89 The roof and floor construction is concrete and, in combination with brick, provides a Modern look for the building.

Fig 58: Fire Station #9, Ithaca, NY (1969). Image taken by the author.

Named after Deane Waldo Mallot, the sixth President of Cornell, Mallot Hall was renovated in 1977 to a cost of $1.1 million. The addition was designed by John

Clair Miller, a partner of the office of Levatich, Miller, and Hoffman90. The addition was built to stress self-coherence as well as compatibility with the neighboring building, both with respect to exterior and to interior design. The simple and minimal southern façade of the addition suggests the influence of Le Corbusier’s work and the thoughtful execution of its connection to the existing building renders it another worthy example of

Modern architecture on the campus.

88 Levatich, Mileer, Hoffman PC brochure (Ithaca, NY: Craft of Ithaca, 1975). 89 John Miller, e-mail message to author on 6/6/11. 90 http://gowalla.com/spots/3606800.

Figs. 59-60: The new Mallot Hall (1977) (left) and its connection to the original building (right), designed by John Clair Miller. Images taken by the author.

John Clair Miller also designed and built a residential project in the area for himself, constructed in 1974. The Miller residence, located at 298 Bald Hill Road,

Brooktondale, NY, at the intersection with Grove School Road is set in beautiful surroundings, sitting back in a large field with several rows of pine trees along the road.

Later, in the 1980’s, when he and his wife started to raise their children, he added a small section to the house as well as made some minor changes to the interior in order to create more spaces. The structure is a normal wood frame clad in vertical siding.

Originally the roof was clad with corrugated metal, but after some experience living with it, the architect replaced it with rolled roofing with overhangs to avoid the condensation under the roof. In time, the family also clad the floor, which was raw concrete, with tiles. Although the construction method and the form of the house is more contemporary, the way that Miller conceived it, with asymmetrical bays designed on the basis of their functions and sustainability, and his honesty of material usage puts this house squarely in the list of Modern projects of the area.

63 Currently the architect is building another house for his daughter and son in-law on the property in the same Modernistic manner.

Fig. 61: The Miller Residence (1974), designed by John C. Miller, interior. Image taken by the author.

Fig. 62: The Miller Residence (1974), designed by John C. Miller. Image taken by the author.

64 The Cornell Store, designed by Earl R Flansburgh and built in 1970, is another example of the Modern architecture of Ithaca because of the way it ties into the landscape (albeit the interior was remodeled in 1989). This 37,165 SF underground mall is located on Ho Plaza, between the Sage Chapel and Barnes Hall in Cornell campus in Ithaca, NY. The architect designed a grassy area above the building to preserve the landscape of the area between Sage chapel and Barnes Hall. Originally, the ground surface was conceived to be lower than it turned out to be eventually when built: in order to cut down the cost (by reducing rock excavation), the floor slab had to be lifted up. This project was selected, in January 1969, by Progressive Architecture from among 375 nominated projects for one of the 16 Annual Design awards.91

Figs. 63-64: The Cornell Store (1970), main entrance from Ho Plaza. Images taken by the author.

91 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/14/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2088.

65 Another important figure in the history of the mid-twentieth century architecture of the Ithaca area is William Smith Downing (1920-2011). William S.

Downing, born in Orange, New Jersey, studied architecture at University of Virginia

(UVA) following which, prior to establishing his own firm in Ithaca, he practiced architecture first in Charlottesville and later in New York with Skidmore, Owings, and

Merrill and Edward Stone, as well as, eventually, with a local office in Ithaca. William

Downing Associates in Ithaca, NY was best known for school additions as well as commercial buildings.92 Some of the firm’s famous designs include, but not limited to,

Ithaca High School, former First Federal Saving bank in downtown Ithaca, and the

Monarch Machine Tool Company located in Cortland, NY (which seems to be directly influenced by Corbusier' architecture). By purchasing the former Ithaca junior high and high school and renovating it into the DeWitt Mall, Downing produced a successful example of adaptive reuse in the area.93

The former First Federal Saving bank was designed in 1966 by William

Downing while a partner of Holt & Downing, as the home of Ithaca Saving & Loan

Association. 94 It was designed in the International Style Modern manners. The building’s full height glazing, articulation of mullions, thoughtful detailing, and dramatic color, recalls Mies van der Rohe’s steel and glass boxes. K.A. Baker Assistant

Engineer also helped design the structure of the project, which was built in aggregated two adjunct sites. The design was ready and submitted for building permit on May 11,

1967, the demolition permit (for the two existing sites) was signed in 1968. The construction should have been started in late 1968. However, there is no evidence that

92 Ithaca Journal 5/4/11. 93 “Guide to the William S. Downing Papers, 1922-2006,” rmc.library.cornell.edu 94 Based on letters wrote between the architects and the client, remained in Ithaca building department.

66 when exactly the project was build. The building was altered in 1997 by Shhopfer

Architects LLP, a Syracuse based firm. Although the ownership has been changed several times, the function of the building is still the same and currently serves as the

First Niagara Bank in Downtown Ithaca.

Fig. 65: Downtown Bank, Ithaca, NY (c. 1968), designed by William Downing. Image taken by the author.

Gordon Bunshaft of the New York Office of Skidmore, Owings, and Merrill, is another architect who must be mentioned for his participation in modernizing the appearance of Cornell’s campus. The rectangular mass of Uris Hall, designed by him is located at the southeast corner of the intersection of East Avenue and Tower Road in

Cornell campus. It was constructed between 1970 and 1972. The building, which was modeled after the US Steel Tower in Pittsburgh, was built of COR-TEN steel

(Weathering steel), an alloy that, over time, by way of oxidization, achieves a stable dark brown rust-like appearance. 95 The way that the substantial mass sits on top of the first floor (or second floor as viewed from the west side), which is all clad in glass, and

95 “Cornell University,” accessed on 6/8/11, http://www.cornell.edu/search/index.cfm?tab=facts&q=&id=766.

67 the connection of the mass and the concrete columns are noteworthy. However, the project is all about exterior: the interior design and planning are not as successful as the exterior.

Figs. 66-67: Uris Hall at Cornell (1970-72), designed by Bunshaft of S.O.M. Images taken by the author.

Werner Seligmann, a German born architect who was sent to live with his relatives in upstate New York, received his B. Arch degree from Cornell in 1955, and proved to be another figure in Modernism in Ithaca. Seligmann returned to Germany

68 for his graduate study, then came back to U.S. to teach at University of Texas at Austin, becoming one of a group of faculty later dubbed “Texas Rangers.” From 1961-74, he served as Associate Professor of Architecture at Cornell, and then at Harvard

University, and from 1976-1990, as Dean and Professor of Architecture at Syracuse

University. Over his lifetime, Seligmann researched and published numerous articles on the work of Modernist architects, especially Frank Lloyd Wright and Le Corbusier, and while director of the Graduate Architecture Program at Cornell, he became an important influence on students. His two projects for Ithaca sought to emphasize

Modernism in the history of the area’s architecture. The Ithaca Scattered Site Housing

Project was widely exhibited and published and was ultimately included in the permanent collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) in New York.96

The Ithaca Scattered Housing Project in Ithaca’s West Village was built in

1971. The complex, situated at the top of the hill with a great view of the valley, consists of a midrise building, with 20 one-bedroom and 80 two-bedroom apartments, management office, laundries, and a meeting room. At the bottom of the hill, there is much more: 73 three-bedroom—as well as a small number of one-bedroom terrace units with private courtyards (for elderly people), four-bedroom duplexes with private decks, and a common green area and playing space at Chestnut Street. The structural system of the complex is quite interesting. The medium rise building consists of 21 bays of structural units, constructed of cast-in-place concrete. The walls and slabs are gang formed. All other units were pre-fabric modules, assembled on the site.97

96 “Syracuse University,” “Werner Seligmann, Architect, Urban Designer, Educator,” accessed on 6/29/11, http://soa.syr.edu/faculty/bcoleman/seligmann/ws.index.html. 97 “Syracuse University School of Architecture,” accessed on 6/15/11, http://soa.syr.edu/faculty/bcoleman/ARC523/lectures/523.lecture.elmstreethousing.html.

Figs. 68-70: Scattered Housing Project in Ithaca (AKA the typewriter project) (1971), designed by Werner Seligmann. Images from Syracuse University School of Architecture website.

Center Ithaca, located at the Center of Commons, which is the pedestrian downtown mall in Ithaca, NY, was an award-winning design built in 1981. This early attempt of a mixed-use project was designed by Seligman and Associates as a variation of Boston’s Faneuil Hall Marketplace/Quincy Market, and also includes 62 modern apartments. The project was redesigned and renovated by HOLT Architects of Ithaca.98

98 Tom Hoard, e-mail to author, and http://brancra.wordpress.com/2008/09/03/going-downtown/ accessed on 6/8/11.

Figs. 71-73: Center Ithaca (1981), designed by Werner Seligman, current condition (after renovation by HOLT Architects). Images taken by the author.

The residence, located at 2 Cornell Walk in Ithaca, NY, also must be noted, not only because of its architecture, but also because of its architect: a woman architect- civil engineer who was one of Frank Lloyd Wright’s apprentices at Taliesin. The two- story, concrete block building was designed by Bodil Somkin (Bodil Hammergaard before her marriage), a woman architect who designed a Modern architecture in the area. The house is a three-bedroom with two and half bath situated on a small, low maintenance lot in Belle Sherman neighborhood—a good example of a residential

Modern house. Bodil Somkin, after serving as an apprentice of frank Lloyd Wright

71 from 1950 to 1954, went to Washington D.C. to practice architecture, where she married Fred Somkin, a lawyer, who later became interested in American history. Fred earned his Ph.D. from Cornell in 1967 and then joined the faculty of Cornell American

Cultural/Intellectual History in 1968.99 That is why the family moved to Ithaca, NY, where Bodil had the opportunity to design a residential project, which was influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright’s ideas of architecture.100

Figs. 74-75: The house at 2 Cornell Walk, Ithaca, NY, designed by Bodil Somkin (ca. 1971). Images taken by the author.

The most famous Modern architecture of Ithaca and the only example of

Modernism in The Architectural Heritage of Tompkins County is the Herbert F. Johnson

Museum of Art at Cornell campus. The Johnson Museum of Art, which is recognized as one of the most important university museums in the country, was completed in 1973.

