Welcome to the second installment of the 2024 Special Edition! We are excited to share the following articles and photo essay, which highlight Eero Saarinen鈥檚 outsize influence on corporate modern architecture; the impact of Formica on Cincinnati and other businesses; and how American corporate campuses influenced similar developments in Canada.

I spent an entire day wandering the atrium and manicured outdoor walkways feeling, thinking, and seeing what I imagined Eero Saarinen wanted (or didn鈥檛 want!) the inhabitants of this building to see and feel and think, my camera searching for compositions and forms that I hoped would reveal a version of the building that wasn鈥檛 the current and familiar depiction of the place. Saarinen鈥檚 design impresses as much as it provokes; the otherworldly reflections off the facade; the blissfully smooth curves of the sunken granite lobby and stairways; the linear walkways that seem to float along the perimeter of the atrium like walkways on a ship鈥檚 deck. You can鈥檛 help but feel transported聽鈥� time moves differently within the space聽鈥� and I wanted to try and capture this essence.

In 1949, General Motors officially announced its intention to construct a centralized product development campus, called the 鈥淕eneral Motors Technical Center;鈥� the site would finally co-locate all the disparate research, engineering, design and manufacturing activities that had outgrown its previous homes into one cohesive site. The press release read: 鈥淎rchitecturally, the buildings will be of unique design, both modern and functional in concept,鈥� 鈥� now an enormous understatement given the legacy of the Eero Saarinen-designed campus and its influence on industrial architecture.

Whether it鈥檚 big box chain stores or anonymous manufacturing facilities, wide, flat-faced buildings are a common sight on the route into Rochester, Minnesota, from the north. About five miles from downtown, the IBM Manufacturing & Training Facility has a similar boxy massing to other buildings on the street but has a distinctive blue facade pattern. From the air, the vast scale of this building can start to be understood 鈥� in fact, when viewed from above, it resembles a computer chip. IBM Rochester is still the largest IBM facility under one roof, enclosing 3.6 million square-feet on 400 acres. In this city, IBM鈥檚 frequent moniker 鈥淏ig Blue鈥� applies to both the company and the building. Commissioned in 1956 and designed by Eero Saarinen & Associates, the opening of the building in 1958 marks a key moment in IBM鈥檚 design legacy and Minnesota鈥檚 computing industry.聽聽

Founded in 1913, the Formica Company boasts a rich history intricately linked with the development of Cincinnati. As the company expanded, its manufacturing campus gradually moved northward from the Ohio River, mirroring the city鈥檚 own growth. The Formica庐 brand has made a significant impact on corporate campuses not only through its own unique architectural expansion but also by manufacturing laminate products that have furnished corporate buildings since the 1930s.

The Golden Mile can be found fifteen kilometers to the northeast of downtown Toronto, Canada and was one of the nation鈥檚 first industrial complexes that transition to commercial in the post-war area. The Golden Mile was once a place where iconic corporate campuses and companies like IBM. and others served as catalysts for economic development while supporting the growth and expansion eastwards alongside iconic planned residential subdivisions, which sprang up to house the new industrial workforce and support their modern lives.聽

In 1970, then Herman Miller CEO Max De Pree began a poetic brief for a Herman Miller manufacturing facility in the United Kingdom by stating, 鈥淥ur goal is to make a contribution to the landscape of aesthetic and human value.鈥� The building that resulted from what became titled A Statement of Expectations was a pioneering High-Tech project by Nicholas Grimshaw that recently saw its own award-winning adaptive reuse into, very fittingly, an art and design school. We are happy to share a story originally published by Herman Miller鈥檚 WHY Magazine in 2014 that tells the story of The Bath Brief, and Herman Miller鈥檚 collaboration with Grimshaw.

It's been way too long聽since our last聽commercial real estate round up, and this year's annual theme, Corporate Campuses,聽provides聽the perfect聽opportunity for a revisit. We聽hope you enjoy perusing some of聽our finds, including:聽a Pomo headquarters that's instantly recognizable as a Michael Graves design; an elegant Yamasaki in Michigan; a former church looking for a new use designed by Elizabeth Wright Ingraham; and if you've聽ever dreamed of an office space in "The Pyramids," now is your chance.

