Metropolitan Useum Of

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Metropolitan Useum Of Miss Oahlll THE ETROPOLITAN NEWS USEUM OF ART FOR M RELEASE Tuesday, June 9, 1959 FIFTH AYE.at 82 STREET • NEW YORK TR 9-5500 Press View: Monday, June 8, 2-4:30 p.m. FORM GIVERS AT MID-CENTURY TO SHOW WORK OF MAJOR ARCHITECTS A comprehensive exhibition defining the role played by thirteen leading architects of our time, FORM GIVERS AT MID-CENTURY, will be seen during the summer at The Metropolitan Museum of Art where it will open on June 9. The exhibition was organized by Cranston Jones, Associate Editor, Time, The Weekly Newsmagazine, prepared by The American Federation of Arts and sponsored by Time. FORM GIVERS AT MID-CENTURY, which was introduced in an abridged form at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington on the occasion of the 50th Anniversary Convention of The American Federation of Arts, will be on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art through September 6. During a two-year tour of the United States it will also be shown in Boston, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, Richmond, Chicago, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and elsewhere. Significant form has been achieved and can be judged; new problems both of forms and function now loom on the horizon. The world of architecture is a ferment of achievement and new creative solutions. Behind this exhibition is the real­ ization that architecture -- whether it is "the great spirit" as conceived by Frank Lloyd Wright, or a cultural confluence of technology and artistic factors -- has reached a stage of high fulfillment within the United States. The American Federation of Arts asked Time , as its contribution to A F A's 50th Anniversary, to sponsor this exhibition and to assist in assembling material that v/ould convey the achievements of architecture at mid-century. Among the architects and buildings to be featured are: (more) Form Givers at Mid-Century--2 R. Buckminster Fuller The Union Tank Car Company Round-House, Baton Rouge, La., 1958 Walter Gropius The United States Embassy at Athens, Greece, 1960 Wallace K. Harrison First Presbyterian Church, Stamford, Conn., 1958 Philip C. Johnson Glass House, New Canaan, Conn., 1949 Eero Saarinen T. W. A. Terminal, Idlewild, 1959-1960 Skidmore, Owings & Merrill Banque Lambert, Brussels, 1960 Edward D. Stone The United States Embassy at New Delhi, India, 1958-1959 UNESCO Secretariat, Paris, 1958-1959 Marcel Breuer, Pier Luigi Nervi, Bernard Zehrfuss Ludwig Mies van der Rohe House of Seagram, New York City, 1958-1959 Frank Lloyd Wright The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City, 1959 Works by Louis Sullivan, as an early pioneer, Richard Neutra, Alvar Aalto and Le Corbusier are also shown. The exhibition focuses primarily on one major work by each of the featured architects and includes models, both color and black-and-white photographs and small drawings in plan and elevation, accompanied by appropriate and brief text. Around the featured buildings are grouped relevant previous designs which serve to elucidate the main work and place it in historical perspective. Actual materials, such as glass, grilles, bronze mullions, concrete bricks and other elements used in construction are included. Architect Pietro Belluschi, Dean of the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Trustee of The American Federation of Arts, has written the preface for the exhibition catalog. The exhibition was designed by Gyorgy Kepes, Professor of Visual Design at M. I. T. and author of The New Landscape in Art and Science and The Language of Vision. ono.. .
