About : century furniture night stands
Title : century furniture night stands
century furniture night stands
mary reid brunstrom: thank you, mary. i wantto say thank you to the national park service and the sponsors of today for the opportunityto be on this program. i might just say i'm speaking a lot more broadly than my religiousdissertation topic today. i want to just start off by drawing your attentionto two sources on mid century modernism in st. louis. one is the book on your right editedby eric mumford, modern architecture in st. louis, and the other is an online thematicsurvey by betsy bradley of the cultural resources office of the city of st. louis. i have foundboth of these resources extremely valuable in my own work. there's more mid century architecture in st.louis in a rich array of types than most people
realize, and i suspect that this is the casein most cities across the country. we generally use the term mid century to differentiatethe buildings of the post world war ii years from the output of the pre-war years. midcentury is an interesting term. it links architecture in the us to the growth and change resultingfrom post-war power and prosperity, even as the geo politics of the cold war cast a hazeof uncertainty over the period. like everything else at mid century, architecture was shapedby these conditions. modernism went mainstream at mid century thanksto mass production and marketing of materials, systems, furniture, appliances, all the componentsof modern living. here are some questions: what defines the new architecture of the period?does it merit a stand alone label, mid century
modern, to differentiate it within the broaderframe of modernism? moreover, does the period hold together as a coherent chapter in thehistory of architecture? the vitality and originality of architecturein the post war years in st. louis is due in no small measure to the vision and talentof architects who were based here, many of them associated with washington university'sschool of architecture. there appears also to have existed a climate of experimentationamong architects in st. louis in the 1940's and 50's. one, moreover, that engaged a numberof gifted architects from elsewhere including erich mendelsohn, buckminster fuller, minoruyamasaki, and eero saarinen. with these premises and questions in mind, i offer an overview,a brief overview of the region's modernist
buildings, showing how modernist thinkingwas pervasive in the building culture in both public and private sectors. since our symposium is organized around materialsand preservation, i highlight buildings in which materials were key to new architecturalsolutions. i also trace a narrative of loss, because, like other parts of the country,as we've heard from our keynote speaker, and indeed the world, many landmarks of modernismin st. louis are under threat of demolition or are already lost.st. louis' modernist architectural narrative is one of continuity and innovation, especiallywith respect to the use of brick. nowhere is the persistence of brick as visible asin the robust, elegant and ordered, brutalism-inspired
facade of st. louis community college atforest park, 1965, designed by the chicago based architect harry reese and associates.the brick construction in the region is an extrusion of its geology, literally a manmade formation on the surface that expresses the layers of clay beneath. local abundancemade clay products, the material for high and low cost architecture alike. brick and terra cotta were vital componentsof the 1891 wainwright building which established st. louis as a site where the challenges ofmodern tall building were triumphantly addressed. designed by adler and sullivan, the wainwrightdemonstrates mastery of brick and terra cotta applied over a modern steel skeleton.further north, the neighborhood gardens apartment
complex was completed in 1935 as a settlementhome for white working class, typically immigrant families who worked in the downtown garmentindustry nearby. designed by hoener, baum and froese, the patenting and craftsmanshiprecall the use of brick in modernist housing developments in holland during the period.here, the architect gave st. louis' accomplished brick layers artistic freedom, resulting inrich surface textures. also in the mid 1930's, the homer g. phillipshospital, a medical complex designed to serve black health care needs in a segregated st.louis, arose in the ville neighborhood to the north. designed by city architect albertausburg, the complex was hailed for it's sensitive accommodation to the surrounding residentialarchitecture. achieved in part by the disposition
of the brick in horizontal courses that helpedto ground the structures. the complex exemplified how the beauty of materials could be leveragedto turn a monolithic institutional presence into an aesthetically pleasing community attribute. frank lloyd wright designed two houses inst. louis, both notable for their coherent brink elaboration and we'll look at one ofthem. the plan of the 1951 craft house is based on an equilateral parallelogram modulethat is repeated throughout the building in a variety of scales, on the slab floor, andin the wright-designed furniture. the warmth of the craft house arises from its two signaturematerials, tidewater red cypress and [wine 00:06:57] brick which wright continued fromthe exterior to the interior.