The museum was designed by I.M. Pei with John L. Sullivan III and the firm of Pei

Cobb Freed & Partners. This exposed concrete building itself is undoubtedly the biggest object of art of the Museum. 101 The building, which is both bold and

99 Dr. Fred Somkin authored two major works: Unquiet Eagle: Memory and Desire in the Idea of American Freedom, 1815-1860 (1967), and How Vanzetti Said Goodbye (1982). 100 "University of Chicago Magazine, Dec. 1994, Class News" accessed on 6/15/12, magazine.uchicago.edu/9412/CN.html, and “Somkin Family,” accessed on 18/11/13, http://aronoff.com. 101 http://www.museum.cornell.edu/HFJ/about/generalinfo.html accessed on 6/1/11.

72 transparent, was designed to continue the principles of design of the Arts Quad in

Cornell campus, which is a Historic District. As one of the great examples of sculptural architecture of the late Modern era, it is significant in the history of Modernism of the area. In 2011 the Museum expanded its area on the north side with a design by John

Sullivan; an expansion, which, as a Modern concrete box, completely matches the main building.

Figs. 76-77: Johnson Museum of Art, original building (1973) (left) and the addition (2011) (right). Images taken by the author.

In 1975, Jerry Wells, who became a Professor of Architecture at Cornell

University, designed his first building in Cornell, the Grumman Squash Courts, while a partner in the firm of Wells, Koetter, and Dennis.102 Wells, who was born in Texas in

1935, studied at the University of Texas, and received his B.Arch. degree in 1959.

From 1960 to 64, he continued his studies and also taught and practiced at the Swiss

Federal Institute of Technology-ETH, in Zurich, before joining the Department of

Architecture at Cornell.103

102 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/14/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2610. 103 “Cornell University, AAP” website, accessed on 6/14/11,

73 The rectangular mass of the Grumman Squash Courts is constructed of concrete blocks with a flat roof, and is clad with randomly laid cut stone at the building’s entrance. In the main façade there is a projecting portico above the entryway, which has a double door made of light wood and surrounded by glass sidelights at both sides.104

The squash courts, located in a light brown brick structure at the west of the entry building, are situated at a lower level because of the downward slope of the Campus

Road. The high point of this architecture is the two-story concrete corridor—an enclosed steel and glass walkway with concrete slab roof and frameless windows-- which connects to the entry building. Although the building from outside does not look very Modern, the interior design, simplicity of form, lack of ornamentations, and usage of materials connect the building to Le Corbusier’s ideas of architecture. The upper floor with its glass and steel curtain walls are also owed to the Miesian architecture.

The construction of the latest Cornell building, Bill Gates Hall, designed by Morphosis

Architects has recently been started at the west side of the courts.

Figs. 78-79: Interior of the Grumman Squash Courts (1975), designed by Jerry Wells. Images taken by the author. http://aap.cornell.edu/arch/faculty/faculty-profile.cfm?customel_datapageid_7102=18631. 104 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 6/14/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2610.

74 Another Modern project at Cornell campus is the one that often would be forgotten, because it is almost invisible: the Uris Library addition. This invisibility is one of the Modernistic characters of the project. The underground extension of the Uris

Library, which sits at the base of McGraw Tower, houses collections for the social sciences, humanities and children's literature, as well as hosting two computer labs.

Gunnar Birkerts designed the addition in 1980-82. Its positioning beneath the McGraw

Tower, a long-standing symbol of Cornell University (and itself the design of the first student of Cornell’s architecture program), lends it additional importance.

Figs. 80-81: Uris Library addition at Cornell University (1980-82), designed by Gunnar Birkerts. Images taken by the author.

75 The German-born Cornell architecture faculty member and former chair, Mario

L. Schack (1929-2010), also designed a building at Cornell campus. Snee Hall, located on Central Avenue at Cornell, is the design of Schack while a partner of the office of

Perkins and Will. The 74,599 SF building housing the Department of Geological

Sciences was completed in 1984. Structurally a four-story, concrete box clad in gray sheet metal panels with accents in red, it features an orange-tinted exposed concrete brise-soleil (or-and skin) in front that follows the curve of Central Avenue and sits on a rough base of the same exposed concrete.105

Figs 82-83: Snee Hall (1984), designed by Mario Schack. Images taken by the author.

105 “Cornell University Facilities Services,” accessed on 7/27/11, http://www.fs.cornell.edu/fs/facinfo/fs_facilInfo.cfm?facil_cd=2049.

76 Carl Sagan Studio is another noteworthy Modern residential/office project in

Ithaca, NY. This building, located at 900 Stewart Avenue, has a long history, from its beginning as a tomb-like Egyptian Revival temple to its final role as a Modern studio for Carl Sagan, the American astronomer and his wife. The original Egyptian Revival limestone Temple was built in 1890 for Cornell University’s oldest secret society,

Sphinx Head. Later, it was altered to a residential architecture and occupied by Steven

Mensch. Eventually, when the Sagan family bought the house, although they loved the temple (which formed the living room), and they wanted to renovate it along with the rest of the house to fit their family’s needs. With the recommendation of Jerry Wells, the then chair of the Architecture Department of Cornell, they chose Atelier Jullian and

Pendleton, a husband and wife team. Jullian de la Fuente had been the chef of Le

Corbusier’s atelier from 1958 till the death of the master in 1965. Thus, in 1992, Jullian de la Fuente and his wife Ann Pendelton-Jullian placed new openings and skylights in the Temple, turning it into a lovely studio with two separate small study offices or “a place to which we can disappear” in Sagan words. This was supposedly the first phase of the house-studio project. “Carl and Ann understand that architecture is as much about the fabrication of poetical facts as it is about building,” 106 Jullian said about

Sagan and this project.107 Unfortunately, despite this auspicious beginning, other phases of the project were never finished.

106 Pilar Viladas, “Of Architecture and Astronomy: Capturing the Sky in Carl Sagan's Ithaca, New York, Study,” Architectural Digest (1994): 147. 107 P. Viladas, “Of Architecture and Astronomy”, 71-77 & 147.

Figs 84-85: Carl Sagan studio in Ithaca, NY. (renovated in 1992), designed by Jullian de la Fuente, exterior (left) and interior (right). Images from Architectural Digest magazine.

Another residential project that must be noted is Cube House. Designed by

Simon Ungers, Cube House is placed outside of the chronological boundaries of

Modernism. However it is a famous Modern design in the area because of its architect, more than its simplicity of form, material, and design. The house was designed by

Ungers for himself in 1995 as a vacation house. A two-story, it is a simple, Modern cube dwelling made of concrete blocks. Ungers, a German architect and artist, was born in Cologne, Germany in 1957 and moved to Ithaca when his father became the dean of Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning. After studying architecture at Cornell, he taught at several schools including Cornell and Harvard

University. Ungers’ claim to fame were his steel sculptures and light installations, which particularly received international attention for him and Tom Kinslow for their

78 Cor-ten steel “T-House” in Wilton, NY. Since 2000, he mostly focused on his large minimalist artwork installations until his death in Cologne.108

Figs 86-87: Cube House (1995), designed by Simon Ungers. Images taken by the author.

108 Tony Illia, “Architect Simon Ungers Dies,” Architectural Record, Daily News, (March 30, 2006), http://archrecord.construction.com.

79 Although Modern architecture has its admirers since it appeared in the history of twentieth century architecture, it has been always criticized because of its relationship with surroundings. By surroundings, I mean not only the natural landscape, which many Modern architects have paid attention to, but also the historic context and local materials. It is important to note that this inattention to site and context is not limited to

Modern architecture and has been somehow tied to architecture more generally: imagine, for instance, the relationship between a Greek Revival house or an Italian

Palazzo to the surroundings. In many respects the relationship of the architecture to its surroundings is the same as Modern architecture. The significance of Modern architecture is its simplicity of form, absence of ornamentations, design of a free plan, a free façade with horizontal windows, rising the building with pilotis, and the flat roof for providing rooftop gardens, which were main points of architecture in the

International Style.

In Ithaca, NY, the home of Cornell University and Ithaca College, there are examples of Modern architecture, designed in International Styles and other Modern schools of architecture with more admiration to the surroundings. There are several academic buildings designed in the mid-twentieth century at Cornell and Ithaca College, and several examples of residential, commercial, and industrial Modern architecture outside of these two campuses, which were discussed in this chapter. Many of the buildings outside of the two campuses, however, were somehow related to Cornell

University, which is not uncommon in a small college town.

At Cornell, several students, faculty members, and staffs, as well as architectural scholars have disapproved of the university’s decisions to build Modernistic buildings

80 in the “historic” campus. In contrast, many other students, faculty members, staffs, and scholars have argued that the university does not give enough commissions to Modern architects to build new and improved buildings in the campus.

While Cornell was struggling with these controversial debates, Ithaca College was busy building “the miracle on the hill,” the project envisioned by the fourth president, Howard Dillingham, for the creation of the South Hill campus of Ithaca.109

Ithaca College hired Modern architects, such as the firm of Tallman and Tallman

Architects to produce a modern look for the campus.

There might be unsuccessful projects among Modern architectural style like any other styles. This, however, cannot be concluded as failure of the style. Regardless of all the criticism, Modern architecture is a significant part of the history of architecture, which unfortunately has received scant attention. However, this inattention is understandable when one compares the treatment of Modern architecture today with the treatment of any architectural style or period in the past. Since many of these buildings are getting old, Modernism needs to pay more attention to issues of preservation. In this thesis, I hope to begin to address Modernist architecture and its preservation by researching and documenting the significant recent past properties in and around Ithaca.

109 “ HCAP,” accessed on July 19, 2011, http://hcap.artstor.org/cgi-bin/library?a=d&d=p860.