Recommended publications
  • The Challenges of a Transformation, Francis Rambert
    THE CHALLENGES OF A TRANSFORMATION FRANCIS RAMBERT The 57 Métal became the Métal 57… A subtle shift for an unprecedented transition. In its zinc shell, the building had a hard skin but was supple enough to undertake a new molt- ing. The sole vestige of a major urbanism project in Boulogne-Billancourt, the industrial building is readying itself to undergo a deep mutation. At the heart of this resolutely ser- vice-oriented conversion, the architecture will remain. It is the common thread of a scenario marked by twists and turns. For the last century, the city of Boulogne-Billancourt has acted as an architecture labora- tory following the example of the 16th arrondissement in Paris, that adjoining district that took part in many 20th-century architectural experiments, from Hector Guimard to Roger Taillibert as well as Auguste Perret and Robert Mallet-Stevens. Opting for the Art Deco movement, the city of Boulogne-Billancourt would make its city center a modernist area in the 1930s. Its city hall, designed by Tony Garnier, is considered a flagship of this wave of progress, a dynamic initiated by singular houses built around the Roland Garros ten- nis stadium. Near the elegant hard court arena, studio-residences, villas and other houses emerged designed by Le Corbusier, Mallet-Stevens, Patout, Niermans, Pingusson… that make this area an ensemble of very high-quality architecture and a beautiful sequence of modernity. Far from the chic neighborhoods, on the Billancourt side, it was the entire Renault site that was transformed alongside the Seine as of 1923. The mutation of the Île Seguin, its rais- ing to fend off post-1910 flash floods, made this factory-island an archetype unique in the world: an ocean liner-island floating in the curve of the river.
    [Show full text]
  • La Défense: from Axial Hierarchy to Open System
    LA DÉFENSE 111 La Défense: From Axial Hierarchy to Open System NICHOLAS ROBERTS Woodbury University Utopian Predecessors: Le Corbusier and the the Seine to the CNIT (Centre des Nouvelles Indus- Rosenthal Competition tries et Technologies), branching out across the pe- ripheral roadway to connect the outlying towers.2 The beginnings of development at La Défense are rooted in the utopian modernism of the 1920’s. The The final plan, approved March 7, 1963, and im- developer Leonard Rosenthal included Le Corbusier plemented in 1964, shows the office buildings as in a 1929 competition he organized for the land high-rise towers, and the residential blocks as re- near the Porte Maillot surrounding the Place de la ticulated slabs, similar to Le Corbusier’s design for Demi-Lune, which would later become La Défense. the Leonard Rosenthal competition, and for his City In Le Corbusier’s sketches and notes for the com- for 3 Million of 1922. Residents all have access to petition we see him incorporating the ideas that he large expanses of landscaped open area, or tapis had developed in his Ville Contemporaine of 1922 vert, and urban space sweeps freely and uncon- and published in his book Urbanisme, of 1925: Two tained round the isolated slabs and towers. high-rise office towers frame the view of the Arc de Triomphe down the Le Nôtre axis; raised pedestri- The 1964 plan proposed a tabula rasa approach to an plazas continue over the street; reticulated mid- urban development, EPAD would purchase 760 ha rise slabs, that Le Corbusier called lotissements in the communities of Courbevoie, Puteaux, and à redents, frame the base of the towers, housing Nanterre; the existing fabric of small factories, art- residential apartments or immeubles villas.1 ists’ studios, restaurants and bars would be com- pletely demolished.
    [Show full text]
  • La Défense / Zone B (1953-91): Light and Shadows of the French Welfare State Pierre Chabard
    71 La Défense / Zone B (1953-91): Light and Shadows of the French Welfare State Pierre Chabard The business district of La Défense, with its luxu- The history of La Défense Zone B during the rious office buildings, is a typical example of the second half of the twentieth century gives a very French version of welfare state policy1: centralism, clear - and even caricatural - illustration not only of modernism, and confusion between public and the urban and architectural consequences of the private elites.2 This district was initially planned in French welfare state - both positive and negative 1958 by the Etablissement Public d’Aménagement - but also of its crisis, which emerged in the 1970s de la région de La Défense (EPAD), the first such and influenced the development of other types of planning organism controlled by the state. But this urban governance and planning. Therefore, Zone B district, called Zone A (130 ha), constitutes only a offers a relevant terrain for analysing relationships small part of the operational sector of the EPAD; between the political and architectural aspects of the other part, Zone B (620 ha), coincides with the this history since the end of World War II. Indeed, northern part of the city of Nanterre, capital of the this case study suggests a rather unexpected double Hauts-de-Seine district. Characterized for a long assumption: while French architecture of the 1950s time by agriculture and market gardening, this city and 1960s is generally considered by architectural underwent a strong process of industrialization history as pompous, authoritarian and subjected to at the turn of the twentieth century, welcoming a power, here it can appear incredibly free, inventive great number of workers and immigrants, a popula- and experimental.