wright's organic design principles were takenup by william bernoudy, who had learned from wright firsthand as a fellow at taliesein.in st. louis, bernoudy worked in partnership with ed mutro, to be joined later by hankbauer. all told, the bernoudy partnerships built an extensive inventory of houses usingbrick and wood that translated wright's ideas into comfortable, livable environments mostlyfor the well-to-do. bernoudy's own home in ladue -- shown here -- is an exquisite essayin residential modernism. b'nai amoona synagogue built from 1945 to1950 was the first us commission for the german emigrate erich mendelsohn. mendelsohn's workin st. louis was significant for the city's standing a venue for architectural experimentation.b'nai amoona was the first modern synagogue
in north america. as such, it ushered in aperiod of reinvention of synagogue design across the country. b'nai amoona is constructedof concrete block faced with buffed ohio brick set in a stacked on pattern. the lightnessof the color mediates the sense of weight and the geometric ordering results in a certainquietness in the masonry that seeds the drama of the design to its signature feature, namelythe sweeping roof the cantilevers out from the sanctuary wall. mendelsohn enlivened hispredominantly flat-roofed horizontal scheme -- seen here in plan -- with the wing-likeof a bisected parabola. a daring tectonic gesture writ large against the sky to dramatizemodernity. the soaring curve that projects some 26 feet from the wall was formed withsteel i-beams that taper from the base to
the termination of the cantilever. in the secular sector, the may company, anational st. louis based retailer headed by morton may, introduced a new era of retailingwith three new branches of its famous bath store. the clayton famous, which opened in1948, -- seen in the middle image -- was designed by samuel marx with his chicago-based firmof marx, flint and shone. the store and the southtown famous designed by john p. hernerto resemble it's clayton sibling repeated the signifying features of the may company'sultra modern los angeles store on wilshire boulevard miracle mile, on the left here,including the flat roof, the streamlined corner on the building's leading edge, and the continuousband of display windows at the street level.
earlier may had made exclusive his commitmentto modernism when in 1940 he commissioned marx to design an international style residencefor him in ladue, a landmark that was demolished in 2005. the third famous bath store was built as theanchor of northland shopping center introducing one-stop suburban shopping, a concept thatintegrated a department store on site with other retailers and amenities. designed forthe may company in 1955, northlands was composed of cubic volumes of varying heights articulatedby open walkways on a 50 acre site that accommodated the increasing demand for parking. constructioncosts were reduced with the use of a welded steel frame, one of the first such applicationsin a multistory project in the area.
in nearby welston in 1948, a distinctive storebased on international style concepts was designed for j.c. penney by the father andson team of william p. and bernard mcmann. faced in smooth white stucco incised witha regular grid relieved by rows of thin metal sash windows, the store sported an open roofdeck reminiscent of [inaudible 00:11:25] ville [inaudible 00:11:27] near paris. the buildinghas been unoccupied for some four decades. in the post war years as structural concretebegan to enter the mainstream, reinforced concrete shell technology opened up seeminglyunlimited possibilities for architects who exploited its plastic qualities to producesome of st. louis' most remarkable buildings. helmeth, yamasaki, and linewibers lambertinternational airport terminal, which opened
in 1956 and which theo abata has describedfor us this morning, featured a series of three intersecting parabolic vaults enclosingthe passenger check in and waiting areas. on the interior, a 48-foot long metal partitionscreen, crafted from brightly colored geometric shapes by cranbrook-trained sculptor harrybertoia, underscored the modern vocabulary of the terminal design. an alternative gateway, one for bus travelers,arose in 1964 on broadway in downtown st. louis. schwartz and van houfen's design forthe greyhound bus terminal also deployed thin-shelled concrete for a parabola based roof that cantileveredover the passenger terminal in a dynamic, swooping gesture evocative of the dynamicsof travel. this mode of mid century design
was demolished in 1992. however, a more positiveoutcome was achieved for the former phillips 66 station in midtown known colloquially asthe flying saucer or the del taco building. built in 1967, this historic structure surviveda demolition threat in 2011 and is now renovated with starbucks and chipotle as tenants contributingamenities on the southern flank of st. louis university. the glass and concrete buildingwas the smallest, most distinctive structure in the complex seen here in this aerial shotdesigned for the international brotherhood of teamsters by richard henley of schwartzand van houfen. the tectonic strength and spanning capability of thin-shelled concretedenabled the architect to use a hyperbolic parabolloid for the roof, which was 6 inchesthick, over a span of 120 feet and was supported
by angled concreted piers toward the center. in 1956, as design partner in the newly formedhellmuth, obata, and kassabaum, gyo obata started design on the priory church for thecatholic order of benedictines. this was the firms first religious commission. the clientbelieved in the potential of a new architecture to shape modern catholic faith, and as wehave heard from one our participants, that potential he had glimpsed in the light-filled,airy structure of lambert airport and in which thin-shelled concrete played the starringrole as a material. gyo obata effectively reformulated the medieval arch in thin-shelledconcrete as a parabolic form thereby embedding layers of reference for the benedictines whosenormative building style was gothic revival.
