July 12, 2024 Ι Architect’s Newspaper In letters from Argentina’s Sociedad Central de Arquitectos in the 1930s, Itala Fulvia Villa, only the sixth Argentine woman architect, was addressed as “Senorita Arquitecto,” as if the letter writers feared setting a precedent with the feminine gendered form of “architect” in Spanish. They had little reason to fear… Continue reading In Chacarita Moderna: The Brutalist Necropolis of Buenos Aires, Itala Fulvia Villa’s architectural authorship of the necropolis is reclaimed
Tag: Modernism
SOM’s Baxter International suburban office park is part of a vital but unheralded design legacy
Architect’s Newspaper Ι June 15, 2023 As a young architect with SOM in 1972, Richard Tomlinson saw something special in the Baxter International suburban office campus, which was already underway when he joined the firm. “It was conceived as a dynamic campus that made flexibility a fundamental principle,” he told AN. “What fascinated me about… Continue reading SOM’s Baxter International suburban office park is part of a vital but unheralded design legacy
New Exhibition Shines a Light on George Fred Keck’s Solar Home of 1933
February 8, 2022 Ι Architectural Record Chicago architect George Fred Keck (1895-1980) unlike many of his Modernist contemporaries, was a technocrat and tinkerer first and foremost. Long before the advent of solar panels, his solar homes sought to use new technology and materials to make architecture congruent with climate. His 12-sided House of Tomorrow, built in… Continue reading New Exhibition Shines a Light on George Fred Keck’s Solar Home of 1933
Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of Architecture
April 27, 2021 Ι Bloomberg’s CityLab In 1908, architect Ernest Flagg completed the Singer Building in Lower Manhattan, a Beaux-Arts showstopper made for the Singer sewing machine company. From a wide base, a slender 27-story tower rose, topped by a mansard roof and a delicate lantern spire. Every inch dripped with sumptuous detail inside and… Continue reading Inside the ‘Tartarian Empire,’ the QAnon of Architecture
Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 Hosts Compelling Exhibition of Indian Master Doshi
Architectural Record Ι Sept. 16, 2020 As the first Pritzker Prize laureate from the south Asian subcontinent, with a seven-decade career, Balkrishna Doshi is easily viewed as a Modernist standard bearer for Indian architecture. And Balkrishna Doshi: Architecture for the People now at Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 (its only stop in North America) plays up Doshi’s… Continue reading Chicago’s Wrightwood 659 Hosts Compelling Exhibition of Indian Master Doshi
Bertrand Goldberg’s Temple to Futures Past
Architect Magazine Ι March 2020 In October of 2013, Luis Collado and Jose Luis de la Fuente visited Wilbur Wright College, one of the City Colleges of Chicago’s seven campuses, located in the city’s far northwest side bungalow belt. Founders of the architecture firm STL Architects, who often work on education projects, they were interested… Continue reading Bertrand Goldberg’s Temple to Futures Past
A Second Look at Edith Farnsworth and Her Mies van der Rohe–designed Retreat
Architectural Record Ι July 15, 2020 During a visit to the latest exhibition at Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth House in Plano, Illinois, visitors are more likely to encounter a deer (as this writer did) than a single Mies-designed Brno Chair. That’s because the year-long, multi-part exhibition called Edith Farnsworth Reconsidered unfolds across nearly 60 acres of forest… Continue reading A Second Look at Edith Farnsworth and Her Mies van der Rohe–designed Retreat
Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption
Metropolis Magazine Ι July 15, 2019 Architecture is an attractive medium for the trendsetter-turned-multidisciplinary designer and artist Virgil Abloh. Because buildings are often the face of the establishment, they are ripe targets for subversion—Abloh’s calling card. So it’s no surprise that bits of buildings are strewn throughout Figures of Speech, Abloh’s first solo museum exhibition now… Continue reading Virgil Abloh’s MCA Exhibition Reveals the Power—and Limits—of Design Disruption
New Composite Building Materials Are Redefining Modernism at Exhibit Columbus
Redshift Ι July 2, 2018 Since the advent of modernism, architects have dreamed of the perfect material to unify structure and surface. Steel beams and glass windows were the 20th century’s solution, combining the elements holding up buildings and the elements covering buildings into one tidy duo. This century, academic researchers are throwing out this… Continue reading New Composite Building Materials Are Redefining Modernism at Exhibit Columbus
Chicago Exhibit Spotlights Charlotte Perriand’s Alpine Ski Resort
Metropolis Magazine Ι May 23, 2018 The most impressive item depicted at Matthew Rachman’s exhibit of Charlotte Perriand–designed furniture is conspicuously absent from his Chicago gallery—it was too big to fit. The object in question, a gleaming red and white prefab bathroom produced for the designer’s Les Arcs ski resort in the French Alps, was an… Continue reading Chicago Exhibit Spotlights Charlotte Perriand’s Alpine Ski Resort