    [Show full text]
  • Heritage Alert Issued by the ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20Th Century Heritage
    ISC20C HERITAGE ALERT TEMPLATE ICOMOS International Scientific Committee on 20th Century Heritage EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The impending destruction of the Novartis - Sandoz headquarters, located 14 Boulevard Richelieu, in Rueil-Malmaison, West of Paris, will deprive us of a remarkable element of the architecture and landscape of the twentieth century. Built in 1968, it is barely 45 years old, and displays a stylish modernity remarkably designed and implemented by the architects Martin Burckhardt & Bernard Zehrfuss, assisted by the ingenious constructive thinking of Jean Prouvé (1901-1984). Conceived in order to respect the harmony of the wooded landscape and the pond, the extreme unweighting of the structure and the façade panels is a witness of the latest –and patented- improvements by Jean Prouvé in the implementation of curtain walls in aluminum and glass products. Two 4-storey parallelepipeds offices and laboratories and a polygonal restaurant (interiors by Charlotte Perriand) were gently inserted into the remains of the old castle of Richelieu (17th century), rebuilt in the 19th century, in a landscape lightly remodeled by Vilmorin including a large pond involved in the supply of the river Seine. This significant complex is an example of the creative genius of post-war boom French and Swiss architectural engineering and it justifies the dissemination of an international Heritage Alert. The Alert must be an instrument to ask the building owners, national and local authorities to do whatever is needed to save this complex of high architectural value and representative of the 1960’s. A new project, designed by architect Patrick Berger is proposed to start on the 10th of July 2013.
    [Show full text]
  • Aesthetics and the Single Building Landmark
    Tulsa Law Review Volume 15 Issue 3 Energy Symposium Spring 1980 Aesthetics and the Single Building Landmark Linda Pinkerton Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Linda Pinkerton, Aesthetics and the Single Building Landmark, 15 Tulsa L. J. 610 (2013). Available at: https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr/vol15/iss3/11 This Casenote/Comment is brought to you for free and open access by TU Law Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Tulsa Law Review by an authorized editor of TU Law Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Pinkerton: Aesthetics and the Single Building Landmark NOTES AND COMMENTS AESTHETICS AND THE SINGLE BUILDING LANDMARK What to one man is food is to another rank poison. Lucretius* I. INTRODUCTION For good reason, zoning for aesthetics alone has been disallowed in the United States. Historically, state and local regulation of land use solely for aesthetic purposes has been struck down as unconstitutional' because it has been considered to be outside the limits of the state po- lice power, and impermissible under the fifth and fourteenth amend- ments to the United States Constitution. This argument rests mainly on two premises. The first is that "beauty" cannot be defined by any- one, much less by a collection of individuals.' The second premise is that whatever "beauty" may be, it changes so quickly that nothing bet- ter than a fleeting definition can be agreed upon? The courts, in hold- ing legislation based entirely on aesthetics to be unconstitutional, have avoided discussing or deciding the issue of what is aesthetically pleas- * DE RERUM NATURA, IV, 637.