81 CHAPTER 3.

FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT AND FALLINGWATER

Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century. The history of Modern architecture, especially in the United States, is tied to his work. Scholars divide his career into different parts. Kenneth Frampton in his book, Modern Architecture, divides Wright’s professional career into three basic sections: first, his Prairie style, and his experimentation with concrete block houses of the type that culminated with the 1929 house in Tulsa; second, his trials with the capacity of cantilevered reinforced concrete, beginning with the Elizabeth Noble

Apartments projected for Los Angles, and reaching a peak with the Johnson Wax

Administration building and Fallingwater; and third, what might be called his “science- fiction” architecture--at least, “judging from the exotic style of his late renderings.”110

Wright mentioned three not-so-different styles for his work: Prairie School,

Organic architecture, and Usonian architecture. Although vary in form and details, they somehow show a sequence of maturity of his career. Wright’s style was unique: he was always looking for a better way for people to live. Through his Prairie Style, he produced a transition from classical architecture to the twentieth century Modern architecture. Organic architecture, in contrast, developed from Wright’s criticism of the

International Style and its relationship to nature. Finally, “Usonian” architecture was a

110 Frampton, Kenneth, modern architecture, a critical history, (London: Thames and Hudson, 2007), 187- 189.

82 true effort to produce a Modern and reasonable way to find the “American Dream.” He proposed the adjective Usonian to describe the New World character of the American landscape.111

Fallingwater, built for the Edgar Kaufman family in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, is one of Wright’s masterpieces and the peak of his “Organic” architecture. It is, further, a great example of his Usonian architecture. Although he could only design sixty or so family homes that were referred to as Usonian Houses, the idea of designing decent and reasonable Modern homes for Americans was pursued by his followers. The work of

Raymond Viner Hall, for instance, in suburban areas of Ithaca, NY. would be a successful example of this pursuit.

In order to better understand the relationship between Raymond Viner Hall’s architecture in Ithaca, which I have called Fallingwaters of Ithaca, it is necessary to first examine Frank Lloyd Wright’s Fallingwater and its relationship to the architecture of

Raymond Viner Hall and his father, Walter. Raymond’s father, Walter Hall, was the chief contractor of Wright’s Fallingwater. He had built Lynn Hall for his own family in

Port Alleghany, Pennsylvania, and then went to build Fallingwater for Wright and his client in Bear Run, Pennsylvania.

This chapter is a brief description of Wright’s Fallingwater and its relationship to Walter Hall.

111 Usonian houses usually refer to a group of family homes designed by Wright. To control the cost, he designed them with no attic, no basement, and little ornamentation. The first of this group was Jacobs House, which was built in 1936.

83 I. Frank Lloyd Wright

Fig. 88: Wright’s portrait by Al Ravenna, New York World-Telegram and the Sun staff photographer, 1954. Image from Library of Congress.

Frank Lloyd Wright was born in Richland Center, Wisconsin on June 8, 1869.112

Originally named Frank Lincoln Wright, he later changed his name after his parent’s divorce (his mother’s name was Anna Lloyd-Jones). After his family moved to

Madison, Wisconsin, he attended Madison High School, but left Madison in 1885 without finishing high school to work for Allan Conover, the Dean of the University of

Wisconsin's Engineering Department. He studied civil engineering for two semesters while at the University and then moved to Chicago in 1887, where he worked first for a year with architect Joseph Lyman Silsbee and then with Louis Sullivan in the office of

Adler and Sullivan. 113 During his time there, Wright adopted Sullivan’s rule “form follows function,” which he would later revise to, “form and function are one.”114

112 Chusid, Jeffrey M. Saving Wright, The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), 13. 113 Mario Clayton, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide (London: Salamander Books, 2002), 7-21. 114 “Frank Lloyd Wright Biography,” http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html.

84 Wright practiced Sullivan’s theory that the basis of American Architecture should lie in function instead of European tradition. In 1893, Wright left the office and opened his own firm in Chicago before relocating it to his home in Oak Park, where he stayed for

18 years before moving to Germany with his second wife in 1909.115

Wright designed many of his known Prairie Style homes in the first decade of the twentieth century, including Larkin Soap Company, Unity Temple, Darwin Martin

House, and Frederick Robie House.116 Moving to Spring Green, Wisconsin, in 1911, he built Taliesin, his home and office. There he designed many of his great projects, including Fallingwater in Bear Run, Pennsylvania, the Guggenheim Museum in New

York City, and the SC Johnson and Son Wax Company Administration Center in

Racine, Wisconsin.117

Fig. 89: Fallinwater (1935-37), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Image taken by the author.

Edgar Jr., the son of Edgar and Liliane Kaufmann, owners of the Kaufmann

Department Store in nearby Pittsburgh and clients for Fallingwater, became Wright’s

115 In 1909, Wright left his first wife (Catherine Tobin) for another woman (Mamah Cheney), the wife of a client (Chusid, 14). 116 Chusid, Saving Wright, 14. 117 “Frank Lloyd Wright Biography,” http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html.

85 apprentice and started work at Taliesin. In 1914 an insane servant tragically murdered seven people and then set fire to Taliesin. Wright reconstructed Taliesin and in 1932 opened it up as an architectural fellowship, inviting apprentices to come live with him and learn from him. While he didn’t have a single new project for three years, Taliesin

Fellowship was financially helpful. Wright charged a dozen young architects $675 a year (hiked in 1933 to $1,100) to work with him there. That was even higher than what live-in students paid at either Harvard or Yale.118 In 1937, feeling his age and less tolerant of cold northern winters, he decided to move his family and fellowship to the

Phoenix area of Arizona, where he built Taliesin West. There he would spend the last twenty years of his life.119

Wright was and is internationally recognized for his innovative building style and designs, which include his concept of “organic architecture,” exemplified by

Fallingwater, his advocacy of the “Prairie Style” of architecture (or Prairie School movement) exemplified by Robie House, the Westcott House, and Darwin D. Martin

House, and his development of the “Usonian” home, the ideal American house. He designed 1,141 projects, of which 532 were completed. Frank Lloyd Wright died on

April 9, 1959 at age ninety-two in his home in Phoenix, Arizona.120

The history of Modern architecture, especially in the U.S., cannot go without reference to the work of Frank Lloyd Wright and his Prairie style of architecture from early 1900 to 1920. As mentioned earlier, the influence of Wright’s Prairie Style on other contemporary architects is undeniable. “Prairie Style” originated from a project

Wright did for the Ladies’ Home Journal in 1900-1901 with a prototype he designed in

118 Franklin Toker, Fallingwater Rising (New York: Alfred A. Knope, 2003), 30-31. 119 Frank Lloyd Wright, DVD, directed by Ken Burns & Lynn Novick (PBS documentary, 1998). 120 “Frank Lloyd Wright Biography,” http://www.cmgww.com/historic/flw/bio.html.

86 1900 called “A Home in a Prairie Town.”121 Prairie houses demonstrated Wright’s concern that a building should respond to its setting and were characterized by long, unbroken wall surface, continuous bands of leaded casement window, and low-pitched, or flat roofs (usually with widely overhanging eaves), which Wright explained, would provide protection from extreme of weather and “give a sense of shelter in the look of a building.”122 Throughout his career, Wright consistently maintained the notion of blending the building with nature, what he was to term “organic architecture”: “The good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but one which makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before building was built.”123

Frank Lloyd Wright achieved his most supreme example of “organic architecture” with Fallingwater, which he designed in 1935 for the Kaufmann family in

Southern Pennsylvania. It was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1966.124 In the 1930s after the Great Depression, Wright was also in a depression stage of his career. In 1932 Wright was truly caught in a drought. He did not have a new project for three years. To continue his lifestyle, he came up with two financially helpful projects: the Taliesin Fellowship and writing An Autobiography, which came out successfully in that year. Even many of his admirers were resigned to his disappearance from the central stage of Modernism. While the New York architect, Harold Sterner admitted that Wright’s career is approaching to the end, the Fallingwater project was a great success and comeback.125

121 H. Allen Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School (New York: George Braziller, Inc., 1984), 13. 122 Brooks, Frank Lloyd Wright and the Prairie School, 49. 123 “Frank Lloyd Wright Quotes- Usonia,” http://www.usonia.com/fllw.hyml. 124 “Fallingwater,” National Historic Landmark summary listing. National Park Service. 125 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 14-15, and 30-31.

87 Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture, especially Fallingwater, inspired several architect throughout the country. For example, the Modern architecture of the Ithaca area designed by Raymond Viner Hall is unquestionably influenced by Wright’s architecture. Other Modern architects, such as Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra, also initially worked with Wright. They both started working in the United States in

Wright’s office and later became pioneers in American Modern architecture.

88 II. Fallingwater

Fallingwater, built for the head of a Pittsburgh department store, is probably the most poetic statement Wright ever made and “the most complete statement of his romantic beliefs.” 126 Frank Lloyd Wright was introduced to the client, Edgar

Kaufmann, Sr. by his son Edgar Jr., who had studied with Wright at Taliesin.127 After the architect received the commission to build a weekend home for the Kaufmann family and when he first visited the site in 1934, Wright was moved by the powerful sound of the falls, the energy of the young forest, the dramatic rock ledges and boulders.

128 He wrote to Kaufmann on December 26, 1934, eight days after his visit:

“Visit to the waterfall in the woods stays with me and a domicile has taken vague shape in

my mind to the music of the stream. When contours come you will see it.

Meantime, to you my affection.” 129

In 1935, Wright conceived Fallingwater in July, drew it on September 22, and then presented the drawings to the client in Pittsburgh in October.130 The construction began in June 1936 and Fallingwater was eventually constructed of reinforced concrete slabs, cantilevered out from the rock and carrying the house over a waterfall.

The main house is a fairly modest four-bedroom weekend space arranged over three floors, the first being a vast living area with kitchen, outriding terrace, and a plunge pool attached. A so-called “guest wing” was added in 1939, functionally adding a four-car

126 Peter Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Space (Baltimore, MD: Penguin Book Inc, 1960), 97. 127 “Fallingwater,” official website, accessed on 11/18/12, http://www.fallingwater.org. 128 Mario Clayton, ed., Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide (London: Salamander Books, 2002), 219-225. 129 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 139. 130 Franklin Toker, “A Fallingwater Timeline,” in Fallingwater Rising (New York: Alfred A. Knope, 2003).

89 garage, two servant’s rooms above, and a guest living suite.131 Wright stacked the house four levels high above the water (3 floors + a basement). He flung the house out horizontally on cantilevered balconies.132 He pointed the main balcony roughly south, with sidepieces facing east and west, and in this level he made the living room. Much like in his Prairie houses, the living room moves from a dark and small entrance to an open terrace.133 The kitchen is also placed in the main level with an entry from the back of the house through a servant area. The terrace above, also pointed south, is reserved for Liliane, Kaufmann’s wife. A private terrace for Edgar Sr., pointed west, and a guest terrace, pointed east, is situated in the same level. The higher level is the penthouse for

Kaufmann Jr. A boiler room, a wine cellar, a toilet for servants, and a food pantry are placed in the tiny basement pushed along the boulders.134

Fig. 90: Fallingwatre (1935-37), designed by F.L. Wright, first floor plan. Image from www.etereastudios.com.

