Archinect - News

Palm Springs Art Museum announces the Aluminaire House's public opening and permanent exhibit

2023-09-29T18:07:00-04:00

The Palm Springs Art Museum has shared an update on the future of the Aluminaire House three years after acquiring the Albert Frey and A. Lawrence Kocher masterpiece to its permanent collection.

The home, which had been lingering in a local storage space since 2017, will now be reassembled and displayed in the museum's south parking lot. ADA compliance mandates had postponed the project even further after the museum was forced to refabricate many of the materials used in its construction, an effort that was not made possible until recently thanks to an ongoing $2.6 million capital campaign effort. According to the museum, $2.3 million in funding has been generated so far.

The house will be erected and placed on view in February 2024, following the opening of a retrospective exhibition of Frey’s other modernist designs around the Coachella Valley on January 13, 2024.

Aluminaire House™ on-site at Palm Springs Art Museum, 2023. Rendering by Claudia Cengher | Courtesy of the Palm Sprin...

Inside the first modernist house in New Orleans listed on the National Register of Historic Places

2019-08-18T07:00:00-04:00

The home consists of three pavilions connected by a central passageway. The public areas are in two pavilions: one side is the living room, and the other, the dining room and kitchen, all adjacent to patios accessed through glass doors, which can be opened when entertaining. With clerestory windows, these rooms are bathed with light, creating a treehouse feel.

Nola.com's Sue Strachan takes a look at the Frances and Nathaniel C. Curtis house in New Orleans. Originally built in 1963, the home became the first Modernist-era home in New Orleans to earn a place on the National Register of Historic Places.

Designed by maverick Modernist architects Curtis and Davis, the team behind the city's iconic Superdome, the thoughtfully-designed home has been restored by New Orleans architect Lee Ledbetter.

Owner who tore down landmarked Neutra house ordered to rebuild

2018-12-17T14:06:00-05:00

After a landmarked home in San Francisco's Twin Peaks neighborhood was illegally razed last year, the city has ordered the property owner to rebuild an exact replica.

One of only five remaining homes in the city designed by the famed modernist architect Richard Neutra, the Largent House was bought last year for $1.7 million by Ross Johnston through his 49 Hopkins LLC. Johnston had received permission from the city to remodel, but decided to tear down the house instead and retroactively apply for a demolition permit.

Photo courtesy MLS San Francisco

The City Planning Commission's unprecedented vote on Thursday to order a replica was unanimous. They have also asked the owner to include a sidewalk plaque telling the saga of the tear down and required rebuild as a cautionary tale for others.

The homeowner had wanted to replace the 1,300 square foot home built in 1935 with a much larger house that would've been nearly 4,000 square feet—highlighting the growing trend of replacing (relati...

Concrete Utopia

2018-11-14T09:22:00-05:00

In the construction of the new Yugoslavia, modernist thinking and design were deployed to guide the country’s rapid urbanization and industrialization as well as to unify the ethnically, religiously, and culturally diverse population.

In columnist Belmont Freeman's latest article for Places, he examines the exhibition “Toward a Concrete Utopia: Architecture in Yugoslavia, 1948-1980,” now on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and finds a rigorous and revealing survey of Yugoslavia’s extraordinary built legacy that until now has been neglected by mainstream architectural historians.

Architect shares wonderfully Photoshopped Thomas Kinkade and Modernism mashups on Twitter

2018-08-22T13:40:00-04:00

Architect twitter account @robyniko known as 'the "schtick" haver' has started a thread where worlds collide locating iconic modernist architecture in Thomas Kinkade landscapes. Whether or not this should have ever been done is up for debate. These mashups may just be so terrible you can't look away...

Charles and Ray Eames' Case Study Cabin:

Philip Johnson's Glass Cottage:

Check out the whole thread for more blasphemous thrills:

Hong Kong's public housing receives widespread photographic attention

2018-08-13T15:52:00-04:00

Across Hong Kong, where almost half the population lives in government-provided housing, public housing complexes have become wildly popular Instagram destinations. Locals and tourists have flocked to estates around the city, craning their necks to get that perfect social media shot and irritating residents in the process. The estates have drawn professional interest as well, featuring prominently in marketing campaigns and even a music video by the Korean boy band Seventeen.

Hong Kong's public housing, largely built in the 1960's and 70's, has attracted widespread public attention for its aesthetic appeal. These modernist style high-rises photograph beautifully with colorful displays of clean lined symmetry. While these buildings are visually engaging, they also play an important role providing affordable housing to millions in one of the most expensive cities to live. Hong Kong's immense public sector housing program creates space for nearly half of the city's residents.

Three famous modernist houses set the stage in this video art exhibition

2018-06-29T17:57:00-04:00

At Pioneer Works, in Brooklyn, the show “Gerard & Kelly: Clockwork” — photographs, text, installations, and live and filmed dance — references the three small structures and the intertwined careers of their architects: the Schindler House in West Hollywood, Calif., by R. M. Schindler; Philip Johnson’s Glass House in New Canaan, Conn.; and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Ill.

Artists Brennan Gerard and Ryan Kelly's film Schindler/Glass uses three iconic modernist houses as the backdrop in which issues of gendered space and domestic intimacy are explored. The video piece is part of an ongoing series by the artists called “Modern Living". Shot on site at the Schindler House, the Glass House, and the Farnsworth House, performers interact with the complicated architectural histories in each structure.

Lost UK brutalist buildings honored through illustrations

2018-06-25T18:09:00-04:00

Despite being recognized as an important architectural movement, many iconic examples of modernist architecture have been knocked down in the UK, and many more are threatened by alteration or demolition. From The Tricorn Centre in Portsmouth to Gilbey's Gin complex in Harlow, these illustrations by GoCompare pay tribute to Britain's lost post-war brutalist buildings.

