docomo mo US

NEW YORK/TRI-STATE WINTER 2002 NEWSLETTER

EVENTS VICTOR LUNDY’S BEYOND BOLD CONNECTICUT CHURCHES DETAILS AND MORE EVENTS INSIDE, see The meteoric career of architect Victor Lundy contributed Calendar Insert two 1960s churches in Connecticut to the heritage of Modernism. Born in 1923, educated at Harvard under Gropius, BACK FROM UTOPIA BOOK SIGNING Lundy launched his practice in Sarasota, Florida. In the nur- November 22 turing environment Sarasota then offered, Lundy completed Paul Rudolph Foundation, see page 11 a number of adventurous, though relatively small, buildings while in his 30s. In 1959, the commission for a church in LECTURE: MODERNISM AND ITS RECEPTION: Westport, Connecticut enlarged both the scale and the geo- IN CITY graphical range of his work. There, and in a January 23, 2003 church that soon followed, Lundy was able to demonstrate Bard Graduate Center, see page 5 the variety and audacity of his designs. UNITARIAN CHURCH IN WESTPORT (1959–1960/65) LE CORBUSIER BEFORE LE CORBUSIER Lundy recalls that the building was to be sited on a wooded November 22 through February 23 ridge, which suggested aspiration toward truth to both The Bard Graduate Center client and architect. Lundy’s sculptural, expressive solution grows out of the walk toward the crest, starting with low- ROGER FERRI: ARCHITECTURAL VISIONARY roofed wings on either side of an entrance garden. The roofs Through December 21 then swoop up to a peak over the altar. The two halves never Wallach Gallery, Columbia University quite meet (as Unitarians never quite agree on the truth), ABOVE AND BELOW, LUNDY’S UNITARIAN CHURCH IN WESTPORT, CT. and a continuous skylight rides up along the axis. THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BOROUGH: “I revere the structure and I like to reveal it,” says Lundy UNITARIAN MEETINGHOUSE IN ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF MODERN in discussing his churches. Holding up this roof are steel HARTFORD (1962–1964) ARCHITECTURE IN QUEENS columns that merge into the framing of the glazed exterior Lundy’s second Connecticut Through March 2, 2003 walls—hidden, though in plain sight—so that the roof seems church, although also Unitarian, Queens Historical Society, Flushing to hover on air. is very different in concept. Laminated beams 16 feet on center form the armature Where Westport is linear and for the double curves of the roofs, and close-packed 2x4s, open to the landscape, set on edge, have been shaped into warped planes that span Hartford radiates from an between them. Some of the beams, fabricated in Oregon, were inward-looking central sanc- DOCOMOMO US too long for trucking and had to be finger-jointed on site. tuary. Where Westport is an Materials are economical: resilient tile floors and parti- essay in wood construction, WEBSITE LAUNCHED tions faced with Philippine mahogany plywood. Though dar- Hartford has a much more ing in concept and 200 feet long, the church was built for complex system, involving about $300,000—a low cost even for the 1960s, but never- wood decking supported on theless more expensive than any previous Lundy building. steel cables from massive In 1965, the year the church was completed, Lundy was concrete walls. one of five architects who went to in connection Some of the differences with the federally-sponsored “Architecture U.S.A.” exhibit. are attributable to the (Others were Louis Kahn, Robert Venturi, Paul Rudolph, and Hartford clients, who wanted

www.docomomo-us.org LUNDY VICTOR COURTESY PHOTOS: Charles Eames.) He recalls that this church was a favorite of a “closed” sanctuary, and the Russian audience. some to the seven-acre grassy site, on which the building is Among the very few alterations over the years are criss- seen from many angles and from hundreds of feet away— crossing cables with turnbuckles set into the axial skylights truly an “object in the round.” over the sanctuary. Added to stiffen the structure, they fit in The 350-seat sanctuary—conceptually circular, but actu- DOCOMOMO NY/TRI-STATE MONTHLY MEETINGS: so logically that one would assume they are original. A few ally shaped like an irregular polygon—is surrounded by an First Tuesday of every month, years ago, the congregation considered expanding the ambulatory, off of which open various auxiliary spaces. 6:30 pm at Polshek Partnership church by filling in the entry court between the two front Roofs over these spaces rise toward the center, but stop at E-mail [email protected] to wings. But members of the church consulted with Lundy and the edge of the sanctuary, which has a lower roof. The verti- confirm date and location. managed to fend off the proposal. continued page 7 MORE GOOD NEWS ON THE ADVOCACY FRONT/NY WELCOME The current Landmarks Commission work of Le Corbusier and his concept fits of having their building join New under the directorship of Sherida of the city, aptly described by Rem York’s pantheon of well maintained, Paulsen has actively sought testimony Koolhaas in Delirious New York. landmarked Modern buildings. from DOCOMOMO and the Modern Unfortunately, the Commission was KAUFMANN CONFERENCE ROOMS AT IIE Architecture Working Group in support only able to achieve an interior desig- This fall the Commission held yet a 2002 has been an important year for of landmark protection for a number of nation. The Copacabana-inspired ter- third hearing regarding the designa- DOCOMOMO/US, a year full of change the city’s important Modern buildings. razzo flooring that undulates from tion of the Alvar Aalto designed and new initiatives. We have grown in Equally positive, some local preserva- lobby to plaza to sidewalk is a constant Kaufmann Conference Rooms at 809 number and scope and this has tion groups that have historically reminder of how the outside and inside United Nations Plaza. The Institute of prompted the Board of Directors to taken little interest in Modern of the building are really one brilliant- International Education (IIE), which begin a strategic planning process for Movement buildings have come on ly conceived entity in need of exterior administers Fullbright Fellowships, is the organization’s future. More struc- board with their support. The refrain as well as interior protection. bucking the designation. The IIE shows ture is necessary, but not at the “Modern buildings are a hard sell” is SOCONY MOBIL BUILDING neither a genuine interest in steward- expense of the flexibility and sheer heard far less frequently. I am pleased Socony Mobil Building (1956) at 150 ship of the Aalto monument, nor due enthusiasm that has taken us this far. to report the following developments: East , designed by Harrison respect to Edgar Kaufmann, who fund- We have embarked on three 240 SOUTH and Abramowitz with John Perkin, is ed the rooms and with IIE, adminis- ambitious projects: to organize and The apartment building at 240 Central one of the city’s most exuberant build- tered architecture and design awards expand membership nationwide both Park South by Mayer and Whittlesey ings. Hopefully, the Landmarks over the years. The IIE web site does in DOCOMOMO/US and DOCOMOMO (1941) was designated a NYC landmark Commission will go forward with land- not even mention the conference International; to publish a national last June at a packed-house hearing. mark designation following the hear- rooms, which are clearly an opportuni- newsletter communicating the This elegantly setback building just off ing held October 1. The building’s ty for the institution to bolster its breadth and expertise of the organi- of is based on butte-like tower is faced with 7,000 worldwide prestige. The Commission zation and finally, DOCOMOMO/US is Bauhaus precedents and features a stainless steel panels embossed in has received many letters document- to host the VIIIth International DOCO- mural by Amédée Ozenfant on its entry high-relief with a diamond pattern. The ing a pattern of public access to the MOMO Conference in 2004. This will façade. The building has suffered tower rests on an opaque, blue glass- rooms since their opening in 1964. take place in in cooper- insensitive alterations and is in need of clad base entered off of 42nd Street (More are needed. If you have visited ation with the Columbia University a master plan for window replacement. the rooms please write the commis- Graduate School of Architecture, Now that 240 CPS has been officially sion giving the circumstances.) The Planning and Preservation. recognized, we can only hope that the rooms will never be safe until they are The conference theme, Commission will continue to work with landmarked, particulary given the fact “International Postwar Modernism the owners as they renovate. that IIE, which now again owns the and the Conjunction of Preservation building, sold it a few years ago without and Design,” will look at the Modern TIME & LIFE BUILDING LOBBY Movement as it evolved after World The lobby of the Time & Life Building War II not just in the US but around on Avenue of the Americas between the world. Through this discussion we 50th and , was designated a hope to re-establish a much needed NYC interior landmark this summer. dialogue with the contemporary The building was designed by Michael architectural community—a dialogue Harris of Harrison and Abramovitz and that was lost when the preservation opened 1959. Its stunning lobby cre- community began its battle with ates a sense of floating through a postwar modernism. three dimensional abstract space until These are ambitious goals that we you take a moment to absorb its deco- believe we can accomplish. Our rative layers and decipher its pinwheel VERY ARCHITECURE AND FINE ARTS LIBRARY AND FINE ARTS ARCHITECURE VERY efforts will help us all be more effec- plan. (See page 6 for full description.) A tive advocates for preserving Modern Time & Life is a quintessential office 240 CENTRAL PARK SOUTH, MAYER & WHITTLESEY, CINEMA I & II, ABE GELLER, 1962. architecture and its meaningful (con- tower in the plaza based on the early 1941. NOW A NYC LANDMARK tinued) integration through both con- through a dramati- adequate covenants to buyers intend- servation and creative design. cally broad eyebrow ing to convert the Aalto space to offices. We look forward to working close- arch. The lobby, with ly with all of you to accomplish these CINEMA I AND II its billowing ceiling, goals. Cinema I and II, an exquisite duplex white Carrara marble —Theo Prudon movie theatre in the International walls and superb ter- President, DOCOMOMO/US Style, is one the city’s last surviving art razzo floor is not film houses and a DOCOMOMO favorite. being heard for des- Located at 1001 , ignation, although behind Bloomingdales, Cinema I and II there is hope that it was designed in 1962 by Abe Geller, a will be in the future. brilliant designer whose work reflects We must encourage his association in the 1950s with Socony Mobil’s own- 40 CPS POHTOS: ANNE SCHLECHTER 40 CPS POHTOS: 2 ’s firm. The façade is ers to see the bene- AMÉDÉE OZENFANT’S MURAL AND SOME ORIGINAL WINDOWS AT 240 CPS

This newsletter, and that which came before, have been made possible by the generous support of Brent Harris of Los Angeles, a friend of on both coasts.

DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/2 notable for its glass and steel volume cantilevered over the street, indigo LATE MODERN ACHIEVEMENTS IN PUBLIC HOUSING: blue tile panels and superb minimalist metalwork. Inside, the original artwork PASANELLA + KLEIN IN NEW YORK CITY and spatial plan are intact, including a It is easy to believe that postwar public housing in New York were felt to be more house-like. This strategy drew on high large Illya Bolotowsky mural and City escaped the attention of anyone able to invest it with and low sources—including Jose Sert’s late work and the typ- Danish copper ceiling lamps that can significant humanity or livability. The few attempts to bring ical builder’s split-level—and Pasanella + Klein used it fre- be seen from the street at night. The considered design to this area generally produced only quently in the early 1970s. It never caught on, though: the building won awards in the 1960s and more tasteful facades—Richard Meier’s Twin Parks Northeast reduced circulation area and added spatial interest were in 1965 was included in a MOMA travel- (, 1967-1974)—or perverse failures—Paul Rudolph’s countered by the complications of staggering high-rise floor ing exhibition to Europe and the Tracey Towers (the Bronx, 1972; all the windows overlook slabs and including stairs in nearly every unit. Soviet Union. This building needs to be other people’s apartments.) There are, however, a handful of Pasanella’s office then undertook the design of Twin landmarked, especially considering remarkable achievements that have slipped out of public Parks East (1975, aka Keith Plaza and Kelly Towers), produc- that so many of the city’s great movie consciousness, among them a series of engaging buildings ing a slicker set of mid-rise buildings that foreshadowed houses are now long gone. by Giovanni Pasanella, later Pasanella + Klein. These projects much of the City’s residential architecture over the next 20 MANHATTAN HOUSE are less “bold reinventions” of housing than a realization of years. The developer refused to build a spilt-level scheme, Friends of the would the potential of contemporary standards, and they gain like support in their campaign for the from this approach. THESE PROJECTS ARE LESS “BOLD REINVENTIONS” designation of Manhattan House Pasanella’s arrival coincided with a revision of the City’s (1950) at 200 East by approach to urban renewal under the Lindsay administra- OF HOUSING THAN A REALIZATION OF THE Skidmore, Owings & Merrill and Mayer tion (1966-1973). The failure-in-practice of “clear and POTENTIAL OF CONTEMPORARY STANDARDS… & Whittlesey. The Commission is con- rebuild” policies had become painfully evident, and public sidering a designation, so please write entities had begun to advocate incremental improvements resulting in more conventional planning. The buildings are and request a public hearing. to stabilize existing neighborhoods. These “increments” sculpted to give them more appearance of height than Innovative for its time, the H-plan were still enormous by today’s standards: Pasanella’s first they’re really entitled to, while the windows are lined up into super block building is New York’s first housing project was a set of five ten- to eighteen-story horizontal stripes across the façade. Twin Parks East is most “white brick apartment building.” It is notable, however, because several of its towers are set on 2- an International Style building expert- 3 story bases that follow the street line and relate with some ly designed to provide abundant light success to the adjacent prewar architecture. and cross ventilation by way of its H- The Pasanella + Klein project that most readers will be plan and well-designed, large pane (unknowingly) familiar with eliminates towers completely in windows. Manhattan House’s glass favor of proto-contextual low-rise. This housing block, enclosed lobby, cantilevered slab bal- bounded by Elizabeth, Mott, and Spring Streets in Little Italy conies and white-painted steel win- (1976), is in fact so contextual that most people wouldn’t see dows (since replaced) set it apart from it as a building of any sophistication, although it is among its neighbors in 1950—and still do today. the best subsidized housing architecture in the City. The —Caroline Rob Zaleski, original design was a sophisticated rationalist box of hori- Director of Advocacy zontal cells with inset balconies. This was mercilessly reduced to a U-shaped courtyard plan clad in oversize brick

KIMBRO FRUTIGER with an unbroken grid of square double-hung windows. In the end, there was room for only one architectural move, but Pasanella made exactly the right one: a corner of the U PASANELLA + KLEIN’S PROJECT IN NOW TRENDY NOHO. (THE BUILDING FRONTS is subtly clipped to 90 degrees at the acute angle between SPRING, MOTT & ELIZABETH STREETS) Spring and Elizabeth Streets, and this inflection is repeated at the mid-block entrance to the courtyard. The adjustments The first phase of the new site buildings in the south Bronx known collectively as Twin make the building seem to have a much more sophisticated www.docomomo-us.org is complete. Parks West (1967-1973). The buildings were slipped into exist- shape than it actually does, giving it an interesting twinned The site was designed by Peter ing vacant sites along a five-block stretch and related in size quality. The effect is helped by the well-detailed commercial Montgomery and Laura Culberson of and orientation to the adjacent tenements. storefronts and the sidewalk trees, which were originally the Northern California DOCOMOMO While Twin Parks West is not immediately ingratiating in intended and have grown up around the building in a no- chapter. Programming was done by appearance, it doesn’t take long to appreciate how much has budget counterpoint to its brick grid. Scotty Robinson and David Edwards of been done with the same elements that were used with con- The 1970s budget crisis put the brakes on subsidized 42 Inc. in Berkeley, CA, which is also summate senselessness in previous housing. The building housing in New York City. By the time it got back on the hosting the site pro bono. masses emphasize the existing streets without clinging agenda, design was driven more by populist image than The next phase includes more slavishly to the sidewalk line. The block facades are tailored humanist thought. Fortunately, the City has a set of exem- complete local chapter pages that can to make sense of air conditioner locations and combine win- plary buildings from before this shift, but keeping them be easily updated by individual chap- dows into larger patterns. Bulk is broken up by expression of presents difficult preservation issues. It’s unlikely that they ters and adding an email list. circulation cores and apartment divisions. As a context-rel- will be widely valued for decades, and they are subject to To that end, DOCOMOMO New evant solution, the buildings are all different: the southern- particularly harsh conditions. The good news is that these York/Tri-State is looking for volun- most tower steps down in terraces to an acute intersection are not fragile aesthetic statements but living buildings, and teers to be web coordinator and/or and the intermediate buildings are fairly successful devel- their strongest design points have endured because they fit email list manager for the chapter, opments of Le Corbusier’s Unites, while the northern build- the needs of the residents and community. Like the possibly on a short term, rotating ing is submerged in the middle of a block and rather blank. Williamsburg Houses from 1939, they are likely to serve their basis. If you have basic web skills and The architects also considered housing from the inside constituencies well enough to survive and be recognized as are interested please let us know. out. All but the southern building (slated for the elderly) use part of New York’s architectural and cultural heritage. [email protected] or split-level planning that eliminates public corridors on the —Kimbro Frutiger [email protected] majority of floors and yields multi-story apartments that DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/3 GORES HOUSE MAKES THE NATIONAL REGISTER PROGRESS The Gores House (1948), designed by and locat- ment in the U.S. was in its most energized and optimistic ed in New Canaan, CT, has joined the small, select group of period. The 4,000 sq. ft. single-story house, which parallels AT VIIPURI Modern Movement houses on the National Register of the top of a ridge, rests on a platform delineated by field- Historic Places. The listing, announced in March 2002 by the stone walls. Full-height glass walls dominate the length of Connecticut Historical Commission, followed a three-year the down slope elevation and overlook a cascade of terraces In Vyborg, restoration contin- effort spearheaded by Gores’ widow, Pamela Whitmarsh and a pool, all designed by Gores. It is a large, expansive ues on the Alvar Aalto designed Gores, who resides in the house and retains her husband’s house—130 feet in length—yet it does not have an over- Viipuri Library, while a substantial papers and drawings. An excellent nomination report was whelming mass. The house has three distinct volumes sepa- grant has given the project new prepared by historian Bruce Clouette, of Public Archeology rated by set back, glass-walled connecting spaces and artic- focus. Repairs to the roof of the Survey Team, Inc. in Storrs, CT. ulated by advancing and receding vertical planes. Gores also Lending Hall, which incorporates Gores was one of the , architects with broke the roofline at varying levels and employed wide pro- Aalto’s fantastic funnel-shaped sky- Harvard ties and a working friendship who experimented jecting eaves, clerestory windows and points of cantilevered lights, is complete. Additionally, this with Modern Movement principles and practices in a slew of roof to apportion the massing even further. year Russian authorities financed the successful commissions following WWII. (The others were Where exterior walls are not glass they are vertical restoration of the Children’s library tongue and groove cypress siding stained grey. Cypress pan- entrance doors and the large bay eling is also used on the main interior spaces. Elsewhere window of the Lecture Hall. plaster is used, but with extraordinary detail—a 3/4” The World Monuments Fund/ recessed margin created with strips of Cypress separates Robert Wilson Challenge Grant plaster wall sections and the wall to ceiling juncture. Other Program has provided a second grant notable interior details include a through-the-wall fireplace of $140,000 that will cover roof repair that morphs into a small pool on its foyer side; nine-foot, for the Reading Hall, main entrance floor-to-ceiling doors off the bedroom hall; and in the bed- and Lending Hall terrace. This will rooms and dining area, projecting glass walls fitted with nar- complete the roof work. However, row glass doors at their corners. many other projects await funding. The Gores House is important and interesting because The Finnish Committee for the while it clearly represents ideas of European Modernism Restoration of Viipuri Library will con- transferred to the postwar suburbs by American architects, tinue to plan, design and supervise Gores mediated the more orthodox Modern of Breuer, all on-site work as well as serve as a Gropius and Johnson with a more organic architecture and AMES CLAY AMES CLAY channel for international contribu- J traditional materials. Most of us looking at the house today tions for this project. LANDIS GORES HOUSE, 1948. VIEW OF CENTRAL PAVILION OF HOUSE FROM TERRACE. would say it has Wrightian features; Gores heartily acknowl- YOU CAN HELP: GORES DESIGNED THE POOL AND TERRACES AS A LATER ADDITION. There is still a tremendous amount of restoration work to do and financial OUR SITUATION OFFERED IN ITS VERY CONVENTIONALITY support is needed from friends of the AN OPPORTUNITY FOR HARMONIOUS COMBINATION OF Library everywhere. For tax deductibility, contributions are being TRADITIONAL LIFE PATTERN WITH A FRESH AND NOVEL accepted by DOCOMOMO/US and will ENCLOSING MECHANISM; A HOUSE, A HAPPY HOUSE… be forwarded to the Finnish FULL OF LIGHT AND FLEXIBILITY AS WELL AS GRACE Committee. Make checks payable to AND EVEN DIGNITY.——LANDIS GORES DOCOMOMO/US and indicate Viipuri Fund as recipient. Donations can also be made directly to the Committee. edged the influence of Wright’s house designs of the 1930s For more information visit on his own work. House & Home magazine featured the www.alvaraalto.fi/viipuri or email house in a 1952 article, calling it a “powerful shot in the arm, [email protected]. a thing to lift your spirit,” but also noting Gores’ “deliberate Breuer, Johnson, Johansen and Noyes.) New Canaan, attempt to emphasize the permanence of ‘home’ rather than Connecticut just happened to be where all five built houses the temporariness of ‘industrialized’ shelter.” This synthesis for themselves and attracted an encouraging stream of pioneered by Gores was unquestionably more salable to the clients open to non-traditional forms. The Harvard Five’s general public. And as Bruce Clouette rightly points out in houses were well documented in the architectural press, and the nomination report, throughout the 1950s and 1960s this New Canaan’s extremely popular “Modern House Days” tours hybrid modernism championed by Gores influenced count- opened the public’s eyes to this new breed of living space. less custom-built homes, Ranch and Raised-Ranch houses in Gores is the least known of the group, which makes the suburban developments and pre-fabricated dwellings such recognition of this house as a landmark even more welcome. as the Tech-Built and Lindholm Cedar lines. In 1954, eight years into his professional practice, Gores was The house has had no alterations other than those afflicted with polio. The polio severely affected his breathing designed by Gores and most materials are original. New and mobility but he continued to draw and with the help of Canaan is a very risky place for aging Modern Movement his wife continued a limited design practice producing sev- houses these days, but more good news may be forthcom- eral dozen residential and commercial projects through the ing. Pamela Gores is talking with the SPNEA about means for 1970s. Gores was elected a fellow of the AIA in 1973. He died attaching covenants to the house deed that would prevent in 1991. demolition or gross alteration by future owners. The house Gores built for his family best captures his —Kathleen Randall thoughts on design at the moment when the Modern move-

DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/4 THE FUTURE OF E.D. STONE’S GALLERY OF MODERN ART TWA STILL It is hard to believe that one building modernism, leaving an incomplete could engender as much turmoil as vision of the scope of postwar design. NOT FLYING has been the case with Edward Durell Considered along with the pending Stone’s 1964 Gallery of Modern Art at 2 possibility of significant alterations to Columbus Circle in Manhattan. For the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, The Section 106 and 4F review past seven years this building has New York City will gradually lose evi- process continues. In July another been at the forefront of postwar archi- dence of Formalism and other styles meeting of the so-called consulting tecture preservation activities, with that challenged the hegemony of the parties was organized by the FAA. preservationists, architects, civic International Style. (DOCOMOMO, The Municipal Art groups and celebrities pressuring City New York civic groups are continu- Society and The National Trust for Hall on the building’s behalf. ing the fight for Stone’s building. LAND- Historic Preservation are among the Despite a well-organized preserva- MARK WEST! had retained attorney group.) The airline JetBlue, which has tion effort, the City of New York chose Matthew Woitkowski and raised ques- renovated the adjacent terminal (for- to sell the building to the American tions about the legality of the compli- merly the National Airlines Terminal, Craft Museum this past summer. The cated real estate deal by which the City I. M. Pei, 1966–1970), was added as a museum apparently has no intention has disposed of the property. Their ESTO. BY PROVIDED GENEROUSLY REPRODUCTION RIGHTS © ESTO. EZRA STOLLER consulting party. of preserving the building’s distinctive A MID-1960S VIEW OF A GALLERY SPACE. NOTE THE features as it has hired Allied Works INTERIOR EXPRESSION OF THE MINIATURE PORTHOLES Architecture to alter the building for THAT CLIMB ALL FOUR CORNERS OF THE FACADE. the museum’s use. The firms Zaha Hadid, Smith-Miller & Hawkinson, and Toshiko Procedure. The City previously stated Mori Architect were also considered. that no public review was required. While opinion in local preservation LANDMARK WEST! is continuing to circles is not unanimous on the build- monitor the public review process. ing’s merits, many of those with a con- Preservation groups across the city cern for Modern architecture had hoped are preparing to make the case for the that the building would be awarded to Gallery of Modern Art—and against an the Dahesh Museum of Art, which obliterating alteration—once the planned a full restoration. Unfortun- Museum presents its renovation plans. ately, the Guiliani administration did not —Michael Gotkin choose the Museum’s proposal, even The discussion focused on three though its bid was the highest. UPCOMING: areas: size and configuration of the The loss by alteration of 2 current proposal for a new 750,000 Columbus Circle will reduce the tangi- THE LOGGIA OF GAVE RISE TO LANDMARK WEST! and the Center for sq. ft. terminal facility behind and ble evidence of alternative styles of ITS NICKNAME: THE LOLLIPOP BUILDING. Architecture will co-sponsor a sympo- around TWA Terminal; content and Modern Movement architecture from sium on the Huntington Hartford language of the most recent the postwar years. As the NYC probes prompted the City to agree to Building in early 2003. See Calendar Memorandum of Agreement (MOA); Landmarks Commission selectively send the current plan to transfer the Insert. and outcome of the Port Authority’s edits the New York cityscape, it tends building to the American Craft Museum (PA) Solicitation of Interest (SOI) and to favor classic International Style through the Uniform Land Use Review pending Request for Proposals for the (adaptive) use of TWA terminal. The Municipal Art Society (MAS) presented concept proposals showing DOCOMOMO TO COSPONSOR LECTURE ON LE CORBUSIER how TWA terminal could be incorpo- rated in a meaningful and useful way In conjunction with the Bard Graduate work and his actual experience. Radiant City. The latter led him to into a new terminal. These proposals Center’s winter exhibit, “Le Corbusier Le Corbusier’s trip is generally con- investigate American industrial pro- received limited support because the before Le Corbusier: Applied Arts, sidered a failure because it produced duction and to seek out potential assumptions upon which they were Architecture, Painting and Photogra- no commissions. But the experience clients in the public and private sec- based were challenged by the PA. phy, 1907–1922,” DOCOMOMO New marks a significant episode in the tors. Bacon will show how the high-rise However, the proposals illustrated York/Tri-state will co-sponsor with BGC, reception of European modernism. housing tower in New York City owes clearly that there are options besides a lecture by Mardges Bacon, author of Sponsored by the Museum of Modern some debt to Le Corbusier’s formal the current plan. Le Corbusier in America. The lecture, Art, Le Corbusier arrived in New York to image but is governed principally by The Port Authority’s revised MOA titled: “Modernism and Its Reception: promote his ideas through a lecture municipal housing policies and models. was critically reviewed by the general Le Corbusier in New York City,” will be tour, exhibition, and press conferences, The Bard Graduate Center for counsels for both the MAS and the given January 23, 2003 at the Bard as well as in meetings with industrial- Studies in the Decorative Arts, Design, National Trust. Of particular concern Graduate Center. Bacon is Professor of ists, housing reformers, New Deal tech- and Culture will offer other lectures, was a provision that if no viable Architecture at Northeastern Univer- nocrats, and editors. Filled with pre- forums and tours to complement the developer could be found after 12 sity and a member of DOCOMOMO/New conceptions and expectations, Le exhibition. Program brochures will be months, terms could be revisited by England. She will present background Corbusier structured his tour as a cam- mailed to the DOCOMOMO mailing list. the three signatory agencies (PA, FAA on Le Corbusier’s first trip to the US in paign with two objectives: first, to pro- You may also request a program by and SHPO) to reflect market condi- 1935 and explore the enduring transat- mote his theory and design as a tool calling 212-501-3011 or emailing pro- tions. Given the uncertainty of such lantic misunderstanding between Le for reforming the discipline and prac- [email protected]. For more on the Corbusier and his American hosts and tice of architecture in the US; second, LeCorbusier exhibit see calendar insert. continued page 7 between his expectations of securing to establish an American site for his —Nina Rappaport DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/5 TIME & LIFE BUILDING’S LOBBY MOMO AT GAINS INTERIOR LANDMARK STATUS THE MOVIES What has been called one of the most lous undulating gray and white terraz- More plausibly, ’s ter- dramatic Modern interiors of New York zo paving pattern directs passers-by razzo designs for his Alcoa Building in City is now a protected landmark. On from the plaza into the lobby. The plan Pittsburgh (1953) and the United METROPOLIS July 16, the New York City Landmarks of the lobby suggests a pinwheel, with Nations (1950) influenced the Time & DIRECTED BY FRITZ LANG (1927) Preservation Commission officially des- the entrance passages extending from Life Building flooring details. Alcoa fea- ignated the Time & Life Building lobby the service core in various directions. tures a gray and white diamond-pat- “Now and forever the architect is an Interior Landmark. Fourteen wit- It is the decorative scheme of the terned terrazzo plaza, and the United going to replace the set designer. nesses, DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State floor, walls, and ceiling that enliven Nations alternating gray and white Film will be the faithful translator of among them, spoke in support of the this remarkable interior space. Plate concrete paving on the north end of the architects’ boldest dreams.” designation. Over the past several glass and Carrara marble make up the the General Assembly and undulating —Luis Buñuel, after viewing Metropolis years the Modern Architecture Working lobby’s perimeter walls, giving the terrazzo similar to Time & Life as part in 1927 Group, DOCOMOMO’s advocacy commit- lobby a clean and soothing atmos- of the fountain west of the Secretariat. A great architectural inspiration has tee, led by Caroline Zaleski and others, phere. Another equally magnificent Above the kinetic floor and shim- just become even greater—well, longer lobbied for a hearing and prepared sup- feature is the shimmering brushed mering walls is a dark maroon ceiling at least. The iconic film Metropolis by porting documentation. The successful stainless steel panels that clad the of tinted glass tiles that appear to float Fritz Lang has regained lost subplots designation brings the number of banks of elevators. They are arranged against narrow coves of indirect light- and narrative consistency after a Modern sites in New York City that are in a checkerboard pattern alternating ing. These tempered glass panels, most restoration that returned it to 80 per- protected landmarks to over a dozen. from vertical to horizontal brush of which are original, display a matte cent of its original length. It has been Located on , between marks and curve around each corner. finish and get their color from a layer re-released and is touring in art hous- 50th and 51st Streets, the lobby, which Inside the lobby the undulating ter- of red ceramic enamel adhered to the es and museums across the US. has had little if any alteration, is a mas- razzo becomes even more dramatic. In back of the glass. Lang’s futuristic vision, his manip- terpiece of Modern design on its own this large, yet intimate space, the scale The official city designation also ulation of high-tech special effects and the base for a 48-story skyscraper. of the terrazzo suddenly turns from covers the lobby artwork. The pieces (for the 1920s) and his striking sense The building, designed by Michael M. being part of the cityscape to a bold, reflect Harrison’s interest in Modern of visual composition combined to Harris, of Harrison & Abramowitz & flamboyant (almost over-the-top) inte- painting, and it is likely he played a key form an astonishing spectacle in his Harris, was constructed between rior floor surface that takes hold of the role in choosing them. The east corri- own time that still resonates today. 1956–1960 as a joint venture of Time, lobby. “It flows like a river through the dor features a De Stijl-like mural by Lang employed huge sets, thousands Inc. and . It is cur- plaza and gushes into the building at Zurich-born Fritz Glarner entitled of extras, and explosive scenes, rently owned by the Rockefeller Group. full force” according to one architec- “Relational Painting #88.” The west including the eruption of an urban As opposed to other buildings in the tural historian. The floor, laid by the corridor features “Portals” by Josef generator and the cataclysmic flood- Center, which are entered on axis from American Mosaic & Tile Company, is a Albers, famed professor at the Bauhaus ing of an underground city. The real the avenue, the Time & Life lobby is gray and white serpentine-pattern ter- and abstract artist. star of Metropolis is the city—a vertical entered from the cross streets, through razzo with stainless steel inlay. Many Rockefeller Center is a much city hundreds of stories high—the revolving doors on , and have deemed the terrazzo design the praised landmark and one of the city’s result of ruthless economic forces. from a covered breezeway on 51st architects’ tribute to Roberto Burle most important 20th-century enclaves Inspired by a visit to New York, Lang’s Street. Harris decided to locate the pri- Marx and his paving for Copacabana of art and architecture. This is due in interpretation of the shipboard view mary entrances on the side streets in Beach in Rio de Janeiro. Other histori- part to the many outstanding interior of the Manhattan skyline is a chilling order to accommodate a large public ans attribute the terrazzo to Sixth spaces that fill these buildings. DOCO- and exhilarating mixture of Piranesi plaza facing Sixth Avenue, thus increas- Avenue being renamed Avenue of the MOMO commends the Commission for and pre-Giuliani . Full of ing visibility of tenants on the ground Americas after the war, and the surge protecting a postwar interior as part of multileveled roadways, rushing floor. Originally, the Time, Inc. reception in interest in Latin American culture the ensemble. crowds, airplanes, blinking advertise- center occupied the ground floor space and architecture, specially that of Brazil. —Hänsel Hernandez-Navarro ments, and topsy-turvy surfaces, the behind the fountain, and a branch of metropolis is a dystopia deliberately Manufacturers Trust Company, the fashioned to mock the utopian preten- northeast corner. sions of modernism and to warn of The revolving doors serve as the the perils of unrestrained capitalism. base for wing-shaped aluminum Metropolis has a convoluted plot canopies that begin inside the lobby line that mixes romance, class strug- and project over the plaza. The fabu- JEFF MILES, FROM FILM STILL JEFF MILES,

