Modernist Cars?

Is it true that modernism bled into car building?
Yes, the cars and buildings of this era were meant to work together.
Probably one of the best examples of this is the Detomaso Mangusta:

If you want lots of details about Italian automakers of the 1960s, there are many books about Bertone, Pininfarina, Italdesign etc.

But American cars were also at the forefront in the 1960s, wherein architectural style and car design were going in lockstep toward a mid-60s angular ideal.  Consider the 1965 Ford Thunderbird:

The '65 Ford definitely seems to have some Italian influence, that is to say, strict modernist.  The vent at the base of the rear window is really stunning.  I just saw one of these on the road this weekend.

Wild statement cars from Bertone kind of explored the logical terminus of the pure modernism.  The Stratos Zero:

The bizarro world of Bertone (Marcello Gandini) created the above Lancia Stratos Zero (1970) and some other pretty fantasto-ridiculous pointy Italian things.  Such as the "Lamborghini" Marzal (1967)!!

The dash motif insider this car (hexagonal "honeycomb" grids) is an element you may recognize from buildings of the period.  Here's a Marcel Breuer example from the Saint John's Abbey in Collegeville, MN

The mid-1960s had it going on!

The Giorgetto Giugiaro-designed Lotus Esprit prototype (1972) was supposedly a "folded paper" design.  Obviously, the original here was probably a little more classy than the later Lotus Esprits that were built in the 1980s-90s.

From the same Paris 1972 car show, Italdesign's other show car, the Maserati Boomerang, also needs a look:

Let's also give some due credit to the Americans:

 (Above) about 1964 Buick Riviera.

(Below) 1960 Ford F-100.

(Below) Even the wipers on a Chevelle had a nice tanky metal over-builtness that was part of American -- relative to Italian -- 1960s modern design.

1950s Italian.

Higher Ed

Universities and Colleges (and secondary schools) have sponsored some interesting modern buildings.

For example MIT had Eero Saarinen build two.

Kresge Auditorium (1953-55):

Kresge Chapel at MIT:

To mention an obvious tangent for future posts, modernism found some very great exponents in church builders during the 1940s-70s.  Minneapolis / St. Paul has loads of them.

The Beinecke Library (Gordon Bunshaft, 1963) at Yale has a neat CRT television-style stencil across the exterior.

Those CRT patterns also appear in the 1971 University Park Plaza, a pentagonal (!) office building adjacent to the Twin Cities campus of the University of Minnesota.

Dear old Dartmouth had a few nice modernist designs, which of course were destroyed.  The Peter Kiewit Computation Center:

....  as well as Gerry and Bradley Halls, the famous "Shower Towers."  Kiewit was destroyed in 2000.  It was interesting partly because its main public accommodations were one level under grade.  

The Shower Towers:

Now gone.

St. John's University in Collegeville, MN has several amazing modernist assets (including their incredible Marcel Breuer designed Abbey, to be included in a churches post -- perhaps an exclusive Catholic Church post).

Their Peter Engel Science Center, of Marcel Breuer:

And their Alcuin Library:

What an amazing place.  I think St. John's might have the top modernist assets and certainly wins for concentration of modernist sites.

Kosovo's National Library in Pristina deserves a look:

Whew!  That's crazy!

Finally, something pretty well chronicled in architecture books: Louis Kahn's creation at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, NH.  Kahn designed this library in 1965.

Welcome - Etc

You are going to read about architecture and stuff here.  We will see.

You (and I) may have been asking, what is the true "legit" modern architecture?  What is the true blue?  The real essential peak?

I am a total amateur starting a blog.  I am unburdened by actual knowledge.  I don't know.

To find out, we're going to host photos here and find out together.

So here is a living room at the Miller House, in Columbus, Indiana.  It is a 6,800sf Eero Saarinen home recently donated to posterity to be a shrine for architectural appreciation.  

We can see some obvious elements like the sunken living room, luxurious bare marble surfaces, and recessed (natural) lighting!  The 1950s had a lot of really good things coming together!  It's very exciting!

A more obvious Eero Saarinen favorite; here is the TWA Flight Center at JFK airport, which must have been designed in the late 1950s.  Upon my own inspection of it in 2006, security heroes directed me far away from the doors, because I was clearly a terrorist bent on architectural appreciation!  May I burn in hell!

~

Lastly today, let us look at a representation of decay.  Decay can be neat and photos of decaying buildings can be pleasing to look at.

Here is the very interesting raceway west of Phoenix, Ariz -- a facility originally known as Trotter Park.  Apparently opened in 1965 (at a high modernist moment).  The panes of glass are all gone.  

Having such a large climate controlled spectator bubble, and shielding the audience against the 110F temperatures in Hell, I mean outdoor Arizona, must have seemed like a killer business idea.  It still faces a vast dusty field.  

Today, the complex is rather intact considering 30+ years of neglect.  Real decay pictures will have to wait for another day.  Today we celebrate modernism.

  

The structure has some cheesy, Vegas Excalibur-esque elements on the grounds, though.  It seems to be suggesting that everybody have a festive modern ol' time.