The Texas Instruments Semiconductor Building and headquarters in Dallas, Texas, is an example of a much lesser explored, yet no less historically relevant, corporate research facility from the same era as the well-publicized industrial complexes by Eero Saarinen. In 1958, Texan architects O鈥橬eil Ford with Richard Colley, Arch Swank and Sam Zisman conceived of the massive complex (Fig 1), which typified Ford's daring creativity and stands as what has been considered the most technologically innovative design of his career. The Semiconductor Building serves as a larger artifact of twentieth-century technology, showcasing both advancements in concrete structural design and pioneering breakthroughs in the field of digital electronics.

The Ford Motor Company corporate campus is located in Southeast Michigan, about 10 miles west of Detroit in the city of Dearborn. Ford first began purchasing property here along the Rouge River in 1915, but it was not until 1917, with the impetus of World War I, that they completed the first structure to produce eagle boats for the war effort. Countless additions later, the Rouge complex, now referred to as the Ford Rouge Center, is still operational and is itself a hallmark of adaptive reuse. The expansion of production at the Rouge anchored Ford in Dearborn, where the company would continue to expand its campus, especially after World War II.

Postwar corporate campuses were an important proving ground for architects to demonstrate the core principles of modernist design: that form should follow function, and that the honest expression of building materials should put their inherent qualities on display. Because corporate campuses in this era were also seen as rural oases, set apart from their urban high-rise counterparts on large plots of land, landscape design played an essential role in the expression of place. In many cases, the architectural expression of a modernist corporate campus required that it borrow some drama from its surrounding landscape. And, in some cases, this meant bringing the outside in.

This year鈥檚 星空无限 theme 鈥淐orporate Campus鈥� has sought to 鈥渆xplore and understand the influence of suburban corporate architecture and corporate campuses on the edge of more urban cores, their peaks, and now their valleys.鈥� In a post-pandemic world, and in the past year in particular, the evolving role of the corporate campus, and the office in general, has proven to be on trend across culture.

星空无限 is pleased to share the following selection of articles and recorded presentations that explore an extensive range and breadth of topics under the subject of this year's thematic focus, Revisiting Urban Renewal.聽

I have lived in Southwest DC for the past seven years in a 1963 cooperative housing 鈥渃ampus鈥� that was built as part of the 1945 Redevelopment Land Agency (RLA). Considered to be the first formal urban renewal project in the United States, the RLA dislocated thousands of residents and their intact community of mainly Black Americans. The photograph that I was most familiar with that depicted the 鈥渂efore鈥� community was the 1939 image (image #1) that shows the proximity of Southwest, District of Columbia, to the U.S. Capitol Building. Many residences in the foreground were built in 鈥渁lley ways鈥� and did not have electricity, running water, or indoor plumbing.聽

Taking measure of a life鈥檚 work as complex as Ed Logue鈥檚 raises challenges. He described his career to an oral historian from the Library of Congress in 1995 as 鈥渁 helluva ride.鈥�

Rushed design processes, poor construction quality, post-occupancy mismanagement and a general lack of maintenance characterize the typical modernist public housing estate; their decline symbolic of the cycle of neighborhood obsolescence and redevelopment that once enabled these projects. While originally conceived as alternatives to blighted post-war urban neighborhoods, these stigma-prone estates throughout Europe and the Americas have ironically become convenient targets for demolition. It is no surprise that proponents for their preservation are first confronted with poor public perception and ideological conflicts 鈥� fundamental issues that are often more inhibiting than the physical viability of preservation.

2024 will mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of Root Shock: How Tearing Up City Neighborhoods Hurts America and What You Can Do About It. The book explores the long-term consequences of urban renewal in Black neighborhoods and has many lessons to help us understand the complex problems we face today. Root Shock was written by Dr. Mindy Fullilove with support from the research team she co-founded, the Community Research (now known as the Cities Research Group).

