Modernism in America

 

 

Frank Lloyd Wright was one of the greatest designers of Modernism in America.  He already put his work out there in earlier eras, but now was his time to shine.  The Hollyhock House was built in 1921 in Los Angeles California.  This was one of Wright's monumental structures that was completely poured concrete with cast geometric ornament and had elaborate terraces and garden.  Wright's most successful houses of this time was La Miniatura, also in California.  This house was also made of that stable concrete block with a repeated pattern on the walls.  Wright's most famous house, and my favorite piece of his collection is Fallingwater in Pennsylvania that was built for the Kaufmann family.  This piece of architecture was a staple in Frank Lloyd Wrights career. 



Wright also did non-residential buildings.  The S.C. Johnson Company Office Building in Racine Wisconsin shows great use of daylight and detail with all the spindles throughout. 

Rudolph Schindler once worked with Frank Lloyd Wright, but eventually parted ways.  The Schindler House was a cooperative live and work space for two families.  Schindler and Richard Neurta lived in the house together with their families.  Neurta was also a designer who built the Lovell House after he establishes his own practice in 1926.  Neurta loved working with glass, steel and stone and that's exactly what he used to build the Lovell and Kaufmann House.
Philip Goodwin and Edward Stone designed New York's Museum of Modern Art which made modernism visible to people in New York.  Walter Gropius makes another appearance in AMerica other than in Art Deco style.  He started his own firm that allowed the first modern buildings on the Harvard Campus. 

One of my favorite homes of this time is the Glass House designed by Philip Johnson.  This house was influenced from Mies Van Der Rohe's Farnsworth House.  It is an all glass-walled box with brick used for accents.

Here is a comparison between the Glass House on the left and the Farnsworth House on the right.



The Glass House

The Farnsworth House

 

Here is a quirky video that talks about moving into the Modernism era!

 

 

Current Applications:

 



 

 

 

 

Discussion:

 

I looked at Emily N's blog for Modernism.  I like how she focused on talking about Frank Lloyd Wrights style and design and talked about how she preferred his designs to others.  The video was also a nice touch.  I also looked at Megan Yee's blog.  She picked out a few of the most important designers of this time and focused on those.  I really like her current application pictures as well.

 

You can view their blogs here:

Emily N: http://history1ean.blogspot.com/

Megan Y: http://history2mcy.blogspot.com/