The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, State Historic Preservation Office (“Authority”) is seeking a firm that is authorized to do business in Michigan to write a National Historic Landmark (“NHL”) nomination for St. Francis de Sales Church in Muskegon, Michigan designed by the internationally acclaimed architect Marcel Breuer in 1964.

Visit the official SHPO website for more information.

The documentary, “The Pruitt-Igoe Myth,” is playing at Cass City Cinema today, April 19, through Sunday, April 22.

The Pruitt-Igoe Myth tells the story of the transformation of the American city in the decades after World War II, through the lens of the infamous Pruitt-Igoe housing development and the St. Louis residents who called it home. It began as a housing marvel. Built in 1956, Pruitt-Igoe was heralded as the model public housing project of the future, “the poor man’s penthouse.” Two decades later, it ended in rubble – its razing an iconic event that the architectual theorist Charles Jencks famously called the death of modernism. The footage and images of its implosion have helped to perpetuate a myth of failure, a failure that has been used to critique Modernist architecture, attack public assistance programs, and stigmatize public housing residents. The Pruitt-Igoe Myth seeks to set the historical record straight. To examine the interests involved in Pruitt-Igoe’s creation. To re-evaluate the rumors and the stigma. To implode the myth.

For more information about the film, see this post.

The film’s official website can be found here.

It’s preview party time for the Detroit Area Art Deco Society (DAADS) as the mid-century enthusiasts open up the Michigan Modernism Exposition on April 27, 7:00 pm - 10:00 p.m. The annual art deco affair offers you and your guests first dibs on some of the best 20th century antiques and fine arts from the international market while enjoying complimentary wine and hors d’oeuvres.

Date & Time: Friday April 27, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Location: The Southfield Civic Center, 26000 Evergreen Road (at 10 1/2 Mile Road), Southfield, Michigan (map)

Tickets are $55 in advance and can be purchased here.

In addition, you will be treated to a viewing of a vintage vehicle and a special exhibition featuring photography of some of the most famous Art Deco structures in Metropolitan Detroit.

Preview party tickets are $55 in advance and can be purchased here or by calling 248-582-3326. Proceeds from the preview party benefit DAADS scholarship, restoration and preservation programs.

Tickets can be purchased online or at the locations listed below:
Knightsbridge Antique Mall
Deco Doug

Admission: $55 in advance $75 at the door and includes Saturday and Sunday
Location: The Southfield Civic Center, 26000 Evergreen Road (at 10 1/2 Mile Road), Southfield, Michigan (map)
Preview Party: Friday April 27, 7:00 pm – 10:00 pm
Modernism Expo: Saturday April 28 10am – 6pm, Sunday April 29, 12pm – 5pm

Lafayeete Park towers, Detroit, Michigan. Designed by Ludwig Mies van de Rohe in 1956

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, State Historic Preservation Office (“Authority”) is seeking a firm that is authorized to do business in Michigan to write a National Historic Landmark (“NHL”) nomination for Lafayette Park in Detroit, Michigan. Lafayette Park is a 1956 residential housing redevelopment project by architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, and developer Herbert Greenwald.

The Request for Proposal document can be downloaded at the official MISHPO website, or by accessing the posting on the State’s procurement website, Bid4Michigan.

Michigan Modern is many things at once: a place and time; a design movement and cultural phenomenon; a small world of big achievements; a confluence of indigenous, imported and exported design; a receding source and emerging archive; a new history and fertile field. Michigan Modern is also a project initiated by Michigan’s State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO) to document important resources, facilitate research by others, and generally raise public awareness as to the state’s rich history of modern architecture and design from 1940 to 1970, with boundaries blurred by exceptions. This presentation will provide an overview of work in progress by Lord, Aeck & Sargent for SHPO’s Michigan Modern project. Consultant team leader Eric Hill will highlight Michigan’s modern architectural origins and centers of excellence (including Yamasaki), as well as several notable works by non-Michigan masters.

Dr. Hill’s lecture will be held on Friday, April 20, 2012 at 7:00 pm at the Wayne State University Helen L. Deroy Auditorium (1st floor), 5203 Cass Avenue, Detroit, Michigan.

The lecture flyer can be downloaded here .

Postcard image of the Cranbrook Academy of Art, designed by Eliel Saarinen

The Michigan State Housing Development Authority, State Historic Preservation Office (“Authority”) is seeking an individual or firm that is authorized to do business in Michigan to curate a Michigan Modern museum exhibition that will showcase Michigan’s architectural and design heritage, 1940-1970. The exhibition will open in June 2013.

The Request for Proposal document can be downloaded here 

The RFP can also be accessed at the State’s procurement website, Bid4Michigan.

When:
March 8, 2012
Time: 6:00-8:00 p.m.
Wine + Cheese refreshments

Talk will be by Joe O’Neal who was the original builder for this unique home.

This home is currently for sale through Bob Eckstein, Edward Surovell, realtors. Bob will be the host of the tour.