During the 1950s and 1960s, architectural models, maps, and renderings helped local boosters justify and build support for urban renewal in communities across the nation. New York City鈥檚 master planner Robert Moses helped pioneer this practice. Urban historian Themis Chronopoulos has analyzed how brochures produced by Moses鈥� Committee on Slum Clearance juxtaposed images of actual (if outdated) places 鈥� tenements, corner stores, back alleys 鈥� against illustrations depicting the sleek, modern residential and commercial structures that might be built in their stead.

In Coral Gables, an ongoing conversation concerns the beauty of our architectural heritage. Does our design sensibility begin and end in the 1920s, when the city was founded as part of the City Beautiful Movement? Or do we view our built environment as a dynamic work in progress 鈥� a 鈥渕oveable feast鈥� of diverse building styles that reflect changing standards of beauty, utility, and sustainability.

With close to a month left to our National Symposium in New Haven, 星空无限 President Robert Meckfessel admits an embarrassing secret; he has never been to New Haven. In this month鈥檚 President鈥檚 Column, read about what Bob is most excited to see when he visits this 鈥渁rchitectural cornucopia鈥� for the first time next month.

Interested in hearing more about Modern Travel: Finland? 星空无限 President Robert Meckfessel shares his own Finnish travel experience, a Modernist pilgrimage sure to “affirm one’s life as an architect.” Read more in this month’s President’s Column.

The Italian-born photographer and, of course, long-time Docomomo member, Andrea Brizzi has been capturing the built environment for 40 years. His most recent photography features a series of forgotten Modernist works in northern Italy and Sardinia.聽

The Modern architecture movement in the United States has a rich but complicated history, one that 星空无限 is committed to explore, even as we advocate for its preservation. This history is closely intertwined with that of Modernism in Europe, but the post-war American version has its own flavor and context, driven by our own unique demographics, economics, cultures and politics. Out of that complex mix arose countless examples of innovative, thought-provoking architecture and landscape, both by transplanted Europeans and by our own home-grown American practitioners. Several aspects of that, however, are less admirable and merit further examination to understand the true and complete story of Modernism.

How the producers of Star Trek The Original Series employed an existing design genre to provide us the World of the Future.

How did Milwaukee, in the middle of the country, in the middle of the 20th-century, come to have some of the nation鈥檚 most inspiring and monumental mosaic murals? How is it that many churches, libraries, schools, government buildings and public spaces across Wisconsin have mural-sized mosaics fully integrated into the architectural surroundings? A close look at four mosaics commissioned in Milwaukee, at a time when modern art and architecture were capturing a new spirit of innovation and civic pride, reveals different approaches to using mosaic as an architectural art form and presents a unique perspective on the history of arts in Wisconsin.

Last April, the 星空无限 Board of Directors and staff assembled in Milwaukee for our first long-range planning retreat in five years, to consider the future of 星空无限 鈥� our goals, aspirations, challenges, opportunities, and role in the future of preservation. This was sorely needed, especially since the context we work in has dramatically changed in the past five years, as we have dealt with COVID, a leadership transition, a dynamic political landscape, our own growth and expansion, and more.

聽Jessica Anshutz, aka the "Rust Belt Mallwalker" shares a visual essay of malls she has documented since 2016.

With high design and high art, NorthPark Center made shopping glamorous for everyone.

In this excerpt from聽The American Department Store Transformed, 1920-1960, Richard Longstreth聽explores聽the influential role of department stores in the rise of the regional shopping mall.

This excerpt from Alexandra Lange's new book, Meet Me by the Fountain: An Inside History of the Mall (Bloomsbury USA), tracks architect Victor Gruen and designer Elsie Krummeck's聽early attempts at improving on the traditional shopping center,聽resulting in the Northland Mall in Southfield, Michigan.聽

星空无限 Board President Robert Meckfessel, FAIA, will be sharing聽his thoughts on current issues in the field of modern preservation as well as the latest updates on the organization in a new monthly President's Column. In this first installment, he reflects on the National Symposium in Philadelphia and the ongoing modern/postmodern divide.