The Tricorn Centre, Portsmouth (1966 - 2004)

Pimlico Secondary School, London (1970 - 2010)

Trinity Square Car Park, Gateshead (1967 - 2010)

Derwent Tower, Dunston (1972 - 2012)

Greenside, Virginia Water, Surrey (1937 - 2003)

Milton Court, London (1959 - 2008)

Dunlop Rubber Factory, Brynmawr (1951 - 2001)

Gilbey's Gin HQ, Harlow (1963 - 1993)

Royal Mail Mechanised Letter Office, Hemel Hempstead (1985 - 2012)

Are mental disorders behind modernism? Le Corbusier and Gropius get diagnosed

2018-02-08T13:53:00-05:00

Two researchers recently suggested that autism and post-traumatic stress disorder led to the minimalist stylings of Le Corbusier and Walter Gropius. Their questions and tools are useful, but there’s danger in mistaking one piece of a puzzle for its entirety. The places we inhabit influence the way we see the world [...] Equally and inevitably, psychology has shaped architecture.

Darran Anderson responds to the piece “The Mental Disorders that Gave Us Modern Architecture” by Ann Sussman and Katie Chen, arguing against their totalizing narrative of two influential figures and modernism as a whole.

Sussman and Chen suggest modernist architecture originated from autism in regard to Le Corbusier, and post-traumatic stress disorder in regard to Walter Gropius. The final argument is one against modernism, claiming its origin derives from mental dysfunction.

While it is interesting to consider a possible excuse for Le Corbusier's callousness or the effects of serving in WWI on Gropius, Anderson argues, "the evidence that modern architecture is founded on 'disorders' is highly questionable".

His response reveals an empathetic side to Le Corbusier, and delves into Gropius' immense achievements unimpeded by trauma. Read the full article and go deeper into Anderson's argument for modernism and two of its key figures.

...

Josef Frank’s Modernist Vision: "Accidentism"

2018-02-06T18:50:00-05:00

“Away with universal styles,” wrote Josef Frank. “Away with the idea of equating art and industry, away with the whole system that has become popular under the name of functionalism. Modernism," he was fond of saying, "is that which gives us complete freedom."

More than an architect and designer, Josef Frank was an “intellectual, who built ideas.” Christopher Long introduces Frank's 1958 essay, "Accidentism" — a humanist manifesto denouncing the banality of orthodox modernism and calling for a new pluralism in design. As Long explains, "the essay reads as a bracing critique of modern architecture, all the more notable for having been written by a prominent modernist" — the ultimate statement of his long-standing disquiet with the tenets of the mainstream movement.

The article is the latest installment of our Future Archive series, which republishes significant 20th-century writings on design, selected and introduced by leading scholars.

What makes a work of architecture American?

2017-09-11T20:53:00-04:00

“Whether there is or is not a Northwest regional style of architecture is debatable,” said John Yeon in 1986, “but what is certain is that lot of people want to think there is.”

In "A Fortuitous Shadow," Keith Eggener is inspired by the Portland Art Museum's recent exhibition on John Yeon's life and legacy to explore the concept of regionalism in architecture, beginning with the doubts expressed by the architect long associated with Pacific Northwest regional modernism.

Can late modernism survive the near future?

2017-01-05T18:32:00-05:00

All across Los Angeles, buildings by the city's most important firms face preservation threats. Rejected and outmoded, can late modernism find love?

What is the value of history in a city known for its ephemerality? (Hint: um, not much, unless everyone agrees it is pretty.) In this piece for the L.A. Weekly, Mimi Zeiger thoroughly investigates the state of late modernist structures in the City of Angels, and how likely it is that many of these often repurposed (and unfortunately altered) buildings will survive changing public tastes. While the LAX theme building has been legally protected from demolition, other notable works--like William L. Pereira's original LACMA buildings--haven't met with the same preservationist zeal.

Modernism, in the news:

2016 Matsumoto Prize Online Voting Now Open

2016-06-06T17:37:00-04:00

Recognizing excellence in North Carolina Modernist residential design

Online voting for the 2016 George Matsumoto Prize: Recognizing Excellence in North Carolina Modernist Residential Design, begins today at:

https://ncmhcompetitions.squarespace.com

The 2016 Matsumoto Prize, supported by the McAdams Foundation, includes public voting to determine three “People’s Choice” winners. Anyone may vote by email (one time per email address) for his or her favorite entry starting today and running through June 29.

The Matsumoto Prize is named for George Matsumoto, FAIA, an eminent Modernist architect well-known for exceptional residential designs.

Matsumoto also serves as Honorary Chair for the Prize’s blue-ribbon jury of professional architects who select the Jury Award winners of cash prizes from a pool of $6000.

“These entries inspire people dreaming of a Modernist house to know Modernist design is affordable, efficient, sustainable, and most importantly, a house their families will love for dec...

A. Quincy Jones' LA retrospective at the Hammer Museum

2013-08-16T19:41:00-04:00

"A. Quincy Jones: Building for Better Living" is the LA-based architect's first major museum retrospective happening now until Sept. 8 at the Hammer Museum.

Practicing architecture in Los Angeles from 1939 to his death in 1979, Jones -- or Quincy, as he was known -- is described as a quiet modernist who constantly emphasized the concept of "better living" and collaboration in his work. In addition to Jones' more glamorous projects for higher-status clients like actor Gary Cooper and art collectors Frances and Sidney Brody, Jones also made major contributions to middle-class housing in the post-war period.

A dedicated architecture professor at USC, Jones was just as committed to raising the housing design standards for a growing middle class by implementing cost-effective, sustainable, and inventive methods. He was also the first to see such developments as communal spaces through shared green spaces, non-grid site planning, and various home models.

Jones is credited to ove...