    [Show full text]
  • FICHE NOVARTIS Anglais3
    FICHE DOCOMOMO 1- IDENTITY OF THE BUILDING OR GROUP Building's original name : Headquarters and laboratories of Sandoz, Rueil-Malmaison 92 Current Name : Housing complex Novartis, Rueil-Malmaison 92 (Departments Novartis Animal Health and Novartis Consumer Health are located on the site.) Name and street number : 14 boulevard de Richelieu City : Rueil-Malmaison Zip Code : 92500 Country : France CURRENT OWNER Name : Novartis Address: Head Office: 2 rue Lionel Terray _92500 Rueil Malmaison Departments and Novartis Animal Health Novartis Consumer Health: 14 boulevard de Richelieu 92845 Rueil-Malmaison Cedex Phone / Fax / Email: Head Office: Tel. : 33(0)1 55 47 60 00 Fax: 33(0)1 55 47 60 50 E-mail: [email protected] Web site: www.fr.novartis.com . Novartis Animal Health tel: 33 (0)1 55478747. Novartis Consumer Health SAS tel : 33 (0)1 55 47 80 00 PROTECTION STATUS Located within a classified area in the field of Malmaison, this property was built in the former area of Richelieu Park, listed in the Inventory of Historical Sites (August 2, 1946). A statement on "Novartis Garden Address: 14 Boulevard Richelieu. Type: General Inventory of Cultural Heritage (prior documentation). Period: 2nd quarter of the 17th century & 20th century. Year of construction: 1633. Appears on the list of historic “jardins remarquables” - monuments and protected buildings in the city of Rueil. None of the buildings owned by Novartis can be altered or demolished without prior advice of the Architect of the Buildings in France. A DEMOLITION PERMIT PENDING In the fall of 2010, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (DRAC) Ile de France sought advice from Christine Desmoulins – a historian and author of a thesis and a book on the work of the architect Zehrfuss- because the main building overlooking the boulevard de Richelieu was highly threatened.
    [Show full text]
  • Mapping the International Education of Architects from Colombia (1930–1970)
    $UFKLWHFWXUDO Botti, G 2017 Geographies for Another History: Mapping the International Education of Architects from Colombia (1930–1970). Architectural Histories, 5(1): 7, pp. 1–35, +LVWRULHV DOI: https://doi.org/10.5334/ah.230 RESEARCH ARTICLE Geographies for Another History: Mapping the International Education of Architects from Colombia (1930–1970) Giaime Botti The history of Colombian architecture is poorly understood. This article maps the educational geographies of over 200 Colombian architects between the late 1920s and 1970, examining the historical, geopolitical, and disciplinary shifts that contributed to the international advancement of Colombian architecture. In the 1940s mobility was reoriented from Europe to the USA, while in the 1950s Brazil supplanted these destinations, becoming the main Latin American pole for Colombian student architects, and the Brazilian modernist repertoire was subsequently diffused in Colombia. This article revises long-held ideas about the architectural historiography of Colombia, expanding the geographical scope of the country’s leading architects to reveal the significance of the Americas in their education. Introduction increasingly trained abroad in the next decades. However, In the 1950s, the historians Jorge Arango and Carlos the educational background of Colombian architects has Martínez acknowledged the diverse, international been largely neglected.2 Only recently has the subject of background of 20th-century Colombian architects Colombian architectural education been addressed, in as an
    [Show full text]
  • CIAB 8. VIII Congreso Internacional Arquitectura Blanca
    210 CIAB 8 CÁTEDRA BLANCA VALENCIA · EDITORIAL UNIVERSITAT POLITÈCNICA DE VALÈNCIA 8º Congreso Internacional de Arquitectura Blanca, Valencia, 7, 8 y 9 de Marzo de 2018 Turning Point at the UNESCO Headquarters Crossed Influences Between Pier Luigi Nervi and Marcel Lajos Breuer Martín Fuentes, Javier BAU International Berlin University of Applied Sciences. [email protected] https://doi.org/10.4995/CIAB8.2018.7424 Abstract: The history of architecture is closely linked to the evolution Two men and one destiny and the use of materials. Concrete was the most important material of the 20th century, becoming the medium for a new architecture. The architect Marcel Breuer, born in Hungary in 1902, died as an Many different architects not only relied on the use of concrete as American citizen in 1981. Having been trained at the Bauhaus in their main mode of expression but also got involved in the quest for Weimar under the long-lasting patronage of Walter Gropius, he a new architectural language for the so-called new material. Pier immigrated to the United States in 1937 due to World War II, af- Luigi Nervi and Marcel Breuer are not only among the great archi- ter spending three years working in England. In the United States, tects of the last century, but above all, they are masters of concrete, he first lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he taught at both developing extensive bodies of work based on the use of the the Graduate School of Design (GSD) at Harvard University from material. 1938 to 1946. He was at the GSD not by chance, but because at the time, the Department of Architecture was directed by Gropius.