This 星空无限 Regional Spotlight article offers some historic background and insight on a key contribution by Hawaiian modern architect Vladimir Ossipoff (1907-1998). In general, Ossipoff鈥檚 architecture consistently fused the climate, topography and culture of Hawai鈥榠 like no other over his over 6 decades of practice solely in the islands. His design sensibility was timeless, elegant and usually understated.

In the 1960s, the partnership of the Hawaii architecture firm Lemmon, Freeth, Haines and Jones, their joint venture of Belt, Lemmon and Lo, and San Francisco鈥檚 John Carl Warnecke and Associates were selected to design the new Hawaii State Capitol Building.聽 The resulting building in the Hawaiian International Architecture style was devoid of the classic rotunda featured in most capitol buildings, instead utilizing an open-air rotunda that invites the sun, trade winds, and the occasional rainbow into the lofty, emblematic space.聽 The design symbolized natural beauty while breaking many boundaries of architectural design both in Hawai驶i and across the United States.

Parking at Ala Moana Center can be a nightmare. Even for those of us that have been going there for decades, finding a store can be almost as challenging. As kids, we all knew where all the important things were: the sculptures to play on, the deli with the tasty sandwiches, the koi ponds, the hippie store with the imports from India, and the book/record store. It was a adventure to go into 鈥渢own鈥� to shop at the mall. Even after changes to Ala Moana in the early 80s, finding the cute shop with the funky international jewelry, or familiar 鈥渓ocal鈥� drug store or any of the three department stores was not tricky. Navigation was easy. On the lower level, almost all the shops (HOPACO and its glorious pens!) were located on the outer perimeter of the mall building. On the upper level, shops were all along the main open passageway, with a few accessible from the parking side, easy! The mall鈥檚 appearance now - muddled and confusing from all the years of updates, is an unfortunate result of its more than sixty years of success.

Shopping centers built between the 1950s through the 1970s on the island of Oahu are unique examples of Modernist architecture in Hawaii. They comprise the majority of large-scale commercial buildings on Oahu and amongst the other islands, which experienced a different level of commercial impact from tourism during the post-war era.

In the decades immediately following World War II聽Hawaii聽exploded into the modern era. This remote island chain in the north Pacific suddenly found itself in the midst of global activity with the advent of passenger jet service to聽Honolulu聽and the laying of the trans-Pacific telephone cable, both of which contributed to more closely linking the聽United States聽with its newest state. The architecture of the islands, keeping pace with its society, assumed an increasingly modern flair, while continuing to embrace the聽Islands鈥� strong regional design tradition.聽

Throughout much of the 20th century the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company was known by its moniker "Behind Your Independence ... Stands the Penn Mutual." Located just south of Independence Hall, the slogan reflected both corporate branding and the physical reality of its corporate headquarters as backdrop to Independence Hall.

An excerpt from the book聽Reglazing Modernism聽- Intervention Strategies for 20th Century Icons, by聽Angel Ay贸n, Uta Pottgiesser and Nathaniel Richards, which was awarded the 2021 Lee Nelson Book Award from the Association for Preservation Technology International (APT).

Architect Fred Guirey and his associates received the commission in 1961 to be the architect for the Arizona Public Service (APS) administrative building. Over the next 60 years, several panels over the walkway developed hairline cracks, making them a safety hazard. Alison King of Modern Phoenix and the firm 180 Degrees Design + Build stepped in to save them from the landfill.

In August of 2020, an unexpected sight debuted along interstate I-40 in Albuquerque, New Mexico: a sign for the BLVD2500 Luxury Apartments. Since 1971, 2500 Carlisle Boulevard NE has been the address of a modern architectural curiosity, a story that begins in the 1960s.