131 Frampton, American Masterworks, 87. 132 Fallingwater would encompass 2,885 SF inside but an additional 2,445 SF of balconies in the air (Toker, 150). 133 Weston, Key Buildings of twentieth century, 78. 134 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 150.

90 Fallingwater, like other projects designed by Wright is extremely simple and at the same time very complex: a geometric composition of horizontal concrete planes played against vertical stone planes (walls and fireplace). The simplicity that seems influenced by the International Style.135 Although it has no boxiness whatever, all of the interior corners are dissolved in glass and all interior spaces extend across balconies into the landscape. In another word, “the spatial continuity is assured by much the same means Wright had perfected since the days of the Prairie houses.”136 Also the structural plasticity, which, for Wright, go parallel with spatial continuity, “is more dramatically expressed than ever before in the great reinforced-concrete cantilevers balanced on the small rocky lodge above the waterfall.”137

Though some scholars believe that Fallingwater was influenced by the

International Style, others state that the project was Wright’s “answer” to the

International Style of architecture.138 However, an examination of Wright’s earlier work shows that the ideas involved in Fallingwater “are in no wised changed from those of early work,” as Wright notes.139 “The effects you see in this house are no superficial effects, and are entirely consist with the Prairie House of 1901-1910.”140

While the bedrooms are located in the upper floors, the main level is the more public level of the house: it is a mixture of the outside public area, the semi-private living room and terraces, and kitchen and its attached room, which are the servant areas.

Although the private-public arrangement of the house is not as “modern” as

135 Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Space, 97-98. 136 Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Space, 98. 137 Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright Architecture and Space, 98. 138 Robert McCarter, Fallingwater Frank Lloyd Wright (New York: Phaidon Press, 1994), 5-6. 139 McCarter, Fallingwater, 6. 140 Frank Lloyd Wright, Frank Lloyd Wrigh: On Architecture, ed F Gutheim (New York: Grosset and Dunlap, 1941), 332.

91 International Style’s house, such as Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House, which has almost no privacy, Fallingwater offers an idea for a comfortable, yet Modern place for living.

Fig. 91: A Diagaram showing privacy of spaces in Fallingwater’s first floor. Diagram drawn by the author.

Among his several “enemies,” Wright always has respected Mies van der Rohe.

This respect shows itself as an influence from Miesian prototypes on Wright’s work.141

For example, a comparison of the schematic plan of Fallingwater and Mies van der

Rohe’s 1923 project for a brick villa, Franklin Toker, a Fallingwater scholar, suggests many similarities.142

141 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 172. 142 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 173.

Fig. 92: A comparison of schematic plan of Fallingwater (bottom) and Mies van der Rohe’s 1923 project for a brick villa (top). Image from Fallingwater Rising.

Wright used the “earth-line” of his mystical Midwestern Prairie in a new way: he made the concrete terraces of this house “appear as an agglomeration of stacked trays miraculously suspended in space,”143 unencumbered by the wooded, undulating terrain.

Conceptually, the structure of the Fallingwater is a series of trays, cantilevered from a rock ledge next to the stream and supported by orthogonally arranged load-bearing walls and piers.144 The cantilevered floors, the “trays,” excluded any chance of constructing Fallingwater with wood, since only steel or reinforced concrete could carry their weight. Wright had used cantilevered technology several times; but as the structural key to a design he just employed it once before: his Imperial Hotel in Tokyo in the early 1920s.145

143 Frampton, American Masterworks, 84. 144 Weston, Key Buildings of twentieth century, 78. 145 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 151.

93 The mixture of the concrete slabs, boulders, slate walls, and the suspended stairway that leads to the creek are all unusual, artistic elements—all expressions of

Wright’s poetic, romantic and intensely personal view of architecture that created this spectacular example of his mature period.146

Fig. 93: Fallingwater (1935-37), designed by F.L. Wright, section. Image from www.GreatBuilding.com.

In the illustration above, the house section (Fig. 92), it can be discerned how the house was tied back into the rock escarpment—in fact, it would seem that the builders carved the rocks to construct the house. The low ceiling heights of the interior evokes a furnished cave rather than a conventional house. The illustrations also show the relationships between interior and exterior. The fieldstone walls and rock-paved floors are intended to pay homage to the site. As it is shown in the next image (Fig. 93), the suspended stairway, which drops through a glazed hatchway in the living-room floor to descend to the waterfall below, seems to confirm this homage to nature.147

146 Clayton, Frank Lloyd Wright Field Guide, 219-225. 147 Frampton, American Masterworks, 83-90.

Figs. 94: Fallingwater in 2012, showing the suspended stairway from the main level down to the stream. Images taken by the author.

The creativity of Wright in designing dramatic characters such as an 18-foot cantilever, often nearly defied the capacity of the reinforced concrete and available engineering technologies and construction methods of the time. Although currently, there are technical problems in the “trays,” such as perceptible settlement cracks and sagging, Wright’s creativity and going even beyond the capacity of engineering at the time helped expand the boundary of architectural design.

Wright experimented with some features in previous projects only to be fully realized in Fallingwater. For example, he tried to create the unobstructed corner window, which ties inside and outside space, in his early twentieth century houses with concrete columns at the corner between two windows. Wright refined the idea and the technique of construction to reached his goal for this project. In fact, at Fallingwater,

Wright delivered two versions of it: one was the glass corner, where two sheets of glass meet at a corner, fixed and with very little reinforcement, so as to avoid visual interruption; the other was his open corner window, designed to allow nature to come into the room. Opening these windows, seen below (Figs. 94-95), in the third floor

95 library, changes the music of the waterfall tremendously. Wright objected to the addition of the screens, but sometimes function prevails: unless you build in the Arctic or on Antarctica, nasty little flying things will be your persistent, if uninvited,

148 companions. There is a limit to Nature’s say!

Figs. 95-96: Unobstructed corner windows of Fallingwater in 3rd floor from inside(left) and from outside (right). Images at top by the author and at bottom from http://icor1348.com.

Figs. 97-98: Unobstructed corner windows of Fallingwater in the main floor. Images from http://icor1348.com.

Wright’s admiration of nature can even be read in

the smaller details and techniques of construction, i.e., the

way he designed the concrete trellis over the driveway

behind the house (north) to save the tree (image at the

left).

Fig. 99: Fallingwater, concrete trellis over the driveway. Image taken by the author.

148 “Fallingwater and Kentuck Knob - House and Home,” http://icor1348.com.

96 Wright also designed and furnished Fallingwater with micro-space incidents, from the non-functional stairway over the stream to the boulder hearth that seems to burst up out of the flagstone floor. In the living room, like most of Wright’s domestic architecture, a large centrally-placed fireplace is designed as a “hearth” that grounds the house and becomes its focus. This hearth can be seen in Wright’s projects as early as his Prairie Style house. He frequently designed benches on either side of the fireplace, as he did for Fallingwater. He formed the living room around the “hearth” and added a spherical metal kettle on a welded steel pivot. This was originally designed for heating wines and making punch over the fire, but Edgar Kaufmann only used it once and even then only for warming up the punch that had already been made in the kitchen.

Fig. 100: Fallingwater, the fireplace and the kettle in the living room of the entrance level. Image from http://icor1348.com.

97 When the clients were looking for a contractor, Kaufmann’s son, Edgar Jr. on a drive to Buffalo visited some of Wright’s other work, perhaps the Darwin Martin

House. He saw the Lynn Hall stonework and alerted his father of an opportunity of contracting with Wright. Lynn Hall is the hotel, restaurant, and home that Walter Hall was building in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania. Kaufmann Jr. was in the area, perhaps looking for a place to eat and local people suggested that he try the new Lynn Hall building. It might sound irrational that Kaufmann Jr. accidentally saw Lynn Hall on his way. This assumption is based on Walter Hall’s grandson, Ray Morton’s statements. In

Planet Smethport project (Pennsylvania history) website there is some evidence of this assumption: quotations from a letter that Kaufmann Jr. wrote to his father: "The house is chiefly masonry, stone work and concrete--exactly the type we are to build at Bear

Run."149

Fig. 101: A Map showing Port Allegany, where Lynn Hall was built, located approximately mid-way between Mill Run, PA, and Buffalo, NY. Base map taken from Google Maps.

149 http://www.smethporthistory.org/port.allegany/toport/lynnhall/lynnhall3.html

98 There is another way of connecting Walter Hall to Fallingwater project:

Walter’s son, Raymond Viner Hall. In a letter to Wright in 1934, Raymond asked how he could join the novitiate at Taliesin (after all since he couldn’t raise the money he couldn’t join). In that letter, Raymond cited his father, Walter Hall, as “a master builder in the real sense of the word.”150 It was probably Raymond’s letter that led Wright to send his son, John, in 1935 to Port Allegany to meet Walter Hall. After visiting Lynn

Hall in Port Allegany, PA, and its stonework, which recalled his father’s work, John reported to Frank Lloyd Wright that Hall was a stunning builder. Inside Lynn Hall, there was a strong 40-foot-long self-supporting reinforced-concrete beam spanned the hotel’s lounge that caught John’s eye. He knew that this kind of engineering was something that Wright had in mind for Fallingwater.151 After all, Walter Hall joined the

Fallingwater team as the chief builder in July 1936.

Regardless of how Walter Hall was chosen to join Wright to work on

Fallingwater, he was a crucial figure in the creation of the project, especially the stone- tapestry walls. “If not the inventor, Walter Hall was for certain the prime executor and maestro of Fallingwater’s masonry style.”152 After July 1936, when Wright received his new and beneficial commission for the S.C. Johnson headquarters in Racine, Wisconsin, and had little time for Fallingwater, Walter Hall’s strong presence became even more crucial to success at the project.

150 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 208. 151 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 208-209. 152 Toker, Fallingwater Rising, 209.

Fig. 102: Walter J. Hall in the Fallingwater project. Image from www.smethporthistory.org.

100 The history of Modern architecture, especially in the U.S., is tied to the work of

Frank Lloyd Wright. He is one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century. This was not because he was easy to copy. As a matter of fact, “Wright was and is impossible to copy,” and his followers’ work around the world have come as close to Wright’s genius “as a necklace at Woolworth’s comes to the brilliance of a necklace at Cartier’s.”153 However, several architects have tried to translate Wright’s idiom into idioms of their own and that is why Frank Lloyd Wright is one of the great resources of Modern architecture.

