Saturday, January 26, 2008

Noguchi in New York

Next time you are in New York, check out the Noguchi Museum housed in a former photo-engraving factory in Long Island City. The museum opened in 1985 and presents a comprehensive collection of artist-designer-sculptor Isamu Noguchi's works. The building is undergoing some renovations, but all of the exhibits and programs are open to the public.

Thursday, January 17, 2008

All Eames All the Time

If you are looking for all things Eames, check out Steve Cabella's site, eamescollector.com. Cabella has been gathering Eames Things, as he calls his collection, for the past 30 years. The site has links to articles from the 1940s, '50s and '60s, info on the Charles and Ray Eames' films and contributions to Hollywood and what he describes as "Eames Moments," or "interesting facts, details and stories that make up some of the Eames 'connections' one finds in the history of the design world."

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Modern for the Masses

Affordable modern housing for the masses. Wasn't that the original thinking behind the modern movement? The philosophy of the Bauhaus style was to create the "perfect worker housing," as Tom Wolfe wrote in From Bauhaus to Our House. Today, a new breed of architects are seeking to create modern, well-designed and affordable housing for those who can't afford to buy the homes designed by the Bauhaus denizens (here's one in Andover, Mass., by Marcel Breuer) or their successors. Read the Wall Street Journal article detailing these new modern projects.

Thursday, January 3, 2008

Saving Modernism

If you have an idea to help preserve a modern architectural landmark or are looking for financial or technical assistance to help save such a site, check out the Modernism at Risk program established in 2006 by the World Monuments Fund and Knoll.