Esoteric Survey

The Denver Art Museum by Gio Ponti and  James Sudler  (1971).  Although Ponti designed a few interiors in the United States, this is the only complete building realized. Ponti  described it as “an invitation to the sun.” The Denver Art Museum was in search of a big name architect to raise the museum's profile. I.M. Pei and Le Corbusier declined the project, but i n 1965, the museum hired Gio Ponti to design the library, with local firm,  James Sudler Associates . A multi-year funding campaign included backing from corporations, foundations, private donors, and public entities.  Dr. Otto Karl Bach, the museum’s longtime director, called for a very specific interior plan. He wanted 11 square-shaped galleries measuring 10,000 square feet each. This was the amount of space Dr. Bach believed would be right for the 45 minute attention span of the average museum visitor.  Source: Architectural Record, March 1972 James Sudler and Joal Cronenwett went to Ponti'...

  Inside the Design Center Ilse and Lloyd Ruocco’s Design Center, located in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego, was a foundation for the modern design community of the 1950s, ‘60s, and ‘70s. Inside the Design Center brings to life a vignette of mid-twentieth century interior, lighting, and furniture design, featuring pieces by significant California designers, manufacturers, and craftspeople as selected by Ilse Ruocco for her 1950 showroom. This exhibition offers an immersive, revelatory window into San Diego’s culture of modernism through the lens of architecture, design, interior decorating, home goods retailing, landscape architecture, graphic design, and photography. Historic images of the Design Center set the backdrop for over 30 original pieces of modernist furnishings. Works by designers such as Ray Eames, Charles Eames, Greta Magnusson Grossman, Dorothy Schindele, Milo Baughman, and Edith Heath of Heath Ceramics are included.  Guest Co-Curators: Dave Hampton wi...