    [Show full text]
  • B E Rn a Rd Z E H Rfu Ss, Le H a U T-D U -Liè V Re , N a N Cy , Fra N Ce , 1 9 5
    Bernard Zehrfuss, Le Haut-du-Lièvre, Nancy, France, 1958-1962. © Joseph Abram, 1976. ESSAYS Modernity and housing production in France after WWII BY JOSEPH ABRAM After the collapse of 1940 and Occupation (1940-1944), France experienced a remarkable renewal after Liberation in 1944. Through reconstruction and intensive efforts to bring the country out of the housing crisis, the State set up a powerful production system, which based the expansion of the building sector on the con- centration of investment in large companies. It was the era of the grands ensembles, of heavy prefabrication and giant construction sites. Initially well received by their inhabitants, these large housing complexes rapidly deteriorated and became ghettos. Despite the social difficulties that beset these neighborhoods, how can this important heritage of modernity be preserved today? An Industrial housing policy with the companies Boussiron and Froment-Clavier. The France was confronted, during the 1950s, with a serious second prize was awarded to Bernard Zehrfuss (1911-1996), housing crisis. Since 1945, the State had dealt with this emer- the third went to Jean-Louis Fayeton (1908-1968), and the gency. Reconstruction, despite its exceptional dynamism, was fourth to Le Corbusier (1887-1965), who responded to the unable to stem the mechanisms of a chronic shortage, which, program by dividing the 800 housing units into two unités already worrying during the 1930s, had been amplified by d’habitation comparable to the one in Marseille (1947-1952, the destruction caused by WWII and the demographic surge and so then still under construction) and a 50 meter (m) high 65 — 2021/2 of Liberation.
    [Show full text]
  • HYBRIDITES ARCHITECTURALES EN TUNISIE ET AU MAROC AU TEMPS DES PROTECTORATS : ORIENTALISME, REGIONALISME ET MEDITERRANEISME Charlotte Jelidi
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Archive Ouverte a LUniversite Lyon 2 HYBRIDITES ARCHITECTURALES EN TUNISIE ET AU MAROC AU TEMPS DES PROTECTORATS : ORIENTALISME, REGIONALISME ET MEDITERRANEISME Charlotte Jelidi To cite this version: Charlotte Jelidi. HYBRIDITES ARCHITECTURALES EN TUNISIE ET AU MAROC AU TEMPS DES PROTECTORATS : ORIENTALISME, REGIONALISME ET MEDITER- RANEISME. Emilie Destaing, Anna Trazzi. Architectures au Maroc et en Tunisie `al'´epoque coloniale, 2009, Tunisie. Bononia University Press, 2, pp.42-62, 2010. <halshs-00641468> HAL Id: halshs-00641468 https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00641468 Submitted on 15 Nov 2011 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L'archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destin´eeau d´ep^otet `ala diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publi´esou non, lished or not. The documents may come from ´emanant des ´etablissements d'enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche fran¸caisou ´etrangers,des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou priv´es. HYBRIDITES ARCHITECTURALES EN TUNISIE ET AU MAROC AU TEMPS DES PROTECTORATS : ORIENTALISME, REGIONALISME ET MEDITERRANEISME Charlotte JELIDI Charlotte Jelidi est historienne de l’art, chercheure post-doctorante à l’Institut de Recherche sur le Maghreb Contemporain à Tunis où elle dirige le programme intitulé : « Contribution par l’archive, au renouveau de l’histoire coloniale. Evolution des villes maghrébines sous domination française et italienne. Urbanisme, architecture, patrimoine ». Elle est l’auteur de plusieurs articles sur la politique patrimoniale et la fabrication de la ville nouvelle de Fès durant la période coloniale.