Taking his cues from Sullivan and the Chicago Style, with the horizontal lines of his Prairie houses, and influences of the Avant-grade movement, Wright introduced a new domestic architecture for America. His architecture was always inspired by the nature. “I believe in God, only I spell it Nature,”154 he said. Fallingwater, one of his masterpieces, is a great example of this relationship between architecture and the surrounding nature, or what he called “Organic architecture.”

Fallingwater, as mentioned earlier, might have some technical and structural issues, but it truly expanded the boundary of domestic architectural design of the twentieth century. As one of the peaks of the mid- twentieth century Modern architecture, Fallingwater, inspired several architects and their architecture. Throughout the country, several young architects who wanted to be known as Wright’s followers tried to mimic his ideas in their own ways.

153 Blake, Frank Lloyd Wright, 9 154 http://www.usonia.com/fllw.html

101 In 1936, after engineers cautioned Kaufmann Sr. not to build Fallingwater because of the complexity of structural design,155 and just a month after the construction began, Walter J. Hall joined the team of Fallingwater as the chief builder. Regardless of how Walter Hall was introduced to Frank Lloyd Wright, his work, as the master builder of the project is crucial, especially in terms of its stone works.

155 Franklin Toker, “A Fallingwater Timeline,” in Fallingwater Rising (New York: Alfred A. Knope, 2003).

102 CHAPTER 4.

RAYMOND VINER HALL’S ARCHITECTURE IN ITHACA, NY

Raymond Viner Hall’s contribution to the Modern architecture of Ithaca is substantial. Although he did not officially study or practice architecture under supervision of Frank Lloyd Wright, he became a true follower of Wright by studying

Wright’s philosophy and also by working with his father, who worked with Wright in

Fallingwater. This chapter provides a brief biographical information about Raymond

Viner Hall. It then studies his architecture and examines how he adapted Wright’s architecture in his own work. Finally by reviewing six of his projects built in Ithaca,

NY, this chapter shows how Raymond Viner Hall’s work constitutes a significant contribution to the recent past history of architecture in the area.

103 I. Raymond Viner Hall; A Biographical Sketch

Raymond Viner Hall was born in 1908 and died in 1981. His mother and her family were from Ithaca, NY, while his father and his family were from Northwestern

Pennsylvania. He was raised in Port Allegany, PA, where he graduated from high school in 1924. From 1926 to 1928 he enrolled in the Ithaca Conservatory of Music to study Speech Arts. He then left Ithaca for George Washington University, in the

District of Columbia, to study architecture. With the Stock Market Crash in 1929 and the widespread economic difficulty that followed, he enrolled in a less expensive architecture curriculum offered by the International Correspondence School of

Scranton, PA, from 1929 to 1931. Hall worked with architect Thomas K. Hendryx

(1896-1970) in Bradford, PA. from 1935 to 1939 156. Thomas Kennedy Henryx was born in Bath, NY, and went to Cornell University College of Architecture in 1916 (took off two years to fight in World War I).157 Raymond Hall’s independent practice started in 1939 but was interrupted by World War II for three years.158

156 Raymond Viner Hall’s hand written “Biographical Data (1972),” in Hall’s Collection, Carnegie Mellon University. 157 Sally Costik, e-mail message to author, 11/27/2013. Sally Costik is the Curator of Bradford Landmark Society who researched and lectured on Thomas Hendryx. 158 Based on the “Biographical Data,” he served as Vice President of Radiant Heat Incorporated in Easton, PA from 1945 to 1949; Trustee at FATM (Partnership) in Port Allegany, PA from 1954 to 1958; Trustee at Raymond Viner Hall, et al, Orange Grove Project, St. Croix, U.S.V.I. from 1960 to 1963; Trustee at Raymond Viner Hall, et al, Moonridge Project, St. Croix, U.S.V.I. from 1963 to 1966; Trustee at Raymond Viner Hall, et al, Ha’ Penny Bay Project, St. Croix, U.S.V.I. from 1964; President of Bradford Aeronautical Corp. (former), Bradford-McKean Airport in Bradford, PA from 1966 to 1968; Vice President of Associated Educational Consultants in Wexford, PA from 1969 to 1970; and Chairman of Lynn Enterprises Ltd., Providenciales, Turks & Caicos Islands, B.W.I. from 1970.

104 II. Lynn Hall

Raymond Viner Hall, in his own words, was influenced by the “philosophies of

Wright, Sullivan, Ruskin, Locke, Whiteman,” and by “basic apprenticeships in the major building trades,” mainly directed by his father, Walter Hall.159 Walter Hall was constructing several buildings to sell in Northern Pennsylvania and decided to build a place for his own family in the early 1930s. He had begun building the project as an inn, outside Port Allegany, Liberty Township, Pennsylvania in a hillside in 1934, later called Lynn Hall.

The main section of Lynn Hall was first opened in 1936 as the first phase of the country inn project, with two dining rooms and a small office for Raymond Hall.

Raymond’s use of space expanded enough that eventually the restaurant function of the building was voided (probably in the early 1970s). Lynn Hall was listed on the National

Figs. 103-104: Lynn Hall in 1940s, designed by Walt and Raymond Hall. Images from www.smethporthistory.org.

159 Raymond V. Hall, “Some Autobiographical Annotations,” in his Firm Brochure, 1972. 160 “National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.

105

Fig. 105: Lynn Hall in 1940s, designed by Walter and Raymond Hall. Image from www.smethporthistory.org.

Students of architecture sometimes speculate on the question of who was influenced by whom? Was Walter Hall influenced by F.L. Wright or Wright by Hall?

Ray Morton Hall, grandson of Walter, relates how every few weeks someone pulls up to

Lynn Hall and asks him for a look at "the Frank Lloyd Wright building.” He replies how, in fact “his grandfather, Walter J. Hall, built this place, on a lonely road not far from the New York border, and then went and built Fallingwater, too.”161

There is no doubt that Walter Hall was deeply impressed with Wright’s early works before designing Lynn Hall. Frank Toker, the University of Pittsburgh professor and the writer of Fallingwater Rising, who also researched Lynn Hall, believes that

“Walter Hall came across some of Wright’s designs during a foray to Buffalo N.Y., where in 1903 Wright built the Darwin-Martin house, a classic example of his prairie-

161 “Fallingwater”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_172008.html#ixzz1U4on4k6w.

106 style homes.”162 Toker also notes, “I saw work by both Halls in town [Alleghany, PA], too, but I must caution that in my view these did not influence Fallingwater; rather there was a sort of confluence of ideas and styles.”163

Hall also worked with Earl Friar, a former employee of Wright’s, who continued working with Hall throughout his 50-year career. After Friar’s skills wrought magical effects from stone and concrete in Hall’s projects, he went to work for Wright at the

Taliesin Studio in Wisconsin. Thus it is also possible that Walter Hall learned of

Wright through Friar’s work. One of the employees of Hall, Ruby Anderson, a young carpenter at the time, said, “From the very start, when I went to work with him, he talked about Frank Lloyd Wright.” “He had ideas like Frank,” he continued, “Of course at the time, it didn’t mean anything to me.”164 It was in the early 1930s when Hall began working on Lynn Hall, well before Wright started to work on his sketches for

Fallingwater. As Ray Hall Jr. sees it, “Lynn Hall was the first place where the vast blue of Wright’s theories came in contact with the flinty practicality of Walter Hall’s experience.”165

It might not be a “chicken or the egg” dilemma, but it the problem of who influenced who is a good subject for research and reflection. Ultimately, the two architects contributed similar examples of Organic architecture to similar stony areas of

Pennsylvania.

162 Seamus McGraw, “Lynn Hall or Fallingwater: Which Came First?” Pittsburgh Quarterly, Winter 2007, http://pittsburghquarterly.com/pages/winter2007/winter2007_66.htm. 163 Franklin Toker, e-mail message to the author, 1/24/2012. 164 McGraw, “Lynn Hall or Fallingwater: Which Came First?” 165 “Fallingwater”, Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/s_172008.html#ixzz1U4on4k6w.

107

Fig. 106: Lynn Hall in April 2010, designed by Walter Hall. Image from wikimedia.org.

The current owners of the property, Gary and Sue DeVore, recently, in June

2013, started a restoration project. They set up a web site to inform everyone about the restoration process.166

166 http://www.lynnhall-restoration.com

108 III. Raymond Viner Hall’s Architecture

Fig. 107 (left): Frick Bakery, Elkland, PA. (1935), Art Moderne. Image from Elkland Journal. Never built or no longer there! Fig. 108 (Right): McKean County Memorial Park (c.1935), one of Hall’s earliest designs. Image from William Scott Collection.

Raymond Hall and his architecture were widely noted in the architectural press, especially in the late 1940s, including in magazines such as Architectural Record and

Progressive Architecture. In America's Best Small Houses, compiled and edited by

William J. Hennessey (New York: Viking Press, 1949), one of Raymond's designs is featured as “House Number Ten,” a 700 SF two-bedroom that includes a garage, built for $6,000 in Port Allegany, Pennsylvania (Figs 109-111).

109

Figs. 109-111: House # 10, designed by Raymond Hall in William J. Hennessey, ed, America’s Best Small Houses (New York: The Viking Press, 1949).

110 In Progressive Architecture in March 1948 one of his houses in St. Marys,

Pennsylvania was published.

Fig. 112: House in St. Marys , PA (1948), deisgned by Raymond hall, published in Progressive Architecture, March 1948.

111 Although Raymond did not want to be recognized as a specialized designer, his firm was known for educational design in the late 1960s and early 70s. In his firm’s brochure, printed in 1972, they list 27 educational buildings, 121 residential buildings, and 23 commercial projects. Hence, by the time that Raymond Hall began to design and build properties in the Ithaca area, he was a relatively senior practitioner who was accomplished in other areas of the country.167

Fig. 113: Three schools designed by R.V. Hall. Image from 1972 Hall’s firm brochure, CMU library. From up to down: Wattsburg, PA, central High School (1956); Austin, PA, Elementary- Secondary School (1958); Union City, PA, Area High School (1952).