Identifying a project by its architect is a common occurrence; it's easy to associate a building with a single name. But a project is rarely the result of a singular vision. It's the result of a collaboration between the client, architects, engineers, and contractors for a specific site and defined problem. Among those unsung engineers is Sergio Acosta.

Founded in 1889, the University of New Mexico (UNM) is known for the balance and adherence to a Southwestern design identity that鈥檚 persisted throughout its 130+ years of architectural development. Upon first impression, the UNM main campus does not invoke the sense of architectural design variation that many campuses do; the modernist elements of the campus may not be initially apparent.

Don P. Schlegel, FAIA, is remembered by many as a mentor and credited with teaching a significant number of the practicing architects in Albuquerque. Schlegel spent the majority of his architectural career teaching on the University of New Mexico鈥檚 (UNM) Albuquerque campus and was a key figure in the establishment of the university's School of Architecture and Planning.

Albuquerque's modernist architecture, spanning the pre-war period into today, has only recently begun to be recognized and contextualized for the roles it has played in the city's development. The city government commissioned its first survey of mid-century modern architectural resources in 2013, followed closely thereafter by the study of select structures by a University of New Mexico architecture class. As interest has grown, new resources and research have emerged from a growing group of enthusiasts, preservationists, architects, and historians. This Regional Spotlight aims to contribute to this expanding pool of resources documenting Modern ABQ.聽

Jennifer Baughn's new book, Buildings of Mississippi, is the first volume in the newly redesigned Buildings of the United States series. With a more reader-friendly guidebook format and color illustrations throughout, Buildings of Mississippi is also the most substantive, up-to-date history of the state鈥檚 built environment.聽Crafted specifically for聽the 星空无限 audience,聽the following excerpt聽highlights the state's modern travel and leisure resources of the midcentury and recent past.

The sign beckons you, the building interests you, and the office welcomes you, but the room itself defines most of your motel lodging experience. It is here that the traveler sheds the stress of the road, seeking relaxation and slumber. The success, or lack thereof, of this effort determines the enjoyment of your stay.

Modeled after roadside parks, safety rest areas (SRAs) were constructed as part of the Interstate Highway System to provide minimal comfort amenities for the traveling public. Early in their developmental history, however, design aesthetics moved in the tradition of roadside architecture that defined American highways in previous decades. Thus safety rest area sites emerged as unique and colorful expressions of regional flavor and modern architectural design.

Before neon signs with trendy sayings were popping up in hipster mac n鈥� cheese bars, before old motels were being revamped into $300/night luxury experiences, before ruin porn proliferated on Instagram, there was the Society for Commercial Archeology (SCA).聽As 鈥淎merica鈥檚 Roadside Heritage Advocate,鈥� SCA is thrilled to participate in Docomomo鈥檚 鈥淭ravel & Leisure鈥� annual theme. What follows are聽three articles: an introduction to SCA and roadside architecture by Jeremy Ebersole, Joanna Dowling鈥檚 2008 study of Interstate rest areas, and Lyle Miller鈥檚 2020 look at the evolution of motel rooms. "Drive" with us into聽this exploration of the bewildering, evocative, and always fascinating world of commercial archeology.

In the late 1950s and early 1960s there was an efflorescence of ski resorts across the USA. In Vermont the pastime was in its heyday with 81 ski areas operating in 1966. Not the least of which were the Sugarbush, Glen Ellen, and Mad River Glen resorts in the Mad River Valley. Nestled between the two ranges of the Green Mountains, it was a groovy place to ski and be seen. Young professionals and hip suburbanites were drawn to the area for its low-key charms and great skiing. It was this atmosphere that drew a group of adventurous young graduates of the Yale School of Architecture to the area to try their hand at design, building and developing weekend houses for the ski set.

The town of Norwich, Vermont has a deep and rich developmental history dating back to the mid-18th century. As the town grew over the next century, its residents built houses in the Georgian, Federal, and Greek Revival styles. There was little new construction in Norwich during the period of population loss in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and as a result there are few examples of Victorian, Arts and Crafts, Art Deco, or bungalow-style buildings in the town. Between 1944 and 1974, however, development began again, and low-slung homes of the style now known as Midcentury Modern were built on the hillsides in Norwich.