    [Show full text]
  • Tunisia, 1940-1970: the Spatial Politics of Reconstruction, Decolonization, and Development
    TUNISIA, 1940-1970: THE SPATIAL POLITICS OF RECONSTRUCTION, DECOLONIZATION, AND DEVELOPMENT Nancy Nabeel Aly Demerdash A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE FACULTY OF PRINCETON UNIVERSITY IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY RECOMMENDED FOR ACCEPTANCE BY THE DEPARTMENT OF ART & ARCHAEOLOGY Adviser: Esther da Costa Meyer, Ph.D. November 2015 © Copyright by Nancy Nabeel Aly Demerdash, 2015. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. i ABSTRACT This dissertation investigates the dialectical discourses of modernism and the vernacular in Tunisian architectural and urban projects, from the late French protectorate into the period of independence, 1940-1970. With a particular focus on issues of habitation and heritage, this project tracks the reorganization of social space in the reconstruction efforts of the postwar French colonial administration and the architectural and patrimonial discourses of the Tunisian nation-state that came into existence in 1956. In an era that witnessed mass-scale land expropriations, rural-urban migrations, and popular anti-colonial sentiment, this project traces the material effects of Tunisians’ displacements and urban adaptations to their rapidly changing socio-political condition. Underscoring the dialectics intrinsic to the postwar notion of development, namely, tensions between formal and informal settlements, vernacular building traditions and prefabrication methods, and patrimonial preservation and erasure, this dissertation explores the ideological negotiations of architectural progress in the longue durée of decolonization. Throughout this tumultuous period, social housing projects sprouted in parallel with the spread of gourbivilles (earthen dwellings) and bidonvilles (‘tin can’ towns) on the outskirts of Tunisia’s urban centers. Both colonial and postcolonial institutional and state-led reckonings with vernacular architecture forwarded not only modernist building agendas, but promoted primitivizing mythologies of local construction techniques, rooted in racist attitudes towards the purportedly backward indigène.
    [Show full text]
  • Archiwebture Base De Données D'inventaires Du Centre D'archives De L'ifa
    Archiwebture Base de données d'inventaires du Centre d'archives de l'Ifa https://archiwebture.citedelarchitecture.fr Fonds Zehrfuss, Bernard (1911-1996) Présentation Notice biographique Bernard Zerhfuss est né à Angers le 20 octobre 1911 et décédé le 3 juillet 1996 à Paris. Il entre à l'ENSBA dans l'atelier Pontremoli en 1928. Diplômé en 1939, il obtient le premier Grand Prix de Rome la même année avec un projet de palais pour l'Empire colonial français. Assistant d'Eugène Beaudouin alors basé à Marseille, il participe entre 1941 et 1943 au groupe d’Oppède, communauté d'artistes et d'architectes où se rencontrent également Etienne-Martin, Stahly, Max Ernst ou Jean Le Couteur. Chargé en 1943 d'évaluer les dommages de guerre au Maroc et en Algérie, Bernard Zehrfuss est ensuite nommé architecte en chef du gouvernement tunisien. Menant les études d'urbanisme de Tunis, Bizerte et Sfax, il est également l'auteur du service ophtalmologique de l'hôpital de Tunis, de l'internat du collège Sadiki à Khasnadar, et du champ de course de Cassar Saïd. De retour en France en 1948, il se distingue notamment avec la construction de bâtiments industriels (imprimerie Mame à Tours, 1948-1951, usine Renault à Flins, 1951, toutes deux en collaboration avec Jean Prouvé), de logements (grand ensemble du Haut-du-Lièvre à Nancy, 1959-1963) ou d'ambassades (ambassade du Danemark à Paris, 1968, ambassade de France à Varsovie, 1962-1970, avec Henry Bernard et Guillaume Gillet), – cette dernière récemment réhabilitée par l'architecte Jean-Philippe Pargade, 2000-2005. Unanimement salué pour le palais du CNIT à La Défense (1953-1958, avec Robert Camelot et Jean de Mailly, et les ingénieurs Nicolas Esquillan et Jean Prouvé), pour les bâtiments IV, V et VI de l'Unesco à Paris (1952-1980, avec Marcel Breuer et Pier-Luigi Nervi) et pour le musée de la Civilisation gallo-romaine à Lyon (1976), Bernard Zehrfuss multiplie également les reconnaissances officielles.
    [Show full text]