continued next page HAHN SOPHISTICATED, YET WITH A HINT OF SIXTIES PSYCHEDELIC; THIS IS LATE-1950S CORPORATE DESIGN AT ITS BEST. DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2000/6 MOVIE, CONTINUED VICTOR LUNDY, CONTINUED gle, science fiction and the mad sci- cal gap is filled by clerestories that cast an indirect glow entist. The rulers of the world play in throughout the interior. the Gardens of the Sun atop the city’s Here, as at Westport, form is inseparable from structure. towers, while the drone-like workers All the various roofs are carried by radial, angular concrete toil in the nightmarish Underground walls. The sanctuary roof is suspended on cables from the City, tending giant machines. Feder, peaks of these monoliths, and the roofs of surrounding the spoiled son of the Master of spaces are slung between them on catenary cables. Metropolis, falls in love with the work- Developed with consulting engineers Severud-Elstad- er Maria and together they seek labor Krueger (who also collaborated at Westport) this was one of reforms. Mad scientist Rotwang cre- the pioneering uses of cable suspension in architecture. The ates a Maria double from a female roofs supported by these various cables are constructed of robot, who foments a worker’s revolu- wood decking, set radially. “Every element is articulated, tion. “Kill the machines, you fools,” the false Maria urges. The actress Brigette Helm, who plays both the

saintly Maria and the lusty, evil dop- LUNDY VICTOR COURTESY PHOTOS: pelganger robot, delivers an Oscar- worthy performance. the Unitarians, with none of the spareness suggested by the The Bauhaus was obviously a “meeting house” sign out front. But clearly the congregation strong influence on Lang and art direc- was looking for, and still appreciates, the almost mystical tors Otto Hunte, Erich Kettelhut and complexity of the place. Karl Vollbrecht. The opening title dis- This intricate building can be interpreted in two distinct solves into a ziggurat building straight ways. On the one hand it can be seen as a Modern composi- from Feininger’s woodcut cover for the tion assembled from cutting-edge structural elements. On Bauhaus First Proclamation of 1919. the other hand, references to the Baroque are apparent in Many other scenes bear close resem- several aspects: the prevalence of complex curved surfaces, blance to the surreal photomontages the combination of symmetry with unusual geometries, the of Moholy-Nagy and the layered com- ABOVE AND AT RIGHT, UNITARIAN MEETING HOUSE, HARTFORD, CT (1962–1964). lighting from indirect sources, the visually ambiguous position of Joseph Albers, both of boundaries of interior space. The latter interpretation is not whom taught at the Bauhaus. The exposed honestly as in a ship,” Lundy has said, but as in simply a product of the Post-Modern theory of the years fol- plaza sculpture, which Maria, Feder many sailing vessels, being visible doesn’t necessarily make lowing the church’s completion, but reflects an admiration and the children cling to as the floods the complex system easy to understand. The complexity is of the space and lighting effects of the Baroque—if not its arrive, looks like Gropius’ concrete vividly expressed in the roof decking, seen exposed on the ornament—that was prevalent around 1960. Weimar Monument (1924). There are interior as a series of interlocking or overlapping linear pat- During the 1960s, other projects completed out of also elements of Jakov Chernikov, El terns—emphasized in many areas by grooves routed into the Lundy’s office, which had moved in stages to New York, Lissitzsky, Peter Behrens, Hans Poelzig wood—all oriented toward the center. included unconventionally designed public schools in and Hugh Ferriss. The sanctuary ceiling is a tour de force, assembled of Westport and in Queens, New York. His work of the 1970s The film is usually considered an small wood strips forming complex curves. From the perime- includes the monumental, granite-clad U.S. Tax Court in example of German Expressionism, ter of the sanctuary irregularly spaced wood strips swoop Washington, DC, an IBM office building in suburban New with an emphasis on dark gothic down over the surrounding ambulatory. Cut off at irregular Jersey, and the US Embassy in Sri Lanka. Meanwhile, Lundy atmosphere and distorted, tilted per- lengths (some of the ends supported on barely visible wires) moved to California, then to Texas, where he became design spectives. However it also suggests these strips form an aura of radiating elements recalling the principal at HKS Architects in Dallas. Now in his late 70s, he the free-wheeling art scene in Weimar bursts of rays in Baroque work such as Bernini’s window in is designing some houses out of his own studio in Houston, Germany at the time, combining ele- the apse of St Peters. but devoting most of his time to painting. ments of Dadaism, Russian Construc- As a whole, the building stresses the spiritual mission of —John Morris Dixon tivism, Abstract Expressionism, Futurism and the Bauhaus machine- aesthetic. This combination of styles and intelligentsia during the early gives Metropolis the feel of a real TWA, CONTINUED mit their comments in writing. There twentieth century and carried over is no real plan for TWA Terminal until a city, built incrementally over time. into films like Metropolis. That social- For fans of modernism, Metropolis conditions, this seems a likely sce- private developer willing and able to ism should be considered so hope- nario. It would render the consulta- sign a lease proposes a viable adap- can be seen as an influential ancestor lessly irrelevant in late-capitalist forever establishing the archetypal tion process irrelevant in a short peri- tive solution. Given the economy and America, where self-serving abuses od of time and revert sole decision the uniqueness of the building, this dystopia of the future. Its visual such as Enron and WorldCom decep- iconography informs the cityscapes making authority back to the three could mean an extended period of tions, corporate welfare, petroleum- agencies that created the new termi- non-use or interim uses—conditions of Blade Runner, Brazil, Batman, Dark based energy policies and other City, Star Wars, and the films of nal proposal and original MOA. harmful to most buildings unless care- examples of crony capitalism thrive, While the PA’s SOI generated a good fully managed. Economic reality also Stanley Kubrick, who paid homage to is an interesting question. Three- Lang and Rotwang’s artificial hand in many responses, an official RFP remains makes the MAS proposal for a more quarters of a century after to be issued. The PA expressed the useful integration of Saarinen’s TWA Dr. Strangelove. Metropolis, we might just be ready for Most Americans have difficulty desire to have a completed MOA in building into the new terminal building our own Maria and Feder to step for- hand so as to take the “uncertainty” more attractive. The next step is not appreciating the Marxist motivations ward and reform the machinery. that preoccupied European artists out of the development process. entirely clear, but continued monitor- —Jeff Miles At the close of the meeting the ing and vigilance is in order. continued next column consulting parties were invited to sub- —Theo Prudon

DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2000/7 ROBERT MALLET-STEVENS: CUL-DE-SACS AND FILM SETS POST EVENT A PARIS 2002 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHT— Collinet two years before (photos). Bands of horizontal The major project of Robert Mallet-Stevens during the mid- ridges on the lower portion of the façades link the villas at REPORTS 1920s was the design and construction of rue Mallet- street level and suggest compression of the concrete from Stevens, an ensemble of urban villas in Auteuil, a neighbor- the weight of the volumes above. hood on the Southwest edge of Paris. The villas were built Mallet-Stevens was involved in film set design from 1920 for the architect’s clients and colleagues—sculptors Jan and on. In collaboration with other modernists, he worked on AIA AWARD AND NEW Joel Martel, filmmaker Alantini, pianist Reifenberg, and oth- L’Inhumaine, designing the exterior of two buildings. INITIATIVES IN SARASOTA ers—and at the entrance, the office and home of M. and Mme. Fernand Léger did the interior of one of these buildings. The Mallet-Stevens. In the architect’s work of previous years, music was by Darius Mihaud; the costumes by Paul Poiret. One indicator of a great event is what such as the residence for Mme. Collinet in 1925 (next to Lalique, Puifocart and Luce designed the objects. This model happens after its conclusion. Noting Corbusier’s Villa Cook) in the Boulogne-Billancourt suburb, of modernist collaboration was a sensation, and led to other the far-reaching implications for his Pavillon of Tourism for the Decorative Arts Exposition of films for Mallet-Stevens. Man Ray used Mallet-Stevens Villa architectural appreciation as a result 1925, and the Chateau of the Vicomte de Noailles in 1923 at de Noailles as background in Les Mystères du Château du Dé of The Fine Arts Society of Sarasota’s Hyères, Mallet-Stevens had developed what were to be the of 1929. (Rent these films at Kim’s Video on 8th Street, NYC.) “An American Legacy: the Sarasota distinctive elements of his style, and rather unfortunately His participation in films, and perhaps his attention to School of Architecture Tour and sown the seeds of his later neglect. lesser matters than architecture—gardens, interiors—unfairly Symposium” last fall, the Florida AIA led to Mallet-Stevens being characterized as “decorative” has given its President’s Award to the and “frivolous.” At the DOCOMOMO conference Nathalie event organizers. Roulleau-Simonet pointed out that Mallet-Stevens was reject- The symposium convened the ed by the architectural critics, although accepted in the cul- founding architects of the Sarasota tural community of sculptors, painters, and musicians. School, along with scholars, archi- Unfortunate circumstances also hampered his reception. The tects and interior designers, students, Vicomte de Noailles did not initially permit photos to be pub- journalists, critics and connoisseurs lished of his villa, and another important project, the Villa of modernism for five days of presen- Poiret at Mézy, (opened to DOCOMOMO during the confer- tations designed to identify, docu- ence) was not finished due to the bankruptcy of the client. ment, disseminate and preserve the After his death in 1945, Mallet-Stevens was largely ignored. important heritage of the Sarasota Mallet-Stevens’s professional political relations may School. The presentations were aug- have contributed to his exclusion. He may have been the mented by gallery exhibitions, bus catalyst for Le Corbusier’s Pavillon de l’ Esprit Nouveau at and boat tours of important Modern VIRGINIA SMITH the 1925 Exposition. Mallet-Stevens’s cousin, Paul Leon, was structures, and dinners with the LEFT, HOTEL COLLINET, 1925; RIGHT, MARTEL VILLA ON RUE MALLET-STEVENS, 1927. a high official for the Exposition, and with this clout, Mallet- architects. More than 1,000 people Stevens wrote Le Corbusier proposing that since he [M-S] attended, turning the symposium into The Auteuil cul-de-sac project gave Mallet-Stevens an was to construct the gateway at the Grand Palais, “it would a significant community event that opportunity to present his views for the ideal city in one be a big attraction if we could have some houses built natu- drew unprecedented attention to the street—very different from Le Corbusier’s ambitious plan for ral size.” The Pavillon de l’Esprit came into being, but rela- mid-century Modern architectural a city of three million inhabitants. Unified through charac- tions deteriorated over details. Mallet-Stevens also treasures of Sarasota. teristics repeated with variations from villa to villa, the expressed opposing views to those of the prominent CIAM. The hour-long American Legacy street is a collection of individual units which could be In 1929 Le Corbusier generously proposed Mallet-Stevens as documentary was featured in the repeated to compose a city. All the facades are smooth his replacement at the CIAM congress, but Giedion objected 2002 Sarasota Film Festival and aired white surfaces, with horizontal bands of windows, jutting due to the “rather decorative” nature of Mallet-Stevens’s throughout southwest Florida on balconies and linear railings. The Martel villa at No. 10 has a work. Caught between these two powerhouses, Mallet- Comcast cable television, generating staircase topped by a brilliant red mushroom cap and picks Stevens failed to receive critical attention until the 1980s. more than 300,000 viewers. up the narrow vertical staircase window used in the Hotel —Virginia Smith A spin-off educational program in the Sarasota County school system called ARCHI-TEACHER taught 5,000 UNESCO committee. Discussion focused on how these crite- fourth and eighth graders about the PARIS 2002 CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS ria can be applied to Modern works. architecture in their midst, from early Tours ranged from the UNESCO headquarters building—the chickee huts to big box retail. The In September over 400 people gathered in Paris for conference venue—to an all-day trip to Le Havre. Suburban Fine Arts Society’s American Legacy DOCOMOMO’s biannual international conference. Over 42 jaunts to , Villa Mézy and rue Mallet-Stevens, and committee has provided funding for countries were represented and presentation topics reflect- walking tours of nodes such as the Cité Université the program’s second year. ed this global array. The final day concluded with a presenta- Internationale and Pompidou Centre were also offered. To continue the important work tion by Francesco Bandarin, director of UNESCO’s World The Cité Université Internationale in Paris is an excellent the symposium began, the Sarasota Heritage Center, concluding remarks by sculptor Dani one-stop tour for any Modern fans visiting Paris. The site Architectural Foundation has been Karavan, Theo Prudon’s announcement of the 2004 confer- includes 37 dormitories built between 1921 and 1969. Where formed to celebrate Sarasota’s mod- ence in New York and a party at the Palais de Chaillot. As with else can you see a Le Corbusier, Dudok and Costa building ernist heritage and encourage archi- most conferences, much of the information exchange took steps from one another? tectural excellence in the region. The place between sessions, at lunch and during the many tours. For those favoring reinforced concrete, the Le Havre tour Foundation is already leading archi- Bandarin reported that the World Heritage List currently was exceptional. The visit timed with the opening of a major tectural tours and planning future has 730 sites of "overreaching cultural or natural signifi- retrospective of the work of Auguste Perret at Le Havre’s public programs. cance." Of these, 12 are Modern architecture or landscapes. Musée Malraux. Perret was the architect in charge of rebuild- The AIA Award was presented in UNESCO does not select sites. Signatories to the World ing the city after its destruction in 1940. Having almost sin- August with Martie Lieberman, Heritage Convention—currently 174 countries—propose sites gle-handedly perfected and introduced modern techniques continued next page that are then vetted against World Heritage List criteria by a continued page 11 DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/8 EVENTS, CONTINUED MARCEL BREUER SUBJECT OF SUMMER GALLERY TALK President of the Fine Arts Society In June Barry Bergdoll, professor of Art ing Breuer’s architectural expression, language for the load-bearing, con- 2000-2002, and Heather Dunhill, chair History at Columbia University and as well as his friendship with Alexander crete panel-system façades as a rival of the video documentary project, author of a forthcoming book on Calder. Correspondence and sketches to the Miesian aesthetic—a vocabulary accepting on behalf of the American Marcel Breuer, gave a lunch-time talk introduced Breuer’s extensive practice derived ultimately from Breuer’s col- Legacy committee and the many vol- on the architect’s work at the after 1937—from houses in New England laboration in the early 1950s with Pier unteers who were part of the success. Smithsonian Archives of American Art and New York suburbs during the Luigi Nervi. DOCOMOMO also congratulates every- in Manhattan. The event coincided with 1950s, to the later, more massive rein- The summer exhibition was one of one involved with these activities in the Archives’s summer exhibition forced concrete structures in Europe, several events in 2002 marking the Sarasota. The extraordinary level of “Marcel Breuer: A Centennial such as the IBM-France laboratories 100th anniversary of Breuer’s birth. activity and the high quality of the Celebration,” and was organized by near Nice, France (1966) and the The Archive of American Art programs set an example for all com- DOCOMOMO NY/Tri-State program UNESCO Headquarters in Paris (1958, (http://artarchives.si.edu) collects munities with an architectural her- director Nina Rappaport. with Bernard Zehrfuss and Pier Luigi original archives related to American itage to celebrate and preserve. The exhibition presented selections Nervi). art and architecture. Many of its col- To join the mailing list for future from the Archives’s Breuer collection— Bergdoll also discussed Breuer’s lections, including the Breuer papers, events: [email protected]. a generous donation from his widow work in general, stressing the extent to are accessible on microfilm at the Constance Breuer. Personal photo- which Breuer sought to synthesize the Archive and by interlibrary loan. graphs and letters, both from Breuer’s legacy of his mentor Gropius; of Le FRANK LLOYD WRIGHT days at the Bauhaus and from the Corbusier, whose work inspired his COMING SPRING 2003: cities in which he practiced before emi- early quest to introduce rough vernac- The work of Marcel Breuer and other ENTHUSIASTS CELEBRATE grating to the US in 1937, revealed the ular materials and a contrast of light modernists in Litchfield, CT will be fea- extent to which he continued old and and heavy into a richer palette; and tured in a series of tours and events THE MODERN METROPOLIS new relationships with Moholy-Nagy both Frank Lloyd Wright and Alvar currently being planned in Litchfield. The ever brilliant, testy and often and Albers, who Bergdoll suggested Aalto. He also engaged in a lively Details forthcoming. cantankerous Frank Lloyd Wright pro- are of great importance to understand- debate over Breuer’s attempts to find a fessed disdain for the modern city, particularly New York, the city he loved, but liked to hate. His answer to a CBS Television interviewer in the EXHIBITION AT WMF DOCUMENTS MODERNISM IN DANGER 1950s: “Architecture? There is none in New York.” Yet, the role he played in World Monument Fund’s new gallery New York City and the region is space was inaugurated with an exhibi- proven by what he built and in the tion highlighting the organization’s written record scrutinized by schol- work to save Modern masterpieces. ars. This evidence was the theme of The selected sites, drawn from the this year’s Frank Lloyd Wright World Monument Fund (WMF) 100 Most Building Conservancy Conference, Endangered List, were featured in peri- Frank Lloyd Wright and the Modern od photographs and in original publi- Metropolis. At least 250 homeowners, cations supported by background text scholars and enthusiasts convened in on the history and restoration status White Plains, NY for lectures and of each site. The exhibition ran from tours of some of the 30 different May 30 through September 25 and designs Wright realized in the New attracted hundreds of visitors. In July York metropolitan area. DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State co- THE RADIO AND TELEVISION BUILDING, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, 1935, JOSEPH DIONGRE The conference opened with a hosted an evening viewing and recep- keynote by Herbert Muschamp at the tion attended by over 40 people. Richard Neutra, in Los Angeles, for now held in a temporary partnership Guggenheim Museum. Muschamp The eight endangered sites docu- which University of California at between The Barnett and Annalee recalled his doctoral thesis, written mented in the exhibit included three in Pasadena funded roof repair and glass Newman Foundation, which provided on a Wright topic, and to everyone’s Russia: Viipuri Library (1927–1935) by door replacement. A Restoration friendly financing for its purchase; the surprise and delight, told the audi- Alvar Aalto in Vyborg, now being Practicum course will focus on the WMF, which is providing expertise and ence he wished all of Wright’s proj- restored by Russian and Finnish organ- ongoing restoration. The Schindler funding for repairs and maintenance; ects could have been built. An izations; The Narkomfin Building Kings Road House and Studio and the Society for the Preservation of evening event at Wright’s Hoffman (1928–1930) by Moisei Ginzburg, et al. in (1921–1922) by R.M. Schindler, in West Long Island Antiquities, which holds house (1955) in Rye, NY provided Moscow; and The Rusakov Club Hollywood was also in the exhibit. The title. SPLIA is presently looking for a attendees with a rare opportunity to (1927–1929) by , Friends of Schindler House acquired buyer who will purchase the house as a experience this large waterfront also in Moscow. The Russian govern- the property in 1980 and has estab- landmark-protected property. house and garden overlooking Long ment funded the restoration of the lished the Austrian MAC Center for Art Rounding out the exhibition were Island Sound. club’s roof and a $50,000 WMF grant and Architecture at the house. the Villa Tugendhat (1930) by Mies van Morning conference sessions cov- funded window repair and structural Sporadic support from various govern- der Rohe, in Brno, Czech Republic and ered topics such as Wright’s tower in evaluation. However, to date, the mental sources has helped with the Radio and Television Building the park designs, his publishing majority of these funds remain restoration. (1935) by Joseph Diongre, in Brussels. efforts, his little known Museum of unspent and further negotiations with Closer to home, the A. Conger For more information on these Modern Art exhibition in 1940, the the city government are needed. Goodyear House (1938) by Edward Durell buildings and other sites on the 100 Stone, in Old Westbury, New York, was Most Endangered List, visit WMF’s web- continued page 11 Featured US buildings included the VDL Research House (1932–1939) by highlighted. This important structure is site at: www.wmf.org.

DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/9 IN THE FOR THE MODERN ARCHITECTURE SHELF Bucci and Marco Mulazzani help enor- Harvard University after fleeing mously to decipher and enrich his Germany and from there influenced a MARKET? texts. The essays begin to unravel diffi- generation or more of young archi- cult questions about Moretti’s work, tects in the US. The students—Edward such as the role ideology played in the Larrabee Barnes; Ulrich Franzen; John formulation of his prewar projects and Johansen, and Landis BREUER LANDMARK the seemingly shortsighted description Gores; ; I.M. Pei; and Paul The house that Marcel Breuer of the architect as a formalist. They Rudolph—follow, and a final section designed for himself and his family in also reflect on several interesting covers three figures critical to the pub- 1951 in New Canaan, CT, is for sale theories of Moretti’s: His interest in a lication of Modern houses: Ezra Stoller, after years of careful stewardship by temporal reading of architecture; his Peter Blake and Vincent Scully. its current owner. suggestion that contemporary archi- The juxtaposition of the elements The single-story house is a tecture should be conceived “effective- within each chapter—interviews and dynamic composition of intersecting ly in structure as form” (Bucci, p. 147); essays interspersed with the more tra- perpendicular planes and an impor- and his argument for the use of orna- ditional format of plan and photo- tant example of Breuer’s highly influ- mentation in modern architecture. graphs—shows the pleasure of discov- ential residential work. Fieldstone Luigi Moretti: The book manages to leave us ery that the author obviously experi- walls, a favorite Breuer material, are Works and Writings wanting more. The exquisite period enced during research for the book. used on the front of the house for Federico Bucci and Marco Mulazzani; photographs and images, and the The combination draws the reader into privacy while expansive floor-to-ceil- Marina deConciliis, translator informative and engaging essays and the creative processes involved in the NICK WHEELER Princeton Architectural Press, 2002 texts, masterfully describe a practice conception and realization of the proj- 232 pages, $60 worthy of attention. ects. Of particular delight are the inter- —Jan Greben views with those who commissioned or The publication of the first English lived in the houses—often with far less monograph on Luigi Moretti, Luigi reverence than one might imagine. Moretti: Works and Writings, provides Witness the interview with Jessica an overdue exploration of an accom- Goodyear, in which she reveals that the plished Italian architect. Including 150 vast entrance hall of the Johansen images of his projects, two essays that house she lived in as a child was the examine his theoretical and built work, rainy day location for neighborhood and a broad selection of his writings, touch-football games. ing glass at the rear offer views of the book offers a sweeping review of Of particular note because they lawns, specimen trees and terraces his practice. stray from the well-published path are over three rolling acres. The four- Born in Rome in 1907, the son of an an autobiographical sketch by Landis bedroom home features a spacious architect, Moretti was a member of the Gores, which speaks to his early years living room with fireplace, an adjoin- “valid and restricted group of Roman working with Philip Johnson; the fea- ing dining room, a new kitchen open- architects, both by birth and will” (p. tured selections of influential ing to a breakfast room, a family 212). He attended the Regia Scuola di American art from the period and the room with fireplace, four full and one Architettura in Rome, from 1925 to chapters on Ezra Stoller, Peter Blake half bath. Exemplifying Breuer’s “bi- 1930, achieving a degree with the high- and Vincent Scully, who also designed nuclear” plans, the master bedroom, est honors. It is well known that “first” houses for their own families. living and dining areas are separated Moretti was a fascist and designed These three essays touch on how the from the children’s bedrooms. buildings for the Foro Mussolini and First House: The Grid, the architects’ primary pursuits as photog- Breuer’s partner Herbert Beckhard the EUR, in Rome. His more compelling Figure and the Void rapher, writer and historian, respec- designed a new children’s wing in projects, however, were designed in Christian Bjone tively, helped spread the ideas of mod- 1979 and a pool and guesthouse in the postwar period, including Il Photographs by Robert Walker ernism to broader audiences. 1981. The skylit underground guest- Girasole Apartment Building, in Rome John Wiley & Sons, 2002 First houses may not always turn house was designed not to mar the (1947–1950), Villa La Saracena, in Rome 224 pages, $75 out to be an architect’s best, yet they natural landscape. (1953–1957) and the Residential and are interesting to view as test sites for The house has been widely pub- Office complex, in Milan (1949–1956). By First House: The Grid, the Figure and budding theories. lished. It is treated most extensively the end of his career, Moretti had the Void, by Christian Bjone with con- —Su Tamsett in a+u no. 352 (Jan. 2001) and designed more than seventy projects. temporary photographs by Robert Architecture Without Rules: The One of the book’s highlights is an Walker, presents the first houses of a Houses of Marcel Breuer and Herbert introduction to Spazio, the review selection of Harvard architecture grad- Beckhard by David Masello. founded, managed, designed and large- uates and faculty from the 1930s to the $2,595,000 ly written by Moretti between 1950 and 1950s. The book is a compilation of Nez Swanberg, B & H Real Estate 1953. Together, the provocative covers, brief architect biographies, essays, (203) 977-0767 layouts and texts contribute to a pres- interviews with the architects and entation of Moretti’s views on art and owners, sketches, drawings and new architecture. Although his writings photography. from Spazio are published separately First House leads off with Walter toward the end of the book, the two Gropius and Marcel Breuer, the two essays written for the book by Federico Bauhaus legends who landed at

DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/10 IN THE MARKET? CONT. DOCOMOMO NOVEMBER BOOK EVENT EVENTS CONT. DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State invites Guggenheim Museum, the Usonian QUEENS MODERN you to meet Hubert-Jan Henket, co- Exhibition House (1953), and the mas- founder of DOCOMOMO International ter plan for Usonia, a cooperative and editor of Back From Utopia: The community in Westchester. Challenge of the Modern Movement. Several conference tours were The location is a townhouse designed specifically designed to put Wright’s by Paul Rudolph and completed in the work in the context of mid-century early 1990s. Books, which are not yet Modern architecture. A pre-conference available in the US, will be for sale tour explored (cash or check only). Modernism and a post-conference tour focused on Modern houses in New Canaan, CT. Sites visited included Philip NOVEMBER 22, 6:00–8:00PM Johnson’s , the homes of PAUL RUDOLPH FOUNDATION Landis Gores and Marcel Breuer, two designs by Wright apprentice Allan 246 E. 58TH STREET Gelbin and houses by Eliot Noyes and This brick home, located on a quiet Hubert-Jan Henket and Hilde Heynen, editors residential street in Rego Park, John Black Lee. Back from Utopia, edited by DOCOMO- 010 Publishers, September 2002 —Caroline Rob Zaleski Queens, was designed by the archi- MO cofounder Hubert-Jan Henket and 412 pages, 250 illus.; $40 tect Arnold Arbeit in 1954. Hilde Heynen, brings together 42 con- An excellent example of its type, it tributions by leading voices in archi- lowing the all too rapid condemnation PARIS 2002 CONT. features a Meisian brick core dividing tecture and architectural history. In by its post-modernist critics, it is time the living area from the kitchen/din- essays and scholarly texts; collages, to make a balanced reassessment. in reinforced concrete, in his seventies, ing area, with an outside-corner fire- cartoons, and poems, the book sug- Back from Utopia’s authors criti- Perret was ready to showcase the qual- place, picture and clerestory windows, gests a multitude of new ways to think cally discuss the values of the Modern ity and versatility of his chosen materi- soaring ceiling, plaster interior finish- about Modern architecture, post-utopia. Movement and its many manifesta- al in the rebuilding of Le Havre. His es, dinette, through-wall aquarium, The book’s premise is that the tions; the promises it did not keep and church of Saint Joseph dispels any garage. The house has 4 bedrooms, 3 Modern Movement in architecture was the paradoxes it gave rise to. Each prejudice against concrete as bland, as 1/2 baths and a finished basement. bound up with a utopian impulse. Its contribution in its own unique way do the amazing array of finishes—tints, Walk to subways, shopping, promoters firmly believed that the cre- comments on the significance of the exposed aggregates and cast patterns— schools. Owner wishes to sell to an ation of a better architecture would Modern Movement today. used on the housing blocks. The exhib- appreciative buyer who would be lead to a better world. Today, we are For a list of contributing authors it will travel to Turin in 2003 and Paris inclined to preserve the architecture. witnessing both the positive and nega- visit the publisher’s website at: in 2004. Ronald Berlin, Architect: tive results of the endeavor and fol- www.010publishers.com. —Kathleen Randall (609) 921-1800. (Princeton, NJ) BREUER HOUSE FOR RENT The Wolfson House (1949) designed by NEW HAVEN’S URBAN MUSEUM OF MODERN ARCHITECTURE Marcel Breuer and an adjacent 3,000 sq. ft. live-in studio complex are for In the 1950s and 1960s, New Haven was with these and other important build- brochures in print. rent to two separate tenants. referred to nationally as a “Model City” ings shown. According to Angell the project is Located near Millbrook, NY, under for its innovative housing, welfare and Both text and images were printed intended to let the architecture of New two hours from lower Manhattan, the city planning programs. Since that onto free-standing kiosks designed by Haven speak to its occupants, visitors house and studio are sited on 15 very time, the ultimate success of many of Emergent Office, an architecture firm and residents, and in so doing, educate private acres with mature trees and those programs has been debated. in New York. Each kiosk has a slightly the public about the importance of an easy stroll to Wappinger’s Creek, However, the dividend from those different form to cue visitors to impor- good architecture and help create a which borders the site. The house has years is an important collection of tant motifs of the building. All seven shared public identity. been restored to original plans and postwar architecture by leading are made of translucent acrylics, alu- —Nina Rappaport includes all new stainless steel American architects. Urban Museum of minum and formed plastic and house a kitchen and appliances. Both are fur- Modern Architecture: New Haven is a built-in shelving system to hold take- KIOSK LOCATIONS: nished with classic Modern furniture. project designed to highlight New away pamphlets with the kiosk’s infor- Yale University Art Gallery, 1951-53. The house and studio were fea- Haven’s status as a living museum of mation. The pamphlets were designed Louis Kahn. tured recently in ECHOES magazine Modern Movement architecture and by Christine Moog, a graduate student Ingalls Hockey Rink, 1956-58. Eero (#38) and the house was one of the make the architecture of the period in the Graphics Department of Yale’s Saarinen. few examples of Breuer’s domestic more accessible to a broad audience. School of Art. Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript architecture featured in the Breuer Melissa Angell, a doctoral candi- All seven kiosks debuted at Dixwell Library, 1963. Gordon Bunshaft, SOM. exhibit at the Archives of American date in art history at Yale University Fire Station on September 14 during Yale University Art and Architecture Art Gallery. has spearheaded the project, which the Mayor’s “Start with the Arts” day. Building, 1958-63. Paul Rudolph. Full-year rental. $2,000/mo. plus features kiosks and printed brochures The following day they were moved to Crawford Manor Housing, 1962-1966. ultilities for each. at seven sites. Kiosks at the featured their corresponding buildings. The Paul Rudolph. David Diao (212) 925 6118 buildings (see list) include historical institution heads of all seven sites Yale Center for British Art and British [email protected] information about the building and its have agreed to host these kiosks and Studies, 1969-1977. Louis Kahn/ architect; important images, related brochures; in many cases, they have Pellacchia & Meyers. projects; a checklist of works by the also agreed to help fund them and to Dixwell Fire Station, 1967-1974. Venturi, architect in New Haven; and a site map take on the cost of keeping the Brown and Rauch. DOCOMOMO/WINTER 2002/11 LIKE THE NEWSLETTER? FRIDAY NOVEMBER 22 NEWSLETTER: 2002/No.2 THINK MODERN ARCHITECTURE IS The New York/Tri-State DOCOMOMO newsletter was made possible by WORTH A LITTLE EXPENSE? generous financial support from Please join DOCOMOMO US for 2003. As a wholly volun- DOCOMOMO BOOK EVENT Brent Harris, Los Angeles, and the teer organization we operate on the generous sharing volunteers below who contributed of time and energy by a good number of people. Yet, content for this issue. there are some things only money can buy. DOCOMOMO needs the resources to do more and do it more effec- John Arbuckle tively—and that means more paying members. John Morris Dixon Kimbro Frutiger A membership form in PDF is available at Michael Gotkin www.docomomo-us.org or email either of the addresses below requesting a form by email or standard mail. Jan Greben Hänsel Hernandez-Navarro Maija Kairamo DOCOMOMO NY/TRI-STATE Jeff Miles Theo Prudon EMAIL: [email protected] SEE PAGE 11 FOR BOOK DETAILS. Kathleen Randall MAIL: P.O. Box 250532, New York, NY 10025 Nina Rappaport DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State invites you to meet Hubert- Anne Schlechter Note! DOCOMOMO-US now has a separate address Jan Henket, co-founder of DOCOMOMO International and edi- Virginia Smith from the New York/Tri-State chapter. Please use the tor of Back From Utopia: The Challenge of the Modern Su Tamsett P.O. Box below for membership and general inquires. Movement. This is also an opportunity to see a Manhattan Caroline Rob Zaleski townhouse designed by Paul Rudolph and completed in the DOCOMOMO-US 1990s. The house will soon be opened as a study center for DOCOMOMO NY/Tri-State thanks the architect’s work. Books, which are not yet available in Polshek Partnership for generously EMAIL: [email protected] the US, will be for sale (cash or check only). providing monthly meeting space. MAIL: P.O. Box 230977, New York, NY 10023 6:00–8:00PM, PAUL RUDOLPH FOUNDATION WEB: www.docomomo-us.org 246 E. 58TH STREET

docomo mo US documentation and conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the modern movement

New York/Tri-State Chapter NEW YORK/TRI-STATE WINTER 2002 NEWSLETTER P.O. Box 250532 New York, NY 10025

GALLERY OF MODERN ART, E.D. STONE, 1964 PHOTO: ANNE SCHLECHTER. SEE P. 5 WHAT WILL THE AMERICAN CRAFT MUSEUM DO? momo to do list A DOCOMOMO NEW YORK/TRI-STATE ROUND UP OF WINTER EVENTS RELATED TO MODERN ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN.