The Gutterson Fieldhouse at the University of Vermont. St. Mark Catholic Parish on North Avenue. The Given Medical Building of the UVM College of Medicine. The NBT Bank on Bank Street. The Sustainability Academy at Lawrence Barnes. Ohavi Zedek Synagogue. Rice Memorial High School. What do all these greater Burlington buildings from the 1940s, '50s and '60s have in common? All of them 鈥斺�痑nd hundreds鈥痬ore around Vermont鈥�鈥� were designed by one architect: Ruth Reynolds Freeman.

Think of Vermont, and what comes to mind? Most likely a decidedly nostalgic vision of quaint villages, white churches with tall steeples, picturesque farmsteads with red barns and cows grazing in green fields, and covered bridges crossing meandering rivers. This is all true, but it鈥檚 not the complete story. Believe it or not, the 20th century did happen in Vermont and left its own unique imprint on our built environment.

Was it to be a missing person鈥檚 report, or more of a personal ad? Middle-aged female architect ISO a goddess she recollects from her youth: about seven feet tall; long, flowing locks; triumphant pose.聽Last seen: Battle Creek, Michigan, sometime in the late 1980s, in the food-court of a mall.聽I see now that it鈥檚 starting to read a bit like an episode of Stranger Things, but pour yourself a bowl of corn flakes and settle in.

Hot Spring鈥檚 downtown core and Park Avenue (Highway 70) approach road hosts several elegant modernist hotels sprinkled throughout an urban fabric typically touted for its historic Bathhouse Row, Arlington Hotel, and assortment of prewar buildings dating back to the 1880s, tightly hemmed into a picturesque valley of the Ouachita Mountains. This group of hotels, some undervalued and threatened, represent the final phase of the dynamic, almost century-long trajectory of the Arkansas settlement which was once considered a top resort destination in the United States.

In her definitive biography of Walter Gropius, Fiona MacCarthy posed the question about the last years of Gropius鈥檚 life: 鈥淲hy was it that the Bauhaus and its history continued to be his great preoccupation and why did he cling to the little group of friends鈥擝ayer and Breuer and Schawinsky鈥攚ho had been with him at the Bauhaus, and who sometimes treated him with singular disloyalty, for the rest of his long life?鈥� To answer this question, one need simply look to the Wellfleet community they shared and the unforgettable times spent together on Cape Cod beginning in the mid-1940s. The following is an excerpt from聽Breuer鈥檚 Bohemia: The Architect, His Circle, and Midcentury Houses in New England by James Crump, forthcoming from Monacelli Press on September 14.聽

During the mid-20th century, the聽Green Book聽helped Black Americans聽to travel聽by letting them know which hotels, motels, restaurants, gas stations, and other businesses it would be safe for them to frequent. Here we highlight some of the modern resources that聽made their way into the Green Book.

The 2021 星空无限 National Symposium focused on the most important city in the United States when it comes to modern design 鈥� Chicago. I have never physically visited Chicago, but I was very grateful for my opportunity to attend this event. It illuminated not only the central role that the city of Chicago has played in Midcentury Modernism but also how it represents a node that connects the Midcentury Modern design of many other large cities in America, such as New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington DC. 聽

A list of Robert Venturi鈥檚 most well-known works will usually include the Sainsbury wing extension to London鈥檚 National Gallery (1991), Fire Station no. 4 (1968) for the city of Columbus, Indiana, and of course his postmodernist masterpiece, the iconic residential house built for his mother, the Vanna Venturi House (1964) in Philadelphia. Quite less known are the remarkable series of vacation and second homes his firm designed in the 1980s in classic coastal New England locales.

