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Design Agendas: Modern Architecture in St. Louis, 1930s–1970s

2024-08-16T16:13:00-04:00

The story of modern architecture in St. Louis is complex and often contradictory.

Beginning in the 1930s, internationally known architects such as Eric Mendelsohn, Eero Saarinen and Minoru Yamasaki — alongside important regional and national figures like Harris Armstrong, Charles Fleming, Joseph Murphy and Gyo Obata — created iconic structures that embodied new ideas about form and, in many cases, democratic social organization. Yet the period also was marked by racial segregation and by large-scale demolitions throughout the urban core.

This fall, the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum at Washington University in St. Louis will present “Design Agendas: Modern Architecture in St. Louis, 1930s–1970s.” With nearly 300 architectural drawings, models, photographs, films, digital maps and artworks, “Design Agendas” is the first major exhibition to examine how interlocking civic, cultural and racial histories, as well as conflicting ideological aims, reshaped the city.

“I lived in Pruitt-Ig...

Five anonymous proposals for the Bezos Learning Center: Can you spot the starchitects?

2022-09-09T11:18:00-04:00

Five design proposals have been unveiled for the Bezos Learning Center at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington D.C. The $130 million Smithsonian scheme, funded by a $200 million donation from Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, will serve as an education center on the topics of air and space exploration.

The center will be built on the site of a recently-demolished glass pyramid pavilion designed by the late architect Gyo Obata, which opened in 1988. In its place, the Bezos Learning Center will measure approximately 50,000 square feet, holding restaurants, exhibition spaces, a rooftop terrace, and a public observatory.

The five proposals have been made publicly available for comment on the National Air and Space Museum website until September 19th. While the architectural team behind each scheme remains anonymous, the scale and profile of the commission has no doubt attracted some of the largest names in the industry.

A timeline for the selection of winners, and a program for co...

HOK cofounder Gyo Obata passes away at 99

2022-03-10T12:36:00-05:00

HOK has announced the death of the studio’s cofounder Gyo Obata, who passed away on March 8th at age 99. One of three principals who founded the practice in St. Louis, Missouri, Obata’s architectural career spanned six decades until his retirement in 2012.

HOK Cofounders with Priory Model. Left to Right: Gyo Obata, George Hellmuth, George Kassabaum. Image Credit: HOK

Obata was born in San Francisco in 1923 and enrolled in the architecture program at the University of California, Berkeley in 1942. His studies were interrupted by the internment of people of Japanese ancestry during World War II, which would see him travel to St. Louis to continue his architectural training at Washington University — one of the only U.S. universities which continued to accept Japanese-American students. Obata concluded his education with a Masters in Architecture and Urban Design from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan in 1946.

Priory Chapel at Saint Louis Abbey. Image Credit: HOK...