Roger Ferri: Architectural Visionary park and a DJ station, all constructed of design. Because many of Le Corbusier’s EXHIBITIONS is based on an exhibition organized by foam core, plywood, steel, scavenged ideas were adapted and bastardized in the Southern Alleghenies Museum of street lumber and other unusal props. other buildings around the world, the Roger Ferri: Architectural Visionary Art in Loretto, PA, which Ferri designed The elements are connected by a net- original Unité now symbolizes both the Through December 21 in 1975. Many of the works are drawn work of roads navigated by remote con- integrity of modernism as well as its Wallach Art Gallery from the rich holdings of the Roger trol cars. subsequent corruption. Schermerhorn Hall Ferri archive in the Avery Architectural Nutsy’s was inspired by Le Covering approximately 4,000 sq.ft. Columbia University and Fine Arts Library at Columbia. Corbusier’s Unité d’Habitation housing Nutsy’s represents over two years of Wed.–Sat. 1:00pm to 5:00pm Ferri’s work can also be found in the block in Marseilles (1952). The 12-story Sach’s studio work. And at 9 x 12 feet, Architectural drawings, renderings, and collections of the Museum of Modern structure, designed to accommodate Sach’s Unité is the largest and most photographs by celebrated architect Art and the Cooper-Hewitt National 1,600 people was Le Corbusier’s proto- detailed model of this modern master- Roger Ferri (1949–1991) will be on display Design Museum. type postwar housing and a manifesta- piece ever built. at the Miriam and Ira D. Wallach Art For information, (212) 854-2877. tion of his belief that the housing crisis The exhibition will be presented at Gallery. The retrospective will include a could be solved through intelligent the Guggenheim Berlin in summer 2003. diverse selection of more than 75 The Twentieth Century Borough national and international projects, One Hundred Years of Modern including Pedestrian City, the Blum res- Architecture in Queens idence, and the Dai-Ichi Tokyo Bay Hotel. Through March 2 LE CORBUSIER EXHIBIT In addition, more than two dozen land- Queens Historical Society Le Corbusier before Le Corbusier: scape paintings and figurative works Kingsland Homestead Applied Arts, Architecture, Painting, will be shown, many of which reflect 143-35 37th Avenue, Flushing, NY and Photography, 1907–1922 Ferri’s immersion in Italian culture. Tues./Sat./Sun. 2:30–4:30pm Through February 23 The story of the changing facets of The Bard Graduate Center Modernism over a century of growth is Studies in the Decorative Arts, told through compelling vintage pho- Design, and Culture tography (including some rarely seen 18 West 86th Street images from Ezra Stoller and the ESTO archives). Queens saw two waves of The Bard Graduate Center will present Le Corbusier before Le Corbusier: Applied explosive growth in the last century Arts, Architecture, Painting, and Photography, 1907–1922, the first major exhibition that have come to define the physical to examine the formative years of Charles-Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) and make up of the borough. The two to illuminate the importance of the applied arts in the early development of Le decades after the First World War, fol- Corbusier's approach to architecture and design. Organized by the Bard Graduate lowed by the two decades after the Center in collaboration with the Langmatt Museum, Baden, Switzerland, the exhi- Second World War, saw the borough bition is curated by Stanislaus von Moos, professor of the history of modern art at transformed from a collection of inde- the University of Zurich, Switzerland, and Arthur Rüegg, professor of architecture pendent towns separated by acres and construction at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich. under cultivation to a sprawling arm of Over 250 works in applied arts, architecture drawing, and photography, will the metropolis. The “promise of focus on the period between 1907 and 1922 when Le Corbusier struggled to define Modernism” was played out in all that his artistic identity, first desiring to become a painter and then an architect and space creating a twentieth century bor- designer. The exhibition will provide a context for his work through paintings and ough shaped by larger social, political, drawings of Swiss and French artists of the period. Ferri’s architectural vision aimed to economic, and technological forces The exhibition begins with a collection of works related to the period of L’Esprit achieve a symbiosis between the built expressed in the local architecture and Nouveau, the publication Le Corbusier founded with Ozenfant in 1920. Furniture environment and nature. One of his planning of Queens. and other objects will be juxtaposed with architecture and well-known Le most innovative designs was for a cor- For information: (718) 939-0647 x.17 Corbusier paintings such as La Cheminée, 1918 from the , porate skyscraper in Manhattan (1976). Paris, and Nature Morte à la pile d'assiettes et au livre, 1920 from the MoMA, New The proposal included terraces and set- Nutsy’s: An Installation by Tom Sachs York City. Le Balustre, 1925 by Fernand Léger, will also be on loan from MoMA. backs featuring ponds, hillocks, mead- Through Spring 2003 The exhibition highlights Le Corbusier’s formative years as an architect sur- ows, and forested gorges, with water- Bohen Foundation rounded by the vernacular Swiss tradition and his discovery of neoclassicism and falls cascading to the street. His widely 415 W. 13th Street structural rationalism. Architectural models of the early work in La Chaux-de Fonds acclaimed ideas led to an invitation to Tues.-Fri. 12:00–5:00pm will enliven the exhibition along with a model of The Maison Dom-ino (1914–16) and participate in Transformations in www.tomsachs.org, (212) 334-2281 three other important commissions. A rare selection of drawings on loan to the Modern Architecture at the Museum of exhibition from the Fondation Le Corbusier in Paris illustrate his travels of 1911–the Modern Art in New York (1979), an exhi- Nutsy’s is a world in 1:25 scale. Elements Voyage d'Allemagne and Voyage d'Orient. Furniture and interiors of the homes of bition that explored the concept of of this world include models of Ernest Albert and Hermann Ditisheim, the Villa Jeanneret-Perret, and the Villa architecture’s movement beyond func- LeCorbusier’s Unité d’Habitation and Schwob will reveal how Jeanneret combined historical forms, particularly Empire tionalism. Ferri’s drawings for a pedes- Mies van der Rohe’s furniture, a and Directorate, and various architectural motifs with innovative design ideas. trian city proposed solutions for urban McDonald’s restaurant, a 10,000 watt FOR MORE INFORMATION: development in a “Post-Petroleum Age.” boom box, a ghetto, a modernist art (212) 501-3000 or www.bgc.bard.edu.

DOCOMOMO/SPRING 2002/CALENDAR momo to do list, cont.

were brought to life by the syncopated FURTHER AFIELD... rhythm of the different dimensions of 2 COLUMBUS CIRCLE SYMPOSIUM BEING PLANNED Windshield: Richard Neutra’s House aluminum posts, opening wings, and for the John Nicholas Brown Family moveable screens. Its wooden surfaces Two Columbus Circle: A Landmark Worthy of Being Saved? Heinz Architecture Center were protected by three layers of shiny A symposium sponsored by the Center for Architecture and Landmark West! aluminum paint. Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh The Huntington Hartford Building, also known as Two Columbus Circle, continues to Windshield housed what was proba- March through May 2003 make headlines and provoke heated debate among architects, historians, planners, bly the largest selection of furniture by and other stakeholders in its future. Designed by Edward Durell Stone and com- An exhibition exploring the design, con- the Finnish designer Alvar Aalto in the pleted in 1964 as the Gallery of Modern Art, the building has been reincarnated struction process, and role of a deeply US at the time and was one of a handful several times. involved client in the creation of of buildings in the country that used The building’s next life is about to begin (see page 5). Passions about the build- Richard Neutra’s first building on the engineer Buckminster Fuller’s prefabri- ing continue to run high, begging the still-vital question: Should Stone’s tenacious east coast will reopen at the Heinz cated bathroom. Perhaps the most col- icon—official Landmark or not—be treated with the same level of respect for its Architecture Center after traveling laborative of Richard Neutra’s designs, original design, form and materials that is typically reserved for buildings pro- from Harvard University’s Sackler Windshield is as important for the tected under New York’s Landmarks Law? What stands to be lost—or gained—if Museum to the Museum at the Rhode process that led to its creation as for its important aspects of this building are altered or destroyed? A panel is being Island School of Design and the many innovative features. Hundreds of formed to lead discussion on these questions in late January. More details avail- National Building Museum in telegrams, letters, and annotated draw- able soon through Landmark West! or the Center for Architecture. Washington, DC, during 2002. ings document the intense dialogue “Windshield,” the summer home for between John Nicholas Brown in the family of John Nicholas Brown on Providence and Richard Neutra in Los Fishers Island, New York, belongs to a Angeles. The Browns’ commitment to considered, including the William The Past and Future of the group of houses that helped to funda- modernity and experimentation guided Lescaze residence (1934), the Addo-X World Trade Center Site many decisions, especially their choices Showroom (Oskar Nitzcke, 1957), and Sundays, December 22 & 29, 2:00pm in artwork, furnishings, and equipment. the United States Mission to the United Nations (Kelly & Gruzen and Kahn & This Municipal Art Society tour will Including more than 130 original study the periphery of the World Trade renderings, sketches, photographs, Jacobs, 1961). Tour meets at the east entrance of Center site in an attempt to understand blueprints, and examples of the two- the scale of the devastation, talk about year-long correspondence between , between 49th and 50th Streets, and concludes at the UN. the history of the area and the remain- Neutra and John Nicholas Brown, the ing buildings, and consider the possibil- exhibition tells the story of Windshield’s $17 general/$12 seniors, students, and members of LW! ities for the area’s future. The goal is to creation and demise. Also on view will look at things in a systematic and his- WINDSHIELD, WEST FACADE, 1938. be a selection of furniture and artwork For reservations call Sonia Dutton (212) 501-3011 or [email protected]. torically informed manner, to gain PHOTO: COURTESY DION NEUTRA AND UCLA SPECIAL collected by the Brown family. The exhi- some perspective and stay up-to-date COLLECTIONS, YOUNG RESEARCH LIBRARY bition was organized by the Harvard Organized by The Bard Graduate Center in association with LANDMARK on planning proposals. Led by Francis University Art Museums in collaboration Morrone, architectural historian. Meet mentally redefine ideas about architec- with the Harvard Graduate School of WEST! and The Committee to Preserve the Upper West Side. at the S.E. corner of and Park ture and residential life in the 1930s. Design and the Museum at the Rhode Row, across the street from St. Paul’s Inspired both by developments in Island School of Design and was curated The 20th Century Borough Chapel. $15, $12 for MAS members. For Europe and by a strong desire to find by Dietrich Neumann, Thomas Michie more information: (212) 439-1049. genuine American expressions of and Brooke Hodge. Queens Exhibit via the #7 Train modernity, Windshield embraced a new Sunday, November 17 formal language, employed new mate- WALKING TOURS 10:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. rials and technologies, and ultimately This Municipal Art Society tour, cospon- DOCOMOMO EVENTS offered its owners a new way of life, tai- Le Corbusier in Manhattan sored by the Queens Historical Society lored to their tastes, wishes, and inter- Sunday, November 17 and the , is a ests. The architect, Richard Neutra, an 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. trek from Manhattan to Flushing on the NOVEMBER 22 Austrian émigré, was considered the #7 train to visit “The Twentieth Century Back From Utopia Le Corbusier visited New York City on most promising innovator in American Borough: 100 Years of Modern Book Signing three occasions: first in 1935 during a architecture at the time and its most Architecture in Queens” at the Queens Paul Rudolph Foundation lecture tour, and later in 1946 and 1947 6:00–8:00 p.m. articulate spokesman. Historical Society. Urban demographer as a member of the design team for the Windshield contrasted dramatically Jack Eichenbaum will track history in United Nations Headquarters. Archi- SEE PAGE 11 with the traditional houses on Fishers situ from the #7 train while architec- tectural historian Matthew Postal will Island, which were typically steeply tural historian and curator John recount Le Corbusier’s impressions of JANUARY 23, 2003 roofed Victorian mansions or were in Kriskiewicz will lead a tour of the exhib- the city he described as “violently Modernism and Its Reception: the style of French châteaus. Rather it. Transit en route to Queens courtesy alive” by visiting sites and buildings Le Corbusier in New York City than evoke distant times and places, of MTA. Meet at S.W. corner of Fifth associated with the architect, his A Lecture by Mardges Bacon Windshield presented a subtle balance Avenue and 42nd Street. Fee: $15, $12 friends, and rivals. Modern master- Bard Graduate Center of mass and void and of bright and for MAS members, includes exhibit pieces and examples of buildings shaded areas under its flat roof and admission. inspired by Le Corbusier’s work that SEE PAGE 5 within its rectilinear layout. The long, For more information: (212) 439-1049. horizontal rows of casement windows deserve greater recognition will be

DOCOMOMO/SPRING 2002/CALENDAR