Posts

Hawk House / Stan Hawk

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I don't condone eating turkey. However, if you have to, you should do it on a Hawk House Brazier. I thought today would be a good day to post a Hawk House bio. The one here is much shorter than the one on the bio section section of the website, which can be found here .  Hawk House was a small but influential design venture that helped define the California Modern lifestyle. Founded by Edwin “Stan” Stanton Hawk Jr. and his wife, Ethyle O. Hawk, the company grew from ideas first tested in their 1939 Harwell Hamilton Harris–designed home in Silver Lake. Through collaborations with landscape architect Roberto Coelho Cardozo, Hawk House produced a line of inventive indoor-outdoor furnishings that became fixtures in Case Study Houses, and were embraced by leading designers, retailers, and museums. Though modest in scale and short-lived, Hawk House left an enduring imprint on the visual and material language of postwar California design. Hawk House (1939) by Harwell Hamilton Harris In 19...
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Weekend / Stuff

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I was pretty much rained out last weekend. 
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Minoru Yamasaki / Detroit

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  McGregor Memorial Conference Center (1958) This was the first building Yamasaki designed on the Wayne State campus. College of Education Building (1960) by Minoru Yamasaki This was the second Yamasaki building on the campus. Helen L. DeRoy Auditorium (1964) I did a post on Wayne State the last time I was in Detroit.  I think the new photos are better.  One Woodward Ave was Yamasaki's first skyscraper. Reynolds Metal Regional Sales Office (1959) in Southfield Another repeat from 2018 . The interior is a bit rough. Temple Beth El (1973) in Bloomfield Hills The Minoru and Teruko (Hirashiki) Yamasaki House (1972) in Bloomfield Hills. Minuro lived here until he passed in 1986 and Teruko in 1997. He designed this lamp, which is still in the house. So is the screen his buddy Harry Bertoia made for him.
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Alvar Aalto Library / Oregon

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The Mount Angel Abbey library (1970), designed by Alvar Aalto. It's located about an hour south of Portland, Oregon.  In the early 1960s, library director Fr. Barnabas Reasoner, O.S.B., invited Alvar Aalto to design a new library for Mount Angel Abbey, a Roman Catholic seminary. Captivated by both his love of libraries and the beauty of the Abbey’s hilltop setting, Aalto accepted the project for only a nominal fee. The library was funded by Howard and Jean Vollum. It was the site, and the monks' appreciation of their responsibility for its sensitive development, along with the Benedictines' emphasis on a contemporary approach to the world, that led the monks to Aalto. ( Architectural Record, May 1971) Aalto only designed two permanent buildings in the United States. This library and the Baker House dormitory at MIT (1949). Other projects include the Finnish Pavilion at the 1939 New York World's Fair (demolished), and the Edgar J. Kaufmann Conference Facility (1964) on t...
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