167 Raymond in the 1972 Hall’s Firm brochure in the autobiographical annotations notes that while in 1939 Radiant Panel Heating was intriguing and relatively unknown, installation of 36 of the first 54 systems in the country “involved an empirical approach and a resolution of required design formulae; followed by some enthusiastic additions to the literature, including two technical manuals on panel heating and one on snow melting.” “A somehow similar protestant attitude toward public school building” resulted in membership on a Governor’s Advisory Committee for revising the obsolete school planning code.

112 IV. Hall’s Participation in Ithaca, NY

The following pages will be devoted more specifically to the residential buildings designed by Raymond Viner Hall in Ithaca, New York. During the designing and building process, Raymond was regularly travelling via a two-engine airplane between Port Allegany and Ithaca.

Fig. 114: Ithaca map showing the seven R.V. Hall’s project in the area (six of which are described in the next pages + the house located at 177 westhaven road). Base map from Google Maps.

Raymond Viner Hall is a crucial architectural figure in the Ithaca area. He designed some of the first Modern buildings of the area. He worked on twelve projects for nine different clients in the 1940s and early 50s. All these projects recall aspects of

Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture. In some very real way, then, the history of Modern

113 architecture in Ithaca is founded on the architecture of Raymond Hall and perhaps, by extension, F.L. Wright.

How he was commissioned for the first time in Ithaca is a question that has not been answered. However, Raymond had many connections to the area that suggest that the social relationships between the relatively wealthy clients could have made a considerable difference.

From his projects in Ithaca, four projects are for the same client, the Dennis family, and all of these are built on the same property. Besides these examples, there is a house located at 177 Westhaven Road in Ithaca, which is claimed to be a Raymond

Viner Hall design; however, while it has been market as such, there is no signed drawing by Raymond or other evidence to confirm it. A simple analysis of its exterior, with all its changes and replacements over time, is not sufficient. In terms of its interior, it does resemble R.V. Hall’s other houses, especially the placement and design of the fireplace. However, this may have simply been the result of mimics. There is also a store in the Ithaca Commons, which is the name of the downtown pedestrian mall, renovated by him. The store is now occupied by Benjamin Peters boutique.

Fig. 115: The house at 177 Westhaven Rd. Image taken by the author.

114 1. The Walter and Martha Crissey Residence

The Crissey residence, located at 1105 Taughannock Boulevard on the border of the towns of Ithaca and Ulysses, is one of the best examples of Modernism in the Ithaca area. It was designed by Raymond Viner Hall and constructed by his father Walter Hall in 1941.

The architect tried to emphasize the horizontal lines and planes similar to what

Wright had done in Fallingwater. Here the large windows offer a breathtaking view of the Cayuga Lake. In fact, the house seems like a smaller version of Fallingwater—both in terms of brilliance, and in terms of technical problems, such as cracks, sagging, and leakage. Like to Fallingwater, the project is based on the design of different planes constructed of reinforced concrete. These reinforced concrete planes are stretched out of the quadrangular mass to form overhanging eaves. The stonewalls and the living room flagstones are also similar to Fallingwater. Following Wright’s idea about the

“hearth” of a residential project, here and also in other projects designed by Raymond

Hall in Ithaca, a centrally positioned fireplace is one of the most important features of the house. This might be the reason that the architect designed a noticeably tall chimney for the living room’s fireplace.

115

Fig. 116: R.V. Hall’s drawing for the Crissey Residence (1941). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library.

Fig. 117: The Crissey Residence (1941), designed by R.V. Hall, east view. Image taken by the author.

116

Fig. 118: The Crissey Residence (1941), designed by R.V. Hall, interior shot looking at the lake. Image taken by the author.

117 2. The W. E. Dennis Residence

The house was designed and constructed for Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dennis in 1945 by Raymond Viner Hall. It is located at 1075 Taughannock Boulevard in Ithaca, NY, on a heavily wooded site, noticeably sloping down to Cayuga Lake. The building was entirely constructed of masonry units. The three-story glass wall offers gorgeous views of the Lake from the living areas. Although the design of the form of the building was influenced by the later work of Frank Lloyd Wright, its plans resemble earlier Wright’s

Prairie designs. It also features a radiant heating system, what Raymond was using in all his buildings in the area.168

Fig. 119: R. V. Hall’s drawing for the Dennis Residence (1945). Image from http://www.smethporthistory.org/raymondvinerhall/rvhome.html.

168 “Raymond Viner Hall Architecture,” accessed on 6/21/11, http://www.smethporthistory.org/raymondvinerhall/rvhome.html.

118

Fig. 120: The Dennis Residence (1945), designed by R.V. Hall, the three-story glass wall. Image from Dennis family collection.

Fig. 121: The Dennis Residence (1945), designed by R.V. Hall. Image from Dennis family collection.

119 3. The James Lynn Hoard Residence

The house located at 42 Cornell Street was designed by Raymond Viner Hall in the late 1940’s for James Lynn Hoard, a central figure and faculty member of Cornell

University’s Chemistry Department. In 1948, James Lynn Hoard started the construction himself as the General Contractor, and in 1949 the family moved in. The influence of Frank Lloyd Wright’s architecture is obviously referenced in the horizontal lines and planes throughout, but especially from the street view, which is the east elevation. The house resembles not only Fallingwater, but also other Wright’s Usonian houses. The 1000 SF four-level rectangular mass is situated on the west slope of

Cornell Street.

From street level all you can see is a very narrow, one-story, low-height, prairie style house situated parallel to the street. In fact, the house includes four levels: the main level contains carport, kitchen and dining area; one-half level up to the north contains two bedrooms and a bath; one-half level down to north contains three small bedrooms and a bath; and one-half level down to the south from the lower bedroom level contains playroom, boiler room and laundry room/workshop. The home’s original owners, Mr. and Mrs. James L. Hoard, have died, but their son Thomas D. Hoard continues to live there with his family.

Fig. 122: The Hoard Residence, interior, current condition. Image taken by the author.

120

Fig. 123: The Hoard Residence, east view from Cornell St. in 1949. Image from Hoard’s family slide collection.

Fig. 124: The Hoard Residence, west view in 1949. Image from Hoard’s family slide collection.

121 Fig. 125: The Hoard Residence, west view, current condition. Image taken by the author.

Fig. 126: The Hoard Residence, interior, current condition. Image taken by the author.

122

Figs. 127-128: R.V. Hall’s drawings for the Hoard Residence (1949). Images from Hall Collection, CMU Library.

123 4. The Fletcher Woodcock Residence

The building located at 398 North Triphammer Road in Ithaca, New York, is the site of yet another Raymond Viner Hall Work, this one built at the intersection of North

Triphammer Road and Westview terrace in the Cayuga Heights neighborhood in 1948-

49. The building features a perpendicular plan with flat roofs; it has a living room, raised dining room and kitchen, two bathrooms, two bedrooms, and a study. The house seems to recall a combination of Wright's Usonian-style (Jacobs House) and

Fallingwater elements, such as the exterior stairs at the west side. Although the first set of drawings show that the architect designed the exterior with horizontal wood boards, he changed the design later and the house was built with concrete masonry blocks painted in white. He adopted Wright's idea, favoring horizontal joints and removing the verticals.

The current owners, Mr. and Mrs. Robert Terry, are the third owners of the house. The first owners and the clients were the Woodcock family. The Terry family bought the house from its second owner, Anita Grossvogle, in the 1960s, and since then they have been taking good care of the house, maintaining almost everything in the house in its original condition. The only replacements are few mechanical changes, such as replacing the old boiler with a new and more efficient one. The kitchen cabinets and the refrigerator have also been replaced. The basement was originally the garage, which is now a separate apartment. Besides these, everything else remains almost the same or true to the original intent. Even the roof is original; of course, there were some leakages that have been repaired.

Much like Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Viner Hall preferred to design

124 everything in the house himself, from light fixtures to the built-in furniture and fireplaces. All the interior elements of this house, such as the built-in furniture, the coat hanger and the mirror at the entrance, the doors, the closets, were designed and custom made with black walnut. Raymond even invented his own down lights before they became popular.

Like other houses designed by Raymond Viner Hall, the Woodcock Residence features a radiant floor heating system and double-layered windows. The architect designed two fireplaces in the house, both very well built. Overall, with the high- quality maintenance of the residents, the house is in very good condition.

Fig. 129: The Woodcock Residence (1948-49), southeast view. Image taken by the author.

125

Fig. 130: R.V. Hall’s drawing for the Woodcock Residence (1948). Image from Hall Collection, CMU Library.

126 5. The Victor K. D. Ross Residence

This house was designed by Raymond Viner Hall and was constructed between

1948 and 1950 for Mr. Victor K. D. Ross and his wife Mrs. Mina B. Ross. Victor K.D.

Ross was a lawyer in Ithaca. The house was situated in a property next to the Crissey family, at 1099 Taughannack Boulevard in the west shore of Cayuga Lake in Ithaca,

New York. The second owners of the house were the Yale family. After death of Dr.

Yale, the house was rented to different tenants until 1995 when Mrs. Yale moved in.

She altered the house beyond recognition in 1995. The house was originally built with the same kind of materials (concrete block, brick, and flagstone), flat roofs and windows as other houses designed by Raymond in the area. All these featured were altered in

1995. Two garages were also added, and one of them was made into an apartment. In the interior, the fireplace and the stone pavements, have been changed. In the axonometric drawing made by the architect (Fig. 130), fireplace, or the “hearth” of the house, as Wright mentions, is highlighted. Based on the original drawings, the house seems to be influenced by Wright’s Usonian houses. In the Victor Ross Residence, the radiant floor heating system did not work well and was removed. This is the first house designed by Raymond Hall in Ithaca with the failure of the radiant heating system. The second major remodeling of the house has been done recently, under ownership of Mr.

Andrew Yale, son of Dr. Yale.

127

Fig. 131: The Ross Residence (1950), altered exterior. Image taken by the author.

Fig. 132: The Ross Residence (1950), under renovation in 2012. Image taken by the author.

128

Fig. 133: R.V. Hall’s drawing for the Ross Residence (1950). Image from Hall Collection, CMU library.

129 6. The Edward H. Litchfield Residence

The residence located at 512 Cayuga Heights Road in Cayuga Heights Village,

Ithaca, NY, a heavily wooded site, was also designed by Raymond Viner Hall in 1952 for Edward Harold Litchfield, the second dean of Cornell University’s Business School.

