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Supergraphics pioneer Barbara Stauffacher Solomon dies at 95

2024-05-13T19:06:00-04:00

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, the influential California-based graphic designer and landscape architect, passed away on May 7th in San Francisco at the age of 95.

Stauffacher Solomon died a prominent member of the design community whose career advanced aside an unusual synthesis of modern art, design, and architecture with many noted collaborators in all three channels and will be particularly remembered for the Supergraphics paintings she made in the late 1960s while in residence at the Sea Ranch utopian community.

Barbara Stauffacher Solomon's Land(e)scape, 2018. Image courtesy Rob Corder/Flickr (CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed)

“It took a lot of verve for Bobbie to survive in a hostile environment, let alone blaze a trail,” biographer Joseph Becker recalled to the New York Times’ obituary section. “But she had the ability to create these amazing works that reflect her attitude that there should be something fun about the spaces we inhabit. In graphic design, landscape architecture, and her boo...

Reimagining Detroit: A+D Museum’s The Architectural Imagination

2017-10-09T23:43:00-04:00

Architecture is a creative media that analyzes what is, while imagining what could and should be. Located in Los Angeles’ Art District, A+D Museum's current exhibit, The Architectural Imagination, is a showcase of re-imagining and rebuilding the outdated industrial urbanscape of Detroit, Michigan. Before coming to Los Angeles, the exhibition premiered during the 2016 Venice Architecture Biennale.

During the mid-20th century, Detroit was a booming urban center bursting with blue collar and white collar families benefiting from the automotive industry. However, as automotive industries began to move their factories to cheaper markets and with the rather recent American automotive bankruptcies and government bailouts, Detroit has been challenged with repurposing the remnants of an abandoned era. The projects showcased in the exhibit present ideas for compelling modern design along with appropriate programming (think atriums, markets, and green spaces) to regenerate existing neighborh...