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DOCOMOMO:
Ten Years in America
DOCOMOMO, which stands for Documentation and Conservation of buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement, is a worldwide organization founded 20 years ago in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, by architects Hubert-Jan Henket and Wessel de Jonge. Composed of preservationists, professionals and aficionados interested in modernist architecture, DOCOMOMO works to raise public awareness of the importance of modernist sites, gathers and preserves related materials and advocates for the sites’ appropriate re-use.
The United States arm of DOCOMOMO is celebrating its 10th anniversary on October 4 with tours of significant modernist sites in 20 cities. The Chicago/Midwest Chapter is offering a tour of Chicago’s Loop area, starting at Federal Plaza (1959–74), designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and ending at Marina City (1959–64), designed by Bertrand Goldberg. Outdoor modernist sculptures, including works by Alexander Calder and Pablo Picasso, will be highlighted along the way. The New York/Tri-State Chapter’s “New Jersey Modern Tour” includes Mies’s Pavilion and Colonnade Apartments in Newark (1960) as well as Eero Saarinen’s 1962 Bell Labs complex in Holmdel, which is in danger of partial demolition and redevelopment. In Boston, the New England Chapter’s tour will include the Government Center Complex, whose master plan was developed by I.M. Pei. Buildings in the complex include Boston’s Brutalist-style City Hall (1963–68) and the Government Service Center (1966–71, uncompleted), both designed by Paul Rudolph. Other DOCOMOMO chapters throughout the United States are also offering tours.

The DOCOMOMO US Modern Architecture Tour Day is part of a larger series of events including an affiliation with Open House New York, which offers architecture tours, and the A Changing Time for Concrete conference at Columbia University, as well as lectures and discussions around the country. For more information, visit www.docomomo-us.org.– SM

It’s a Steel
Of the many attempts to design workable prefabricated houses over the past two centuries, most did not progress beyond the prototype stage. But one, the Lustron all-steel house, was mass produced as planned; examples still stand here and there around the country. A 1949 Lustron is now on view at the Museum of Modern Art in New York as part of its current exhibition Home Delivery: Fabricating the Modern Dwelling (through October 20). The house was borrowed from the Office of Neighborhood Services Historic Preservation Program in Arlington County, Virginia, and reassembled on the museum’s sixth floor with the help of a volunteer team of Lustron enthusiasts.

When the Lustron was introduced in 1948 at the height of the postwar housing shortage, it offered Americans an uncommon level of amenity at an affordable price. Central heating, effective insulation, generous storage space, a sanitary bathroom and easy-care finishes were standard. Once a site was graded and a foundation slab poured, the house went up in three days. The fully-equipped, two-bedroom Westchester model on display at MoMA cost $7,000, resulting in a mortgage payment of around $70 a month — equal to less than $650 today.

The Westchester was the best housing most owners had ever had. Spacious for the time at 1,085 square feet, it included a living room, two bedrooms, a dining area adjacent to a pass-through kitchen, a bathroom, a utility room and seven closets. Appliances weren’t included, but there was space for standard brands of stoves and refrigerators, and a Thor Automagic combination clothes/dish washer, designed for Lustron, could be added. The porcelain finish on the exterior and on floors and ceiling and the baked enamel on the doors and built-in cabinetry guaranteed low maintenance, eliminating a myriad of chores from repainting to termite control, and was fireproof. Consumer Reports rated the Lustron highly in a 1948 issue covering nationally available housing; it recommended it over the site-built, wood-framed Look House, sponsored by the magazine of the same name.

Sadly, sales were too slow to cover the cost of the surplus World War II bomber plant that had been converted for Lustron production. Also, many localities imposed restrictive building codes to keep Lustrons from competing with local builders. And not everybody loved the Lustron’s all-steel construction. Sniffed one Southern owner, it was “like living in a lunchbox.”– SM Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125
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