instead of glass, obata used kalwall for thewindows, in insulated, reinforced, fiberglass product that appears black on the exteriorbut admits a suffused light to the interior. we have heard about the mcdonald planetarium.busch memorial stadium, which opened in 1966 as the new home of the st. louis baseballcardinals and was demolished in 2005, was part of the logic of the modernized riverfront and formerly very much at peace with the gateway arch from which it took its signatureparabolic motif. designed by edward durell stone, the stadium's graceful coronative parabolasas the roof life realized in concrete exclusive acknowledged saarinen's arch. in 1960, washington university unveiled amodernistic departure from the campus's collegiate
gothic style with steinberg hall, which wasthe first commissioned in the united states with the japanese architect fumihiko maki,who was working at washington university school of architecture at the time. steinberg hallexemplified the potential of thin-shelled concrete with a distinctive roof that remainsa definitive essay in folded plate structure. physicians and related professionals werereally proponents of the modernist design both for its efficiency and relative economyand because of what the new architecture could represent to a public emerging from the stricturesof the depression, namely a confident, optimistic, future oriented approach to medicine. no whereis this more evident than in the orthodontic clinic that harris armstrong designed in 1935for dr. leo shanley in the future county business
district of clayton. a pristine white buildingon a prominent corner site, the shanley building is recognized as the first foray into theinternational style in the area. the building is made from poured concrete and covered witha skin of fine white stucco. returning war veterans created the demandfor new housing that was met by suburban expansion in all directions from st. louis and madeviable through increased car ownership. the ranch houses was the dwelling type of choicefor the middle class family. in the st. louis region, the developed burton dankey realizedearly that money could be made using mass production with its economies of scale toaddress the challenge of affordability. while large houses for the wealthy were literallyspacious in terms of size, area, and volume,
the sense or illusion of space in a structurethat was physically much smaller than it seemed or felt became an indispensable feature ofthe modern middle class house. the washington university trained team of husband and wifearchitects ralph and mary jane fournier, who became collaborators in the realization ofdankey's vision, had a deft talent for creating spaciousness in their architecture. the prototypicalhouse designed for ridgewood in 1952, one of dankey's five subdivisions in the area,featured a slab on grade foundation with post and beam construction and open interiors.prefabricated wall panels manufactured locally by dankey's company were shipped within a550 mile radius of st. louis.st. louis seemed progressive at least to the editor of houseand home, who in 1953 observed that conservative
st. louis buyers were part of a national trendtoward modernist housing and predicted that the dankey-fournier models would be implementedacross the country by them and by others following suit. a novel modular wall system was introducedby ed mutro working in partnership with william bernoudy for the interior and exterior ofhis 1950 house in ladue. demolished in 2005, the mutro house featured walls of fire resistantcemesto board, which the celtex corporation had introduced in 1937 for heat and soundinsulation. asbestos cement was applied to one or both sides of the panels, which inmutro's house, were then painted and mounted in wood frames. a noticeable less aestheticallymediated application of celtex panels could
be found in the residential architecture ofisador shank. shank used structural insulation panels with exposed bare beams which enhancedthe solid look and feel of the house. opening in 1960 and based on modular technology,the climatron at missouri botanical garden was the first application of buckminster fuller'sgeodesic dome concept to a greenhouse. the form encapsulated institution's scientificmission and was readily associated with technological progress. murphy and mackey were the architects.the dome, designed by synergtics, constituted a grid of structural triangles over a sphereand was, according to fuller, the most efficient way to enclose space using minimal material.the dome was fashioned from triangular plexiglass panels suspended from an aluminum frame andsealed by neoprene gaskets. this system pioneered
