The Miller House and Garden, now owned by the Indianapolis Museum of Art, is acknowledged as one of the greatest Modernist collaborations. This thirteen-acre property was developed between 1953 and 1957 as a unified design through the close teamwork of Kiley, architects Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche, interior designer Alexander Girard (who is acknowledged in the film), and clients J. Irwin and Xenia Miller. — Huffington Post
The recent film Columbus is centered around a love story of a son of a renowned architecture critic stuck in a small Midwestern town and a 'young architecture enthusiast' who works at the local library. Taking place in mid-century Modernism mecca, Columbus, IN, the motion picture spares plenty of spectacular views of iconic Modernist sites: the Miller House, North Christian Church (1964), Cummins Inc. Irwin Office Building (1954), First Christian Church (1942), and Columbus Regional Hospital Mental Health Center (1972). The characters, surprisingly, do not fail to acknowledge the architects at each location—there are mentions of Eero and Eliel Saarinen, James Polshek... However, Dan Kiley, whose landscapes are often the movie's pivotal settings, got left out and never once credited.
Kiley designed more projects in Columbus than any architect—over thirty landscapes which among many others include the Art Institute of Chicago, South Garden (1962), Jefferson National Expansion Expansion Memorial, St. Louis, MO (1947, with Eero Saarinen), the John F. Kennedy Library, Boston, MA (1978, with I.M. Pei), and the Donald J. Hall Sculpture Garden at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO (1988).
To learn more about Kiley, visit the Chicago Architecture Foundation, which is currently hosting a traveling photographic exhibition The Landscape Architecture Legacy of Dan Kiley that features 45 newly commissioned photographs of 27 of Kiley’s more than 1,000 designs.
3 Comments
To use a movie reference, the architect is always the top billing, the director. Collaborators are essential, like Kiley and Girard, but they are players in the architect's vision.
That's a shame. Maybe I'll ask this to Kogonada at the screening/Q&A in a couple weeks. Kiley is a very important part of Columbus' history and growing up in Columbus his name wasn't mentioned as much as the Saarinens, Pei, etc...
Kogonada *does* mention the importance of Dan Kiley in the design of the empty spaces of this movie! Listen here in the podcast...
https://archinect.com/news/art...
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