NEW YORK | TRI-STATE 2012 no. 2 Contents MODERN LANDMARKS AT VASSAR DEAR FRIENDS 3 The Vassar College campus in Poughkeepsie, NY, was indirect lighting bounced off severe white ceiling CHATHAM GREEN AT FIFTY 4 launched with a massive all-purpose Main Building in planes. Glass block inserts in interior partitions echo the French Second Empire mode (James Renwick, Jr., the grid pattern of the ample Gothic Revival windows. VILLA TUGENDHAT CELEBRATED 6 1865), which remains the iconic center of its campus. The interior-exterior split here apparently contrasts THE MARGINS: GUERON, LEPP But styles of subsequent buildings include Collegiate the progressive interests of the arts faculty with the & ASSOCIATES REHAB CENTER 7 Gothic, Jacobean, Georgian Revival—you name it. And college's demand for consistency on the exterior. among these stylistically varied specimens are some After this library, Vassar added hardly any new ROCHESTER’S TUBE TOWERS 8 scattered gems of mid-century Modernism. facilities until the 1951 completion of a landmark of MIDTOWN MODERN: CONTEXT, Vassar's earliest example of Modernism is strictly an Modernism, the Dexter Ferry Cooperative House by FILMS AND THE FUTURE 10 interior, but it is notable for its purity and for its com- Marcel Breuer. The donor chose Breuer, providing one pletion date of 1937. This suite of rooms, the school's of his earliest commissions for other than single-family MODERN LIBRARY 12 art history library, looks as if it were retrofitted in an houses. The building housed 26 students (all female, DISAPPEARING INTERIORS 14 older structure, but was in fact created simultaneously as Vassar didn't become coed until 1969) who carried with its Collegiate Gothic exterior. It is located in a wing out their own domestic duties. Ferry was originally to of the Gothic main library and designed by successors be located among older, traditional dorms but, facing to that building's designers, Allen Collens & Willis. The objections to its avant-garde design, the board of pioneering Modernist interior was designed by John trustees moved it to a less visible site behind Main, an For timely news sign McAndrew, with Theodore Muller. McAndrew was then area then dominated by the campus power plant and up for our monthly both a Vassar faculty member and successor to Philip other utilitarian structures. “News+Events” email Johnson as curator of architecture at the Museum of The building is a textbook example of the Inter- Modern Art—and he had accompanied Johnson on a national Style, as adopted for American construction. WWW.DOCOMOMO-NYTRI.ORG 1929 scouting trip to Europe. Student rooms are laid out in one long bar, hovering at The rigorously functional space, faithfully restored in the second level, with ground-floor common spaces 2008 by Platt Byard Dovell White Architects, has cork slipped partly underneath it. Breuer designed cabinet- floors, metal shelving finished in a muted blue, and continued Contribute online: JOHN ARBUCKLE WWW.DOCOMOMO-NYTRI.ORG yellow “donate” link on homepage or WWW.NYCHARITIES.ORG search on “DOCOMOMO New York” Contact: NEW YORK/TRI-STATE CHAPTER [email protected] www.docomomo-nytri.org P.O. Box 250532 New York, NY 10025 DOCOMOMO US [email protected] www.docomomo-us.org Noyes House dormitory, Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1958. VASSAR CONTINUED work for the rooms and specified furnishings such as quadrants of the Circle, but only this one was built. Saarinen chairs and Knoll fabrics. A 2002 restoration by Noyes House is a notable example of Saarinen's Herbert Beckhard Frank Richlan & Associates, successors efforts to reconcile Modernism with its architectural Welcome to Breuer's firm, included delayed execution of the origi- context. The scale and materials of neighboring build- nal landscape plan. ings are echoed in the four-story, brick-walled structure. With its small scale and its palette of white-painted Full-height angular projecting bays recall the verticality brick and wood, metal sunshades, and flagstone paving, and delicacy of Gothic precedents. These are juxtaposed DOCOMOMO NY/Tri-state’s commu- Ferry has always looked somewhat out of place in its insti- to rigorously Modern cast-in-place entrance canopies. nications objective is to keep you in tutional setting. Until recent years, its siting appeared to (Saarinen's roughly contemporaneous women's dorms the know about Modern architecture be strangely random, at the University of Chicago and the University of in our region—be it a lecture next but better integration Pennsylvania make no such bows to traditional architec- week, a building facing demolition into the campus has ture, but the Stiles and Morse residential colleges at or the whereabouts of cool Modern now been accomplished Yale, following these in 1962, respond to their context buildings you didn’t know existed. by the Fergusson Quad- with overtly Medieval allusions.) We’ve got a few options for you: rangle (landscape archi- JOHN MORRIS DIXON Noyes's first-floor parlor is an all-white space, punc- tect Diana Balmori, tuated by swoopy structural supports revealing the Print. You have it in your hands. 