Archinect - News

The 11 most threatened modern sites across the U.S.

2022-04-29T15:44:00-04:00

In response to the recent surprise demolition of Marcel Breuer’s Geller I house on Long Island, modernist conservation group Docomomo US has released its first-ever list of the 11 most threatened modern sites in the United States.

Working on the advice of its chapter members, the group selected 11 sites across the country in danger of seeing the same fate as Breuer’s first post-war residential project beginning with Miami’s Marine Stadium, which is still currently awaiting word on a publicly-funded restoration effort.

Washington state was a popular location, with Space Needle architect John Graham Jr.’s Lloyd Center and the Weyerhaeuser International Headquarters both making the list.

Massachusetts is also well-represented with the “Long House” prototype cotta...

The Ford Foundation's impressive (and much needed) renovation

2018-12-30T16:01:00-05:00

Astonishingly, the feel of the original emerged largely intact. [Darren] Walker, an aficionado of mid-century design with an eye for detail, spent serious money to salvage whatever was salvageable. Hanging brass lighting fixtures, door handles, granite-topped credenzas (some with embedded hot plates), Platner tables and chairs, black walnut bookshelves, bronze trim — 1,500 items in all — were given back their mid-century gleam. The Ford Foundation Building has become a museum of itself.

After many years of detailed renovation, the Ford Foundation has been successfully renovated and is ready to house 2,000 occupants. According to New York Magazine, "[the Ford Foundation] has withdrawn into a fraction of its previous space, halving the size of the president’s once imperial, now merely princely, suite. That shrinkage frees up space for three other nonprofit groups to rent, plus an art gallery and an abundance of meeting rooms."

Photo: Richard Barnes/Ford Foundation

Built in 1967 in Manhattan, New York, the Ford Foundation was designed by Dan Kiley and Roche-Dinkeloo Architects as a 160-foot “corporate greenhouse.” In his book, Manhattan Atmospheres (2014), the historian David Gissen argued that the Ford Foundation was a significant project in the history of environmental design for its ability to marry the image of botanical conservation with burgeoning practices in worker productivity, allowing the building to receive generous funding in its production of a building h...

Building upgrades proposed for Roche + Dinkeloo's Ford Foundation Building

2016-04-21T14:10:00-04:00

The Landmarks Preservation Commission is set to consider a proposed $190 million renovation to the Ford Foundation...Although many aspects of the building have long been outdated...it is health and safety, not aesthetics or technology, that initially drove the foundation’s plans. The city has given Ford until 2019 to bring the building up to code for fire safety and handicapped accessibility...

“...But since they had to scratch the building’s surfaces, Ford Foundation president Darren Walker and his staff decided to go further, upgrading not just by adding sprinklers to the ceilings and greater access to the atrium, but new security, new lighting and mechanicals, and a new spatial organization.”

Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment: Yale Press

2011-05-16T20:41:24-04:00

Kevin Roche and John Dinkeloo met in the Saarinen office, where Roche was Saarinen's indispensible lead designer and Dinkeloo directed the firm's production. Upon Saarinen's sudden death in 1961 the pair assumed control of the firm, completing a series of highly significant projects then in construction or on the boards (including Dulles Airport, the CBS Building, Bell Labs and the St. Louis Arch) after which, in 1966, they seamlessly transitioned into their own independent practice.

Archinect - News

The 11 most threatened modern sites across the U.S.

The Ford Foundation's impressive (and much needed) renovation

Building upgrades proposed for Roche + Dinkeloo's Ford Foundation Building

"Stop the unpermitted demolition": Roche Dinkeloo's shiny UN Plaza Hotel lobby might be remodeled

Kevin Roche: Architecture as Environment: Yale Press