Local architects in the modern era could have tremendous impact on the built landscape of their communities. In post-WWII South Dakota, there were only a handful of architectural firms in-state that were very active, though that pool of professionals expanded some into the 1960s and beyond.聽A unique contributor to modern architecture in South Dakota, and in particular the city of Sioux Falls, was the architect Ward Whitwam, who recently passed away in January 2021.聽

Our society learns to appreciate past architectural styles in waves, and landmark buildings attract attention earlier than other types of structures. In the mid-20th century, the Catholic Church in South Dakota invested in a handful of worship spaces that stand out in the top tier of Modernist ecclesiastical design for the state, making them an excellent introduction to architecture of the Modern movement in South Dakota.

Historical context for modern sites in South Dakota is still in its fledgling stages and recognition of modern resources within the general population of South Dakota is still a hill to climb, and, for those outside the state, awareness of this history is likely negligible.聽Writing this set of spotlight articles has served as a way for聽the staff of the South Dakota SHPO聽to expand their knowledge about Modernism, and they are our humble way to introduce South Dakota to the wider Modern Movement audience.聽聽

Director of the Rauh Jewish History Program & Archives at the Heinz History Center of Pittsburgh takes us on a 鈥榲isit鈥� to the Betty and Irving Abrams home designed in 1979-82 by Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown and explores the broader trends of Jewish patronage for modern architecture along the neighborhood鈥檚 infamous Woodland Road, and throughout the region. Recently a contentious local preservation issue, the property鈥檚 new owner wants the dwelling dismantled and removed from their property. The preservation community reacted in disagreement, noting the grave loss of an important postmodern design in a particular context.

In conducting research for the exhibition Imagining the Modern: Architecture and Urbanism of the Pittsburgh Renaissance聽at the Carnegie Museum of Art鈥檚 Heinz Architectural Center and the subsequent book, we made it a priority to meet some of the key players active during this critical time in Pittsburgh鈥檚 renewal. Among the most surprising discoveries was Troy West.聽West was a surprise not just for his bold body of work, but for the participatory process by which they were created. His built legacy in Pittsburgh could be considered scant, but his influence on the city, the way architecture is taught, and the definition of a modernist architect is far more profound.

A local leader in education with a keen eye for Brutalism shares a visionary, preservationminded love poem of the open-plan structure that welcomes and inspires his students from lowincome communities - designed with a groundbreaking concept in 1972 by Tasso Katselas, Pittsburgh鈥檚 most prolific modern architect.

Through the lens of a contemporary, award-winning landscape architect-designer, we explore and examine a 1974 project by Dan Kiley, painstakingly crafted in tandem with architect Edward Larrabee Barnes, enhancing the site of one of Pittsburgh鈥檚 most epic cultural institutions in the Carnegie legacy, and most successful modernist additions in a U.S. art museum.

Recently retired archivist of Carnegie Mellon University鈥檚 Architecture Archives offers a glimpse into the professional career and Pittsburgh-rooted portfolio of Walter L. Roberts, a multi-talented, unsung architect of the region who made a diverse, modernist mark including with Westinghouse Electric, community housing and facilities, industrial design firms and more.

Chair of the Pittsburgh Modern Committee of Preservation Pittsburgh introduces 鈥楶ittsburgh鈥檚 Modern Milieu鈥� with an impression of the city and region鈥檚 modern and postmodern resources, initiatives, challenges and curiosities 鈥� along with a summary of the spotlight series, which touches on the ongoing 星空无限 themes: the Diversity of Modernism and the 1970s turn 50, amongst other topics. (+ plus announcing the launch of a special collaboration-series of limited edition screen-prints of Pittsburgh modernist gems!).

When one thinks of Kansas, a hotbed of progressive design is likely not the first descriptor that comes to mind. One usually thinks of the Wizard of Oz, figures like Dwight D. Eisenhower, and perhaps the origin of fast food pizza (Pizza Hut). That said, a deeper review of architecture and design brings to the forefront the breadth of modernism that can be found throughout the state.