2003) a minimalist rec- expressionist tendencies embodied in the TWA and Longer articles about wide-ranging tangle of sunken lawn Dulles terminals. A signature feature of this space is the topics, short notes about hot books framed at one end by and advocacy after-action reports. the Center for Drama Written by members and friends of and Film (Cesar Pelli & DOCOMOMO, the newsletter has Assoc., 2003) and on been our mainstay since 1999. the long side by Ferry. JOHN ARBUCKLE Social. Like to comment and quickly share things that pique your interest? Look for moderately pro- voking commentary, last-minute announcements, event photos and WALLEN JONATHAN more on our Facebook page. www.facebook.com/docomomonytri Website. It’s our organizational archive and central news service. Noyes House, Eero Saarinen & Associates, 1958. “News” posts are the best way to keep up on advocacy issues. sunken seating area, dubbed the "passion pit" by stu- “Calendar” is the place to find your dents when it appeared, similar in concept to those in Modern architecture entertainments. Art history library, Allen Collens & Willis; interior architects, Saarinen's Miller House and the TWA terminal (allowing John McAndrew, with Theodore Muller, 1937. a group to occupy the center of a space without obstruct- Email. Once a month we’ll send ing the view across it). Complete with white-pedestaled current news and event announce- Modernism at full institutional scale arrived in 1958, Saarinen tables and chairs, the room was authentically ments collated from a plethora of with Noyes House by Eero Saarinen & Associates. A restored in 2000 by Leonard Parker of Minneapolis, who organizations right to your inbox. dormitory for 156 students, it was prominently located— had worked on it in Saarinen's office. We’re told email is old hat. Must be unlike Ferry—near most of the other dorms. Its design Following closely after Noyes House was Chicago Hall why our subscriber list continues to was closely integrated with its location on the Circle, an (Schweikher & Elting, 1959) designed to house Vassar's grow. We’re polite and we never open space 500 feet in diameter, laid out in 1864 as an modern language departments—and still doing so. Paul share email addresses. Visit exercise field surrounded by a track for running or riding. Schweikher is not well-known today, but his work had www.docomomo-nytri.org to sign up Saarinen drew up a master plan for this portion of the been included in the landmark 1933 Museum of Modern or use the QR code on page 1. campus, showing two arc-shaped dormitories along two Art exhibit that heralded the International Style, and in Modern architecture news. Have it 1959 he was head of the Architecture Department at the your way. Let it inspire you. Write an Carnegie Institute of Technology, having previously held article, attend events, plan a tour, the same post at Yale. (His partnership with Elting dis- advocate, donate. solved soon after this project, and his national visibility diminished.) —Kathleen Randall, editor JOHN ARBUCKLE Occupying a fairly central position on the campus, Chicago is an unassertive one-story structure. Its site was originally quite open, but it is now overshadowed by extensions of the main library (more about that below). Its cast-in-place structural frame features shallow vaults spanning only 6 ft. 8 in., with one bay allotted to each faculty office, two to each of the intimate language class- rooms, and several for an auditorium. Interior gardened courtyards assure daylight for every room. The building's Dexter Ferry Cooperative House, Marcel Breuer, 1951. DOCOMOMO / 2012 No. 2 / 2 JOHN ARBUCKLE dear friends, This is my first time writing this column. We rotated our board roles in May 2012 and I became chapter president. Nina Rappaport, a founding board member and long-serving president, has become a vice president focusing on development. We are very grateful to Nina for her many years of leadership and service to DOCOMOMO and her effective advocacy on behalf of Modern architecture. Chicago Hall, Schweikher & Elting, 1959. I am proud to also announce that we added two new members to our Board of Directors. John Kriskiewicz is a recognized architectural historian, educator and tour guide who has bristling air conditioning units are a reminder that cool- been actively involved in local preservation advocacy. Marissa Marvelli, a graduate of ing systems were rarely provided for school buildings of Columbia’s graduate program in Historic Preservation, has already enhanced our communi- the 1950s. cations program, most notably by giving NY/Tri-State a Facebook presence. Some other Modernist insertions into the campus I would also like to acknowledge the contributions of our dedicated continuing board have not fared as well.