The ownership changed quickly to William B. Kerr, another Cornell employee and his family. The house was constructed with concrete blocks, structural slates with a flat roof, which is a 12” concrete slab, and several large windows. The carport connected to the north of the house has steel beams and a structural slate column. While the roof is flat and one level, inside the floor heights vary to create room spaces of different heights. Like other houses of Raymond Hall, this too features distinctive fireplaces, as well as Raymond Viner’s radiant heating system.

When visiting the house from the street view (Fig. 131), maybe because of the low height of the eastern façade, the straight horizontal roofline and the large glazed area of the façade, the structure appears to recall Mies van der Rohe’s architecture.

However, the organization of spaces, the attached carport, building materials, emphasizing on horizontal lines of the concrete blocks, and mainly highlighting the

“hearth” of the building influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright.

The current owner, who bought the property in 1995, is Dr. Alexander Wood, the owner of the Ithaca Cayuga Optical Service.

130

Fig. 134: Litchfield Residence (1952), street view from Cayuga Heights Road. Image taken by the author.

Fig. 135: The Litchfield Residence (1952), living room. Image taken by the author.

131

Fig. 136: The Litchfield Residence (1952), current condition. Image taken by the author.

132 Raymond Viner Hall was a crucial figure in the Northern Pennsylvania and

Upstate New York mid-twentieth century architectural history. Although he did not have the chance to directly apprentice with Frank Lloyd Wright, mostly due to financial reasons, by following his philosophy and working with his father, Walter Hall,

Raymond became a true Wright follower. The influence of Fallingwater, the project that Raymond’s father worked on with Wright, and other Wright’s Organic architecture, and his Usonian houses, as well as the Prairie Style, Wright’s earlier work, are noticeable in Raymond’s architecture. This influence is recognizable mainly through its emphasis on horizontal lines, use of building materials, including but not limited to concrete blocks, reinforced concrete, stones, and bricks, also its design and placement of fireplaces.

Regardless of the relationship between Raymond’s father, Walter Hall, and

Frank Lloyd Wright, Raymond Viner Hall’s architecture in the Ithaca area is significant.

The first Modern building in the area was designed by him and built by his father in

1941; the building that recalls Fallingwater. He continued his work in Ithaca in the

1940s and early 50s and the history of Modern architecture in Ithaca is linked to his work. However, it is somehow strange that his architecture has not affected domestic architectural design of the area. Although after 1950s some of the residential projects built in Cayuga Heights were slightly influenced by Hall’s architecture, and started to be built in more contemporary architectural types such as “split-level” style, there is no general link between domestic architecture and the work of Raymond Hall in the area.

This disconnection is an interesting area for future research.

133 Although he was noted in several architectural publications in the mid-twentieth century, there is no published or unpublished text on his architecture (besides his own firm brochure). There is thus an important opportunity for scholars to prepare a document about Raymond's career as an effort to protect and conserve his Modern architecture.

134 CHAPTER 5.

PRESERVING MODERN ARCHITECTURE

Although “preservation” and “modern” are two words that seem conceptually unrelated, if not opposed, the growing interest in Modernism, especially fueled by the collector’s market, has redirected the field of preservation to its new cause. Many of the most sought after mid-century Modern objects were designed by Modernist architects.

For example, in the United States expensive mid-century Modern designs, such as,

Eames’s chairs, the Barcelona chair by Mies, and Saarinen’s tables, have already been attracting the attention of preservationists; now, the architectural icons of this period are coming into their due. In fact, however, preserving Modern architecture has already been an ongoing concern in Europe, perhaps because Europe has had more practice with history—and the effects of war.

In the United States, the National Park Service indicates four potential treatments for historic properties: preservation, which maintains the current condition of the property and tries to prevent further deteriorations; rehabilitation, which keeps the character of the property while introducing changes to prepare it for a new contemporary use; restoration, which takes the property back to its period of significance; and reconstruction, which reconstructs a significant property that

135 somehow was lost.169 These are general treatments, not specific to the United States and not specific to Modern architecture preservation.

This chapter provides an overview of the history of the preservation of Modern architecture in the United States. It shows the importance of saving Modern architecture and its problems and difficulties. It also attempts to preserve the Modern architecture of Ithaca, NY, especially the “Fallingwaters of Ithaca,” and provides some recommendations for Historic Ithaca Inc. and Ithaca Landmark Preservation

Commission to improve public education to save the recent past history of architecture of the area.

169 Jeffrey M. Chusid, “Saving Wright, The Freeman House and the Preservation of Meaning, Materials, and Modernity” (New York, London: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011), 181.

136 I. Preservation of Modern Architecture; A Brief History

Though I mentioned that “modern” and “preservation” sounds incommensurable, the rise of Modernism with its political, social, and artistic manifestations has been accompanied by a rise in historic preservation as a discipline.170

Hence, one can argue that preservation and Modernism are interrelated and mutually dependent.

As Theodore Prudon notes in Preservation of Modern Architecture, the designation of Modern architecture sites as heritage symbols started as early as the

1950s and 1960s in Europe, when attention to maintaining threatened structures became associated with the purvey of the modern architect, the modern movement, and the ideals of Modern design. However, a comprehensive respect for Modern architecture did not really become an agenda until the 1990s.171

Bauhaus, as an undisputed icon of Modernism, was the first to gain the serious attention of preservationists. Bauhaus was not only a Modern building, but also the historical site for one of Modernist Architecture’s founding movements. As was mentioned previously, the building was designed by Walter Gropius and built between

1925 and 1926. Due to the importance of its educational purposes, Bauhaus was repaired in 1940s and was reopened after having been seriously damaged during the war. In 1964 it was officially recognized locally and in 1974 it became a national (East

Germany) landmark. Thus, in the mid-1970s and only after fifty years of its life,

Bauhaus underwent a major restoration: first to repair its failing curtain wall, and then, more general repair throughout the original building and its related structures. As with

170 Chusid, “Saving Wright,” 225. 171 Theodore H. M. Prudon, Preservation of Modern Architecture (New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, 2008), 2-6.

137 the Bauhaus, preservation efforts for Modern architecture are typically aimed at buildings with the provenance of having been designed by one of the masters. Le

Corbusier's Villa Savoye in Poissy, France, for example, which had been a poster child for his five points of architecture, although not designated a national historic monument by the French Ministry of Culture until after the architect's death, was already being preserved by Corbusier himself before his death.172

In 1989, incipient efforts by various European countries to preserve Modern architecture were aided by the formation of the International Working Party for

Documentation and Conservation of Buildings, Sites and Neighborhoods of the Modern

Movement, or DoCoMoMo. DoCoMoMo, which was established in Eindoven,

Netherland by Dutch architects Hubert-Jan Henket and Wessel de Jonge,173 was inspired by the work of ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites. While

ICOMOS concerned itself more generally with the protection and conservation of historical buildings and sites, DoCoMoMo was founded specifically to protect and conserve Modern architecture and urbanism.174 DoCoMoMo also served to provide opportunities for scholars and students to study the history of preservation and the

Modern movement.

172 Prudon, Preservation of Modern Architecture, 7-10. 173 "do-co-mo-mo," accessed on 17/5/12, http://www.docomomo.com/history.php. 174 Jeffrey Chusid, “Perspectives on Preservation,” lectures at Cornell, Fall 2010.

138 II. Preservation of Modern Architecture in the United States

In the United States the development of the preservation of Modern architecture was both similar to and different from Europe. While, as in the UK, in the US the prewar period was characterized more by Art Deco and Art Moderne than Modernist design, prewar Modernist structures did start attracting preservationists' attention in the

1960s and 1970s. Frank Lloyd Wright, in particular, as the most readily recognized of early American Modern architects, won the first real preservationist efforts in America.

It is arguable that the beginning of preservation of Modern architecture in general was also marked by this attention to Frank Lloyd Wright. Prudon, in his discussion of the development of modern architecture preservation, observes that this early work was "a distinct yet important precursor to and contemporary of subsequent preservation movement."175

Indeed, preservation of Wright's work, like Le Corbusier in Europe, was started by the effort of the architect. The Taliesin Fellowship, created by Wright in the early

1930s, functioned as an educational institute and offered hands-on experience for students to work, repair, and remodel Wright's project, as well as to assist in the mission of preserving the master’s legacy.176

Similarly, preservation efforts for Robie House, the symbol of Wright’s Prairie style architecture, although not a Modern building, was one of the first such efforts made on a Wright building. In March 1957, after the most serious threat to the house occurred, a demolition plan was announced for the project. A group of protestors, including Wright, students, scholars, media, and neighborhood organizers, effectively

175 Prudon, Preservation of Modern Architecture, 16. 176 Prudon, Preservation of Modern Architecture, 17-18.

139 halted the demolition plan. This incident in turn spurred the creation of the Chicago

Landmark Commission, which later designated the Robie House as a Chicago

Landmark.177

Fig. 137: Robie House in Chicago (1908-10), designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. Image from http://cchenut.wordpress.com.

Preservation of Fallingwater, Wright’s most famous “organic” architecture and an example of the twentieth century Modernism, also plays a significant role in the history of American preservation of Modern architecture. Fallingwater inspired several projects by other architects, which were discussed in this paper. From the preservation point of view, it is noteworthy that after the death of its owner, Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. in

1956, Edgar Kaufmann, Jr., his son, became Fallingwater’s owner. Kaufmann, Jr., who was the director of Industrial Design Department at the Museum of Modern Art

(MoMA) in New York City and later became a professor of Architecture and Art

History at Columbia University (1963 to 1986), donated Fallingwater to the Western

177 Kathryn Smith, "How the Robie House was Saved," Frank Lloyd Wright Quarterly, vol. 19, no. 4 (Fall, 2008): 4-19.

140 Pennsylvania Conservancy as an architectural house museum; the house subsequently opened in 1963 as a museum.178

In 1964, just a year after opening of Fallingwater to the general public as a house-museum, another of Wright's projects was donated to The National Trust for

Historic Preservation. Pope-Leighey House, originally designed by Wright and built for

Loren Pope in 1939, was donated to the National Trust by its second owner, Marjorie

Leighey. The 1200 square-foot building was an example of Wright’s Usonian architecture. Originally this Usonian house had been built in Falls Church, Virginia, between 1939 and 1941. In 1964, Pope-Leighey House was the subject of demolition due to construction of a planned highway. The National Trust for Historic Preservation then moved the building to prevent demolition and relocated it to the grounds of

Woodlawn Plantation, in Alexandria, Virginia. Apart from all the efforts to save the building, as Prudon notes, transformation of Wright's Pope-Leighey House "represents one of the first instance of relocation as a modern preservation option."179

Fig. 138: Current condition of Pope-Leighey House (1939), Alexandria, Virginia. Image from http://www.ronbluntphoto.com.

