Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future.

It’s been three years since the traveling exhibit Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future kicked off in Helsinki, and the tour has finally made it to New York. This retrospective takes an in-depth look at Eero Saarinen, the architect and designer whose work brought international attention to mid-twentieth-century America. While you may know that Saarinen designed the TWA Terminal at JFK (shown above), the St. Louis Gateway Arch, and the Tulip™ and Womb™ chairs, you might be surprised to know the full scale of Saarinen’s career. The “potent expressions of national power” that Saarinen designed introduced modern architecture to mainstream America. The impact of which continues to shape architectural practices today. For Nicolai Ouroussoff’s review in The New York Times, click here. The exhibit is at the Museum of the City of New York through January 31, 2010.

Image: TWA Terminal, New York International (now John F. Kennedy International) Airport, New York, circa 1962. Photographer Balthazar Korab. 

Cranbrook comes to DWR.

The Cooper Hewitt, National Design Museum hosted the 10th Annual National Design Awards on October 22, and the DWR E62nd Studio proudly offered our expansive split-level space to the Cranbrook Academy of Art's Alumni Reception to honor their winners and finalists. The illustrious crowd of designers and architects, both famous and soon-to-be famous, nibbled, imbibed and reunited merrily.

Luminaries in attendence included Lorraine Wild (2001 finalist), Neils Diffrient (2002 winner), Lucille Tenazas (2002 winner), Masamichi Udagawa (2003, 2006 finalist and 2008 winner - designer of the new subway trains and Metrocard machines for the MTA), Kathy and Mike McCoy (2005 winners) and Andrew Blauveldt (2009 winner, on behalf of the Walker Art Center), as well as noted inventor and industrial designer Eric Chan.

We had the opportunity to chat with Neils Diffrient who was charming, courtly and laugh out loud hilarious.  After going through the chairs that he designed in the DWR collection, he was game for a photo op, perching in his now iconic Freedom Chair with Headrest sandwiched by me and Reed Kroloff, Director of Cranbrook.

A great time was had by all, and the atmosphere was enhanced by the images of Cranbrook alumni Ray and Charles Eames, Harry Bertoia and Eero Saarinen that adorn our walls. For us design-obsessed DWR employees, it's a daily privilege to be associated with the Academy's amazing legacy. As the New York Times said in 1984, "the effect of Cranbrook and its graduates and faculty on the physical environment of this country has been profound...Cranbrook, surely more than any other institution, has a right to think of itself as synonymous with contemporary American design."

Posted by Jae Hah, Proprietor of DWR East 62nd Street Studio

A master of film, now on film.

The next best thing to actually spending a day with photographer Julius Shulman, is virtually spending a day with him – which is possible with the release of Eric Bricker’s documentary: Visual Acoustics: The Modernism of Julius Shulman. Now open in New York and opening October 16 in Los Angeles, the film examines how Shulman’s work impacted architectural history. Peppered with Shulman’s quips and anecdotes (and a bit of gossip) about some of architecture’s most iconic figures, Visual Acoustics is a marvelous refresher course on the subject of modernism. You’ll also pick up photography tips from the master himself, as Shulman discusses his use of one-point perspective and how to avoid distortion through a wide-angle lens. He jokes, he reminisces, he basks in well-deserved praise. A fun ride that’s touching, informative and stunning, I strongly recommend you check out this film. For a sneak peek and a chance to meet Bricker, go to the DWR Beverly Boulevard Studio on Wednesday, October 14. 

Preservation progress on Cape Cod.

As we say goodbye to Ted Kennedy, his brother Jack has also been on my mind during my stay on Cape Cod. It was President Kennedy who established the Cape Cod National Seashore, and within this federally protected area are a handful of abandoned and threatened modern houses that we covered last October "Cubes on dunes: Exploring modern houses on Cape Cod.” I spent the last few days catching up with the Cape Cod Modern House Trust (CCMHT) to see the progress that has been made on preserving the Kugel-Gips house (shown above) in Wellfleet. Designed in 1970 by Charlie Zehnder, the house had water damage and wood rot when I saw it last year. Most of the damaged areas have now been restored, and Peter McMahon, executive director of the CCMHT, estimates that the project will be complete in about six weeks. After that, a scholar-in-residence program will begin, and the Trust will focus on the next house they plan to save, most likely the Hatch Cottage by John Hall, which I’ll tell you more about in an upcoming issue of Design Notes.

Sweet!

 Tomorrow morning, San Francisco’s Lombard Street (known as the crookedest street in town) will be remade into a giant Candyland board (known as the sweetest kid's game ever). To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the iconic board game, the street will be closed to traffic as young folk from San Francisco Children’s Hospital play the giant board. Stay tuned for some pics from the super sweet San Francisco event.

Over the river, through the woods.

Having grown up in Western Massachusetts, it’s tough for me think of it as a destination (you know, a place where people choose to spend their time off, not to just visit their parents). This has all recently changed thanks to a week spent in the Berkshires. If you’ve spent any time driving through Massachusetts’ back roads (and by “back roads” I mean “highways” like Routes 2 or 9) you’ve seen the massive brick buildings that used to house the mill/factory/headquarters of many long-defunct manufacturing companies. These huge, gorgeous, industrial structures stand empty in small towns throughout the state, only now with a Price Chopper or Wal-Mart installed nearby. 

We’ll miss you Julius Shulman.

It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of our dear friend Julius Shulman. The legendary photographer died on July 15 at the age of 98. Shulman has been part of our family since the beginning, and it seems like everyone at DWR has a great story about Shulman or one of his photographs above their desk or a favorite book of his work in their library. Shulman amazed us with his talent and kept us laughing with his stories. We loved him dearly, and as my colleague Matt Wilkerson so graciously put it, “we should all be so lucky to live a life as full as his was.”

I scream, you scream, even modernists scream.

Via the Times blog, we started salivating (just a little) about Coolhaus’ ice cream confections, served out of a retro aluminum and hot pink ice cream truck. Sure, street food is all the rage in the urban centers these days, but this takes food design to a whole new level. Their ice cream sandwiches are artfully crafted and include flavors like Mies Vanilla Rohe and Richard Meyer Lemon. You can follow them on Twitter to find out where they’ll be next. Nice Q&A with the founders here.

In case the Fawcett House isn’t for you: Frank Lloyd Wright’s Ennis House.

Another Frank Lloyd Wright house now for sale: The Ennis House – built in 1924 in Los Angeles – has been featured in movies and TV shows for years. Fifteen million will get you this legendary building, which has been under the care of a private foundation and was put on the National Trust for Historic Preservation’s most endangered list in 2005. Unable to keep up the necessary maintenance to preserve the mostly concrete structure (perhaps it suffering from “concrete creep?” See previous blog post.), they’ve put it up for sale. Learn more about it here.

Happy Birthday Mr. Wright.

To celebrate the birthday of Frank Lloyd Wright, today the Guggenheim and Google launched a unique design challenge: The “Design It: Shelter Competition” invites amateur and professional designers to submit a 3-D shelter, rendered using Google SketchUp and Google Earth. This assignment is part of the curriculum of Taliesin, the Frank Lloyd Wright School of Architecture, and an exhibit of students’ work is now at the Guggenheim (Kaman Amin’s Lotus Shelter is pictured above). Now this design challenge is now open to the public. Possible prizes include a trip to New York and $1,000. So get sketching.