the use of aluminum as a structural metal.a feat that earned murphy and mackey the 1961 r. s. reynolds memorial prize for innovativeuse of aluminum. in the 1950s, as downtown st. louis declined,redevelopment initiatives in the 1947 city plan drawn up by the architect and plannerharland bartholomew went into effect. plaza square, a complex that integrated six modernapartment blocks of limestone, brick, and concrete with two historic churches on a fourblock site tested the premise that a blighted downtown precinct could be reinvented withmodern, market-rate, high-rise housing that would attract residents back to the urbancore. for the project, the newly formed hok teamed up with harris armstrong. the uniquecolor field of enamel painting on the east
and west walls of the towers were specifiedby alexander girard, who had worked with eero saarinen on the general motors technical centerin detroit and the miller residence in columbus, indiana.you will of course recognize this as pruitt-igoe, which was demolished in the 1970s. from 1950to 1956, the city of st. louis erected public housing on a hither to unprecedented scalein the us, and pruitt-igoe was the largest such project in the region. it consisted of33 flat-roof, concrete slab highrises faced with brick with walls punctuated by glazedgalleries and middle sized windows. the architect minoru yamasaki of hellmuth. yamasaki andlineweber, who would design lambert airport and later the world trade center in new yorkcity, drew his modernist urban planning inspiration
from the [inaudible 00:23:07] who advocatedsome clearance in a tabula rasa. when the implosion started in 1972, pruitt-igoe cameto associate st. louis with a failed public housing experiment and moreover with the demiseof european style modernism itself. from the late 1930s onward, innovative andextensive use of glass marked many new building as modern and we'll look at just one applicationof this. in 1947, harris armstrong designed a headquarters and display center for theamerican stove company, later magic chef, a building that was praised for its strategicuse of day lighting through bands windows running the length of the north and southfacades. armstrong embedded magic chef's marketing strategy into a modern state of the art buildingwith glass expanses that allowed the building
to glow at night in a perpetual advertisingcycle. the retail experience unfolded in a facility replete with vital forms includinga artful play of biomorphic shapes on the ceiling of the entry lobby by the sculptorisamu noguchi, which involved a lunar landscape. stained glass is a feature of the lewis andclark branch library in north county designed by frederick dunn and nolan stinson. dunnand robert harmon of the emil frei studio produced a dazzling display of glass on thenorth fa�ade that integrated figurative representations of the legendary explorerswith fields of saturated primary colors and textured panes of abstraction. this modernistlandmark is under a demolition order as we speak. part of the glass with be displayedin the new building.
in conclusion, i turn to the gateway archwhich is the centerpiece of the jefferson national expansion memorial here on the mississippiriver front and the indispensable symbol by which people everywhere identify st. louis.eero saarinen's pitch perfect, stainless steel expression of the times rises from a complimentarylandscape of biomorphic shaped water features set in greenspace and designed with the landscapearchitect dan kiley. saarinen in search of a form whose simplicity would render it simultaneouslytimeless and magical in the moment started out with a parabolic concept in mind. a parabolais an open form with the central axis and arms diverging symmetrically on both sidesfrom the vertex. saarinen was familiar with parabolic form, and i won't elaborate on thisbut i could later. the arch ended up being catenary
not a parabola.as this compendium shows the incidence of parabolic form in the post war years in st.louis is striking. the architects of these buildings embraced formal innovation usingmaterials such as thin-shelled concrete and structural steel even as brick was revitalizeda building material of choice. the result has been a trove of unique structures whichattests to a spirit of inventiveness in the period. because of historic and mid centurymodern structures are sadly gone, the loss of any one of those remaining should giveus pause. thank you.