Location + Parking:
The home is located at 0 Orchard Hills–right next to the Palmer House. Street parking on Orchard Hills is non-existent.

You can walk to the event from Awixa Road–it is about quarter of a mile. We have also arranged to have a few drivers pick up persons at the corner of Awixa and Orchard Hills. If you are interested in coming, please wait near the corner on the paved area and we will have drivers pick you up.

Description of Home:
Stunning mid-century home designed by architect Alfred Browning Parker the father of the “Tropical Modernist” school of design.

Absolutely unique for this area, Parker’s tropical modern style is not linear and rectangular as in the mid-century “California” style – but flowing and very organic in shape; spaces are defined by curved walls, the roof’s peak line is not linear but an arc, the ceiling below tent like. The curved walls are stunning Magnolia tree wood, well cared for and unblemished.

Like Frank Lloyd Wright his friend and mentor, Parker’s homes were designed to integrate into an environment, draw in the outside, and take advantge of a site’s unique qualities. The Floyd House follows the curved contours of a steeply sloped wooded south facing hillside and every room looks into a valley of hardwoods contiguous to the University Arboretum. There are other Wright influences, among them: the public spaces are volumous and the private spaces more intimate, the home has a carport (enclosed on three sides), the home is very understated from the street, and great attention was placed on materials, detail and craftsmanship.

Shortly before his death in 1959 Frank Lloyd Wright recommended Parker as an American Institute of Architects (AIA) Fellow. Parker is the only architect Wright ever recommended. Alfred Browning Parker passed away in March of 2011 after having
completed over 6,000 commissions, predominantly residential homes in Florida where he had his practice and taught at the University of Florida.

This event is free and open to all interested in seeing this unique home! An event not to be missed.

Questions about a2modern? Visit the a2modern website or contact modernists@a2modern.org or call 734-255-3959.

McGregor Memorial Conference Center, Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan. Designed by Minoru Yamasaki.

The State Historic Preservation Office of the Michigan State Housing Development Authority (“Authority” or “SHPO”) is seeking an individual or firm that is authorized to do business in Michigan to write a National Historic Landmark (“NHL”) nomination for the Minoru Yamasaki designed McGregor Memorial Conference Center at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. A detailed description of the work is described in Exhibit A: Scope of Work which is attached and incorporated into this Request for Proposals (“RFP”).

The Request for Proposal document can be downloaded here .

Access the posting on the State’s procurement website, Bid4Michigan.

Why, after so many years of excellent public and commercial architecture in Columbus, Indiana, are there almost no modern houses? Why, when you drive north from Florida’s South Beach passing miles and miles of waterfront houses, less than one percent are anything we would call architecture? Why do Americans drive designer cars and drink designer coffee but live, most all of them, in a house or apartment that is pretending to be the home of some wealthy ancestors long deceased?

Are we determined as a profession to continue to define ourselves in ways that isolate us from the greater part of the society in which we practice? Can we find some definitions of architectural excellence upon which we can agree and that we can explain successfully to the silent majority? Is it even something we want to do?

Join us as we visit the work of Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Kevin Roche, I.M Pei, William Rawn, Stanley Saitowitz, Paul Kennon, HHPA, Deborah Berke and others. Enjoy a unique visit to a collaborative masterpiece, the Miller House by Eero Saarinen, Dan Kiley and Alexander Girard.

We will be joined by the following architects, all of whom have work in Columbus: Gunnar Birkerts, Ben and Cynthia Weese (representing Harry Weese), Daniel McCoubrey and Nancy Rogo Trainer (representing VSBA), Ralph Johnson of Perkins+Will, Carlos Jimenez, Jane Weinzapfel,, Kevin Kennon and Fred Koetter and Susie Kim.

Registration
Early registration closes Feb 29th
AIA Members (and guests): $600
Non-Member Professional: $700 Optional Tour – West Baden $275

Hotel Reservations
Hotel block closes March 9th
Hotel Indigo Columbus, Indiana
400 Brown St, Columbus, IN 47201
812-375-9100

Itinerary and Education
Full Conference Itinerary
Over 15 CEHs will be available

Limited Edition Signed Commemorative Poster
100 available at $25 each

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) Detroit chapter invites you to join the 2011 AIA Bloomfield/Bloomfield Hills House Tour. Touring these homes, designed by AIA architects, will envelop participants in the rich history of residential design. From post-industrial through mid-century modern to the contemporary. Generations of cutting-edge design are on display combining famous names like Wright, Saarinen and Birkerts with local modern design pioneers McIntosh Poris, Wolk and Fanning Howey.

The tour starts at the Bloomfield Township Public Library on Telegraph and Lone Pine Road in Bloomfield Hills, MI (map). The tour begins at 11am. Tickets are $25 day of tour, $20 in advance. Tickets may be purchased in advance at several local businesses, www.aiadetroit.com or by calling AIA Detroit at 313-965-4100. Please make checks payable to AIA Detroit. Sorry, no refunds, cameras or children under 12.