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[Helen Liu] Fong’s specialty was Googie architecture, what Wong calls futuristic “Jetson kind of aesthetic” coffee shops and motels that would sweep the highways of America in the middle of the last century. Some of Fong’s most famous projects include the Holiday Bowl on Crenshaw Boulevard, the first Norms Restaurant, Johnie’s Coffee Shop, and the still kicking Pann’s Restaurant at 6710 La Tijera Boulevard. — Curbed LA
A whimsical subcategory of mid-century design, known as 'Googie' architecture, was as integral to the Southern California architecture scene as any modernist homes designed by Schindler, Neutra or the Eameses. This is because Googie architecture was the design of choice for coffee shops, delis... View full entry
In 1961, early in the architect's career, Paul Rudolph completed the Milam Residence in Ponte Verda Beach, Florida. Fortunately, it was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2016, and, according to the Paul Rudolph Heritage Foundation, "the family of Arthur W. Milam, who... View full entry
The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts was designed by architect Harry Weese, with the surrounding landscape by Dan Kiley, and was completed in 1969. [...]
In December 2018, the Center announced an overhaul of the cultural venue, the culmination of a months-long strategic planning process. However, the proposal drew backlash for its insensitve treatment of the Dan Kiley-designed landscape.
— Docomomo US
At the center of the historic designation discussion is the planned replacement of the 36 horse chestnut trees in front of the Marcus Center with a lawn bordered by 18 honey locust trees. "Preservationists said removing the trees would harm the legacy of grove designer Dan Kiley, whose other... View full entry
It’s official: The TWA Hotel will start taking reservations on February 14, in anticipation of a soft opening on May 15. [...]
The hotel’s opening will be the culmination of years of work to revive Eero Saarinen’s beloved midcentury landmark. The TWA Flight Center, a stunning example of Space Age architecture, closed in 2001, and has largely been hidden from public view since then, save for a few tours and events here and there.
— Curbed NY
The TWA Hotel at JFK Airport previously on Archinect. View full entry
Le Corbusier’s Parisian studio apartment has reopened to the public following a two-year restoration to its storied bones...French architect François Chatillon was tapped for the €1m restoration project, which marks the 50th anniversary of the Fondation Le Corbusier. Chatillon has brought back the original colour palette and textures of the 240 sqm Modernist home as well as replacing degraded materials. — The Spaces
The modernist Parisian apartment, where Le Corbusier and his wife Yvonne Gallis lived from 1934 to 1965, is located on Rue nungesser et coli 24 and is open to the public on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays. View full entry
The Bailey House, one of the approximately 20 surviving Los Angeles residences from Arts & Architecture magazine’s Case Study House program is once again up for grabs.
Designated CSH No. 21, the Hollywood Hills home was built between 1956 and ’58 by Pierre Koenig for psychologist Walter Bailey and his wife Mary, whom Arts & Architecture described as a “contemporary-minded” couple with no children and an informal lifestyle.
— Curbed LA
Looking to purchase some property in the Hollywood Hills? Something iconic maybe, preferably midcentury? How about a Case Study House? — Lucky you! The Pierre Koenig-designed CSH #21B 'Walter Bailey House' just came back on the market and asks for $3.6 million. View full entry
It was 1962 all over again at New York’s John F. Kennedy airport yesterday. After three years in development, the public got a first glimpse of the highly anticipated TWA Hotel—and it’s groovy. With the Eero Saarinen-designed TWA Flight Center as its centerpiece and spiritual core, the 512-room hotel is poised to be a shrine to the so-called golden age of travel. — quartzy.qz.com
Connected to Eero Saarinen's TWA Flight Center, the new TWA Hotel plays up its architectural history — from the authentic Saarinen-designed Womb Chairs in each guest room to the rotary telephones. Certainly, the four-star plus hotel is equipped with contemporary amenities, like... View full entry
Beverley "David" Thorne, the last of the Case Study architects and the designer of Dave and Iola Brubeck’s modernist California and Connecticut homes, died December 6 in Sonoma, Calif. He was 93. [...]
Bev designed Harrison House, Case Study No. 26, in San Francisco in 1963.
— Enter Tint Name
Case Study House #26. Photo via csh26.info.The Case Study #26 "Harrison House" Thorne designed in San Rafael, California is the only Case Study House in the San Francisco Bay Area. View full entry
“We’re like surgeons around a body,” said David Chipperfield as he looked at Berlin’s New National Gallery. The building, designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, one of the 20th century’s greatest architects, was almost as bare as it had been at its topping-out ceremony, in April 1967. The British architect and his lieutenant, Martin Reichert [...] surveyed the dirty steel frame and exposed concrete walls atop weed-strewn sand. “We’ve opened him up and now we’re looking at him.’” — The New York Times
Roughly half-way through the enormous undertaking of renovating Mies van der Rohe's 1967 masterpiece, the New National Gallery in Berlin, David Chipperfield allows us a glimpse into the structure's completely gutted belly, chats about the challenges of touching an icon, and shares some of the... View full entry
Archinectors recently had a chance to win “Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: West Coast USA” by Sam Lubell. Published by Phaidon, this handy travel guide features over 250 Mid-Century Modern projects neatly organized into color-coded chapters that cover the Pacific Northwest... View full entry
Any design maven is aware that America's West Coast is chockfull of historic mid-century modern architecture designed by the likes of Charles and Ray Eames, Rudolph Schindler, John Lautner, and Richard Neutra. Of course, there's more than just the most infamous icons, but where to begin? Whether... View full entry
News of the “long-lost” Lautner echoed around Los Angeles and the world. The architecture community marveled at how a home designed by a modernist genius could go unnoticed for decades. [...]
Somehow, the Salkin Residence, which was completed around the same time as more acclaimed Lautner projects like the Desert Hot Springs Motel, was left out of the architect’s list of works when it was assembled by his devotees years later.
— The New York Times
The NY Times portraits the 'long-lost' John Lautner-designed Salkin Residence, built in 1948 in LA's Echo Park neighborhood and, over the last three years, painstakingly restored to renewed beauty by designer/business woman Trina Turk and her husband, Jonathan Skow. View full entry
It takes a certain audacity to move to rural-nowhere and erect a house from found materials, to grow your own food and carve, kiln or create whatever else you need. And the house itself, in its porous approach to its natural surroundings, exhibits a typically Californian philosophy of design. — NYT - T Magazine
Back in November Amanda Fortini profiled The Blunk House. Designed/built by the late multidisciplinary artist-craftsman J.B. Blunk in Marin County, the cabin is a holistic expression of an artistic life. View full entry
These buildings aren't from a distant galaxy far, far away. They're here on Planet Earth, specifically in Belgrade, Serbia. Locally based photographer Mirko Nahmijas wanted to give a new perspective to some of his hometown's historically-loaded Brutalist structures in his photo series... View full entry
one of the city’s better-kept secrets is how often these places occupy structures that could easily be counted among the more significant examples of mid-20th century architecture in the country. That is, if anyone were bothering to look. — NYT
Guy Trebay sings the praises of Tuscon for architectural tourism: from the Arizona Inn (listed on the National Register of Historic Places) to the iconic buildings and glowing signs of "Miracle Mile”. Or for the many examples of midcentury Modern architecture adapted to the local... View full entry
