October 2010 Archives

Finnish-born architect Eero Saarinen would have turned 100 this year.  Christ Church Lutheran in Minneapolis, a modernist brick-and-glass church, was designed in 1949 by his father, Eliel Saarinen. Expanded in 1962 by Eero, it's designated a National Historic Landmark. One of the 20th century's most famous father-son design teams, Eliel and Eero used brick and glass to create serene light-filled spaces whose simplicity influenced thousands of church designs.

For a gallery of photographs of the building, go here.

In order to foster awareness of open access publishing, the University Libraries are organizing a series of activities during the week of 18-22 October, designated as National Open Access Week. Activities include webcasts, workshops, and awareness tables. Follow the link http://z.umn.edu/oaweek for a schedule of informative activities.

Visit meaningful public spaces in the Twin Cities, from Target Field to the Mississippi riverfront, and you are likely to see sites artfully designed by Tom Oslund.  Officed on Washington Avenue above a music shop, the nine-person Oslund and Associates has made an outsized impact on Minnesota public space.

Read more about Tom Oslund's public space projects here.

As photo assignments go, it's a doozy: Spend 16 years capturing the disappearing highways, byways, buildings, barns, lighthouses, baseball games and bake-offs that define American life as we know it, then salt it away for posterity in the world's largest library.

Of course, your assignment also requires that you raise your own funds, provide your own travel -- and, oh yes -- donate all of your work, copyright-free, for eternity.

This is the unorthodox and stunning task Washington-based photographer Carol M. Highsmith has set herself, embarking on a 50-state tour to capture timeless images for a permanent collection in the Library of Congress. The thousands of images she takes are free for downloading immediately, to anyone for any purpose. The digital works will go into the Library of Congress' Prints and Photographs Online Catalog, alongside the works of Civil War photographer Mathew Brady and Depression-era photographer Dorothea Lange, in the Carol M. Highsmith Archive

Read more of this story reported in the Star Tribune, here.

The Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library at Columbia University has acquired a unique archive relating to efforts of theater director Paton Price to construct a "New Theater" designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in Hartford, CT.

The archive spans the years 1948 to 1951 and documents Price's relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright through the course of planning the New Theater. The collection consists of letters, telegrams, publicity material, photographs, and a large perspective view of the Theater signed by Wright.

Wright had originally designed a "New Theater" for Woodstock, NY in 1931 that never came to fruition. When Paton Price (1916-1982) wrote to him in early 1948 proposing a new venue in Hartford, CT, the architect took the opportunity to revive his earlier project. Price would fund the construction through his own savings and from donations and loans, and received endorsements from members of the theater community including Kirk Douglas, Helen Hayes, and Henry Fonda.

The New Theater plan was debuted at a party in Hartford on January 25, 1949, hosted by Hartford Times publisher Francis Murphy for Price and Wright. Said Wright at the time, "This theater is the one thing I simply must build before they put me in a box."

The project received opposition from local Hartford residents, and eventually was turned down by the zoning board. Wright and Price remained on friendly terms, and the architect later realized his dream to build a theater in the Kalita Humphreys Theater in Dallas, TX, which opened in 1959.

Camille LeFevre, in MinnPost.com , recently posted this review of the current exhibit at the Arch./Landscape Arch. Library.

Artist Tom Rose, a professor in the Department of Art at the University of Minnesota, has created a small but exquisite exhibition of his work with architectural underpinnings. It is currently on view in the ALA Library at Rapson Hall, University of Minnesota. 

Titled "Time Frames and Other Stories," the show, on view until Oct. 16, investigates Rose's interest in the geometry of architectural plans, and how their lines, shapes, forms and even -- at times -- color create a narrative for space in the present for a structure to be built in the future.

The large-format images he's created are almost surrealistic representations of structure, memory and image. Some include photographed bits of buildings reduced to their architectural bones, created possibilities for narratives infused with mystery and longing.