<p>Every generation has its signature architectural movement: Christopher Wren’s plundering of classical Greek references and the notebooks of Andrea Palladio marked much of the eighteenth century. Massive Victorian piles of brick marked much of the nineteenth as did a revival of ancient Gothic themes that continued well into the twentieth. But, with the end of World War Two and the baby boom that followed, college planners embraced the Bauhaus movement which had its roots in Europe in the 1920s With its emphasis on geometric shapes, the imaginative juxtaposition of glass with reinforced concrete, their relative ease of construction was tailor made for The Sputnik Era.</p>
<p>They are, however, a vanishing breed, especially in the arms race atmosphere of today’s campus planners where they are often identified with the turbulent social changes that swept over Europe and the United States during the sixties and seventies. Built during an era of cheap oil, the decision between renovation or demolition is often complicated by their energy inefficiency as well as the presence of asbestos and lead paint in their interiors:</p>
<p>Whether any of them will be left to represent their era in another ten to twenty years, is an open question. Among my favorite candidates, many were designed by either Eero Saarinen or a firm associated with him. But, many were not. In no particular order they are:</p>
<p>Noyes Hall at Vassar also designed by Eero Saarinen and full of his furniture, I have a friend who lived there, they called the downstairs the “Jetson’s Lounge.”</p>
<p>St. John’s Abbey Church at St. John’s University in Collegeville, MN, was designed by Marcel Breuer and is considered a masterpiece of mid-century architecture.</p>
<p>this is a good thread.
We are tearing down midcentury buildings in Seattle, and putting up butt ugly condos.
Like where our neighborhood library was.
<a href=“Ballard Branch, The Seattle Public Library - HistoryLink.org”>Ballard Branch, The Seattle Public Library - HistoryLink.org;
Sure the newer one is bigger and has underground parking, but the previous one had an interior courtyard with a fountain. The building was a used bookstore for a while, but land is just too expensive.
But you’ll note that the library that opened in 1904 is still being used.</p>
<p>The Oberlin college conservatory and its twin the King building were designed by World Trade Center architect Minoru Yamasuki.in the early 1960s.</p>
<p>mathmom, I was going to bring up Brutalism too. Much of the college of Hampshire College is Brutalist. So are some horrid buildings at UW-Madison (Vilas, Humanities).</p>
<p>Not sure if I’m getting this right but Illinois Institute of Technology designed by Mies van der Rohe <a href=“Yahoo Image Search”>Yahoo Image Search;
<p>I loved everything about this campus. The bathrooms in the student center were great lol!</p>
<p>In reference to post #13. The Illinois Tech Campus has a lot of Mies and his disciples but the good ones are Crown Hall, the God Box and the Metals Building. The Student Center (new one) is a Rem Koolhaas construction of 2005 vintage and the new dorms are Helmut Jahn from 2006 or so. The old student center (Herman Hall) is not a Mies building but a poor copy of Crown Hall.</p>
<p>I lived in Erdman for two years and encountered many architecture students and groupies examining it. No one who’s lived in Erdman thinks it belongs on a site called “great buildings.”</p>
<p>I spent years in buildings designed by both Eliel and Eero Saarinen. Prefer Eliel. Have to add that Cranbrook Art Academy would not be nearly as great or as famous if not for the sculptures by Carl Milles, from Jonah & the Whale across the lawn to the Orpheus fountain and then the small ones cascading down the backside reflecting pools. It was more collaborative than we might think today. </p>
<p>I think of modernism as separate from mid-century modern, the former being more formal and public buildings and the latter being more housing and informal. A building that combines the two is Eliel Saarinen’s Kingswood School at Cranbrook. It has the long, low lines we associate with Wright and a series of intimate spaces plus formal spaces scaled to human size. The Green Lobby is an absolute marvel but any hallway conveys beauty and grace and homeyness. By contrast, though the pathway between Morse and Stiles is a beautiful evocation of an Italian hill town, it isn’t where you want to linger. It’s more for admiring as an experience, much like the hockey rink (or the TWA terminal in its day). </p>
<p>I love the home architecture that we call mid-century, particularly the California kind because that climate enables the space to connect to the outside. I never liked the 1960’s and later “beach” style in the East. I know the history of its descent from beach shacks but I think the style doesn’t scale up well, particularly in height, and it seems artificially pristine to me. </p>
<p>I loved working in Mies van der Rohe buildings (the IBM Plaza and the Dirksen Federal Building). They feel spacious and free in a way other office buildings don’t. The west-facing offices really roast in the summer, though.</p>