In October of 2020, in the middle of the Covid-19 Pandemic, the Wichita Public Library, likely the first Brutalist building designed in the state of Kansas, became the state鈥檚 first Beton Brut building added to the National Register of Historic Places. The Library nomination was rushed through, along with a separate nomination for the adjacent Century II Performing Arts and Convention Center by concerned citizens against the wishes of developers and City officials.

Kansas, the 15th largest state by area, resides at the geographical center of the continental United States. 鈥淭he Sunflower State鈥� combines mostly family-owned farms and ranches with the robust aviation industry that made the state a strategic military training center during World War II. Paralleling this, between 1941 and 1956 the population of Kansas鈥檚 largest city, Wichita, doubled from 115,000 to 240,000 during the peak years of postwar modernism.

Adapted from an assignment for the class Modern American Architecture on the Historic Preservation program at GSAPP, Columbia University, James E. Churchill discusses the global impact of New Brutalism and the attempt to reinstall ethics and humanism into architectural design and examines the works of Louis I. Kahn, his connections to C.I.A.M. and the three-phase plan for the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

Gio Ponti麓s contact with North America dates from 1928 when he was invited to participate in an interior and furniture design exhibition organized by Macy麓s department store, but it was only at the beginning of the 1950s that Ponti would return his attention to the American continent. During that period, his many travels included Brazil, Venezuela, Mexico, and the United States, and were marked by the enunciation of some of his key design principles聽that would聽be taken further in the decades to come.

Googie design was a hot topic of conversation in the summer of 2019, when the question of preserving Tom鈥檚 Diner was a frequent headline. The Diner was determined eligible for the National Register of Historic Places more than ten years ago and featured in local publications, but the term Googie was not widely known or understood even though the building was highly recognizable and well loved by many.聽 Fortunately, through community support and creative partnerships the most intact Armet and Davis design in Colorado survived and is set to thrive again soon. 聽

The design of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) is a masterpiece of the Modern Movement in architecture. It is the foundational, break-out design by I.M. Pei that kicked off his extraordinary career.聽

The adoption of Modern architecture is a ubiquitous feature of most American cities following the Second World War. However, the preferences and architectural palettes within the Modern movement varied considerably based on the tastes of locals and the architects they commissioned. The City of Fort Collins is using the work of northern Colorado architect William Robb to better understand its local trends within the Modern Movement.

In 1939, Elizabeth Paepcke came to ski in Aspen. She would return in 1945 with her husband, Walter, a wealthy Chicagoan, starting a long relationship聽that would introduce Bauhaus modernism to the once quiet ski town.

On July 23, 1954, Skidmore, Owings and Merrill (SOM) was awarded the contract to design and construct the United States Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. The site itself was chosen from over 580 submissions by a Site Selection Committee that included Reserve Brigadier General Charles A. Lindberg, while over 300 architectural firms applied for the commission 鈥� one of the largest government construction projects of the Cold War era. Constructed during Eisenhower鈥檚 presidency, the Air Force Academy was intended to complement the established military academies West Point and Annapolis.

This historic context statement was prepared for the City of Los Angeles Department of City Planning, Office of Historic Resource as a part of the SurveyLA initiative,聽the largest and most comprehensive survey ever completed by an American city. Architectural historian Daniel Paul provides an overview of Late Modern architecture, its character-defining features, and selected subtypes.

On August 7, 2020, I went to the estate sale at the former home of midcentury American designers, Evelyn and Jerome Ackerman.聽It felt almost like visiting a house museum 鈥� one that was open to the public for only three days. It was akin visiting the Eames house, frozen in time as Ray left it when she passed away. It was rather magical to be in the Ackerman鈥檚 home and see their backyard studio where so much of their work had been imagined and created.

American Architecture in the 1970s was fraught with divergent reactions to Modernism and responses to sociopolitical and environmental crises. The decade was one of exploration, experimentation, and reckoning that would shape the directions of architecture through remainder of the twentieth century. As the 70s turn 50, we are faced with the new task of trying to comprehend and contextualize these buildings, sites, and landscapes in order to steward them into the future.