178 Franklin Toker, Fallingwater rising: Frank Lloyd Wright, E.J. Kaufmann and America's Most Extraordinary House (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004), 310-322. 179 Prudon, Preservation of Modern Architecture, 18.

141 III. Preservation of Modern Architecture; Challenges

As Jeffrey Chusid, a Frank Lloyd Wright scholar and Associate Professor of

Historic Preservation at Cornell, notes, preservation work on any Wright’s project is challenging, mostly because of the daunting technical features and also because of the large and loud audience always watching the work.180 This is why there have been controversial discussions around the preservation of Wright’s work. However, as a

Modernist architect with more than 400 constructed projects, not only does the history of preservation of Modern architecture starts with him in America, but it also continues with him. With all his work around the country and also his followers’ work, Wright provides Modern architecture preservationists with a significant number of projects.

Two dilemmas of historic preservation, which has been always around the discipline, concerning integrity and significance, are particularly controversial in the preservation of Modern architecture. While it is because of these sites’ significance that we should preserve these buildings, the question of how to do so deals with materials and depends on the issue of integrity. In the United States, authenticity is generally considered equal to integrity. A site, whether a building or landscape, is considered historic if most of its physical fabrics date from the period of significance.181

For debates surrounding Modern architecture, the precise period of significance is itself debatable: what is authentic and when is the period of significance? Is it related to what the original architect designed or what originally was built? How about renovations and additions have been done in the building’s lifetime, either under supervision of the original architect or other designers. As noted before, in Ithaca, the

180 Chusid, Saving Wright, 34. 181 Chusid, Saving Wright, 226-227.

142 Fletcher Woodcock Residence was originally designed by horizontal wood boards as the exterior cladding materials . For an unknown reason, the architect, and possibly the clients, changed their decision and built the house with concrete masonry blocks painted in white. While the original house was built with concrete blocks, one can argue that the house should be restored to the original design with horizontal wood cladding. At the same time, one can state that since the decision of building the house with concrete blocks had made by the original architect, it should be remain like this. Though there is no right or wrong answer, a resolution to these arguments requires extensive research.

Jack Quinan a University at Buffalo professor and a fellow of the society of

Architectural Historians raises the question of authenticity and the debates that surround the specification of the period of significance for Frank Lloyd Wright’s Darwin D.

Martin House.182 Darwin D. Martin House (1903-1907), which has had a long history since the date of built, history of living, changing, demolitions and death of the family members, was subject of preservation-restoration in the early 1990s. A scholar’s conference held in 1993 decided that the date of significance, which the building would be restored, was 1907, the year of completion. While the majority of the scholars thought that it best shows the Wright’s idea and goals, the others objected that the 85 years history of the residence would be wiped off.183

It is almost impossible if we expect answers to these dilemmas from history or science, as Chusid notes.184 One helpful trick would be considering if the original architect(s) was the one doing the preservation project, what would be his/her decision.

182 Jack Quinan, “Frank Lloyd Wright, Preservation, and Question of Authenticity,” Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians, Vol. 67, No. 1 (March 2008), 5–10. 183 Quinan, “Frank Lloyd Wright, Preservation, and Question of Authenticity,” 5–10. 184 Chusid, Saving Wright, 225

143 For example in the Fletcher Woodcock Residence in Ithaca, NY, the architect,

Raymond Hall, himself, decided to change the design and build the project with concrete masonry blocks. This may answer the argument of the authenticity of the exterior building materials. However, if historical research reveals that the architect made the decision due to other constraints, for example due to financial problems, these details may change the preservationists’ decision.

The restoration committee of Frank Lloyd Wright Building Conservancy, in

1997, in the Conservation Guidelines they provided for the designs of Frank Lloyd

Wright notes, “later changes or additions, if limited in scope and fully complementary to Mr. Wright’s original design, may be retained.”185 These guidelines, later, were modeled on the Secretary of the Interior’s Standards and were dropped afterwards.

The specific problems concerning the conservation of Modern architecture derive from the characteristics of the buildings, social and formal tendencies, and the use of new materials and construction techniques. Some of the issues involved in preserving Modern buildings are unique to the period in which the structures were built, such as the technology of flat roofs or glass-window walls. For example, when New

York City's Lever House, the great glass skyscraper on Park Avenue, was restored,

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill, the architects, had to find a replacement for the original glass curtain wall that would look the same but perform completely differently. The old glass wall from 1952 was thin, and had not performed very well.186

Preservation has been an expensive, arduous process; however, with the new materials and methods of construction becoming available, as well as the ongoing

185 Chusid, Saving Wright, 227. 186 Paul Goldberger, “The Modernist Manifesto,” Preservation (May/June 2008), http://www.preservationnation.org.

144 development of more sophisticated techniques for preservation, and even the fact that, for current purposes, the need for rehabilitation is becoming equally if not more important than restoration, preservation’s rightful place and function in our society is assured. In the 21st century, the preservation of modern architecture will not just be desired, but required.

145 IV. Recommendations

Regardless of all the criticism, Modern architecture is a significant part of the history of architecture (like any other styles). With all the efforts of DOCOMOMO and other international, national, and local preservation organizations, the level of attention to Modern architecture, still, is not at the level it should be. Future preservationists need to pay at least equal attention to Modernism as they do to any other styles and need to protect and conserve the Modern architecture by studying, surveying, and documenting the examples of this architectural style.

One of the most dangerous threats around any worthy object, including a

Modern architecture, is forgetting, ignoring, disbelieving, or misinterpreting the value of the object, in this case, the architecture. Perhaps, if the owner of the Victor K. D. Ross

Residence was informed about the architectural value of her house, she would have treated the property better in 1995. At the time, it was possible to rehabilitate the house according to the Secretary of Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation, instead of renovating it beyond the recognition. Hence, this document suggests that the local non- profit organizations in the area, such as Historic Ithaca and the DeWitt Historical

Society, as well as the City of Ithaca Landmark Preservation Commission, use material provided in this thesis, other efforts and materials created by the author, and their own capacity to improve public education about the significance of Modern architecture of the area and its preservation.

A good start would be the documentation and preparation of current accurate measured drawings for the six properties designed by Raymond Hall in Ithaca, NY discussed in this document, followed by attempts to designate the properties locally.

146 Historic designation has become an important tool for local governments in effort to preserve the character of city neighborhoods or buildings. National and state level designations convey more prestige to an individual property (or historic district) and makes federal and state tax break available to owners of the properties. However, national or state level designation offers no real protections. In contrast, local-level historic designations typically require review of exterior alterations and demolitions and therefore maintain the historic character and integrity of designated structures.

The next step would be preparing Historic Structure Reports for these six properties. A Historic Structure Report (HSR) is a core document for any preservation project. By describing the property, its character-defining features, and by reviewing the construction details and any physical changes over time, as well as assessing its condition and integrity, the HSR recommends any possible treatments, including preservation, rehabilitation, restoration, or reconstruction, and provides guidelines for the intervention.187 Preparing these documents would be possible through cooperation between the local preservation organizations, like Historic Ithaca, and the Historic

Preservation Planning Program at Cornell.

Holding exhibitions of examples of Modern architecture of the area, showing the examples online, publishing a guidebook for Modern architecture of Ithaca, and providing a guiding map, and also a mobile app for visitors would be also helpful. As was mentioned in the introduction, the office of Tompkins County Historians, Historic

Ithaca, and the DeWitt Historical Society of Tompkins County published a book in

2002 about the valuable historic architecture of the area, entitled “The Architectural

187 Chusid, Saving Wright, 180.

147 Heritage of Tomkins County.” The publication of a second edition of the book, particularly about Modern architecture, would be a great way to improve public education about the value of the Modern architecture they passing by everyday.

148 CONCLUSION

Regardless of whether Modern concepts and ideas were right or wrong, regardless if we agree or disagree with these ideas, and regardless if we like or dislike a

Modern buildings in our “historic” neighborhoods, Modern architecture is there; it is a part of the history of architecture and should be preserved. Most of these buildings are already fifty-or-more years old and would be considered “old” enough to be preserved.

Some of them, however, are not. As a matter of fact, buildings with less than 50 years of age are more in danger, because it is easier for developers to demolish them and develop new constructions. Bertrand Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital (1975) in

Chicago is one of these examples that recently (October 11, 2013) met the wrecking ball.

While many of these twentieth century Modern architecture were designed by internationally known architects, and for this reason are generally better preserved, there are several buildings all over the world designed by local unknown architects, many of whom are students or followers of the known architects. The combination of local taste and international style produced significant local Modern buildings, specific to the region they were built. The architecture of Raymond Viner Hall (1908-1981), a Frank

Lloyd Wright follower, is an example of successful regional-Modern architecture in the

Ithaca area.

Regardless of the relationship between Raymond Hall and Frank Lloyd Wright,

Raymond‘s participation in Modern architecture of Ithaca is significant. However, one remaining question is why Hall’s architecture has not inspired domestic architecture of

149 the area. And at the same time, why architects of the area and theorists, including

Cornell architecture faculty did not acknowledged Hall’s architecture in the area. There is only one faculty member in the department of architecture at Cornell who was interested in Hall’s architecture and who owns one of his designs: Professor Werner

Goehner who bought The Walter and Martha Crissey Residence. This is a good subject for a future research.

As a Historic Preservation student at Cornell University, I felt that it was my duty to protect and conserve the Modern architecture of the area, particularly Raymond

Viner Hall’s domestic architecture. Although Raymond was not directly related to

Cornell architecture program, most of his clients were Cornell faculty. Also, many of the other locally, nationally, and internationally known architects who designed projects in the area were somehow related to the architecture program at Cornell. Since Cornell

University was involved in the process of producing the history of Modern architecture of the area, it should be more actively involved in the process of preserving the same history as well. Local preservation organizations and the city of Ithaca Landmark

Preservation Commission also should be involved, especially in the process of improving public knowledge about the significance of Modern architecture of the area.

Although Raymond Viner Hall was noted in several architectural publications in the mid- twentieth century, there is no published or unpublished text about his architecture (besides his own firm brochure). This provides an opportunity for scholars to more carefully research his architecture and provide a document about Raymond's career. This paper could be used as a reference for any further research.

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