The Rewards of Restoration
The 2008 Knoll Modernism Prize, part of the Modernism at Risk program of the World Monuments Fund, has been awarded to the firm of Brenne Gesellschaft von Architekten of Berlin, Germany, headed by Winfried Brenne and Franz Jaschke, for their restoration of the Bauhaus ADGB Trade Union School in Bernau, Germany. The building, completed in 1930, was designed by Hannes Meyer (1889–1954), who led the Bauhaus architecture department from 1928 to 1930. A committed Marxist, his functionalist view of architecture was informed by his political beliefs. The trade school provided continuing education to administrators and leaders of the trade union movement on topics such as economics, management, labor law and industrial hygiene. The most salient features of the complex are an external glass corridor and staircase, elaborately detailed steel casement windows which open into trapezoidal shapes, a glass block ceiling in the refectory and a light-filled, curved winter garden – all designed to provide daylight and spacious views of the surrounding forests. While under East German rule, most of these architectural elements were covered over or marred by inappropriate replacements. Brenne and Jaschke, who have restored numerous buildings by Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Erich Mendelsohn and other Bauhaus figures, did voluminous architectural and historical research to restore the building to its original state.– AT
Walter Netsch, 1920–2008
Walter Netsch, the Chicago-based architect most famous for his design of the soaring, crystalline Cadet Chapel at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado, died at his home on June 15 of pneumonia at the age of 88.
Netsch’s first buildings were toy ones he made as a child from crates that his father, a Chicago meatpacking executive, brought home from work. His mother encouraged his interest in the arts with art classes and visits to the opera. He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1943, spending the remaining years of World War II as an enlistee with the Army Corps of Engineers.
At war’s end, Netsch worked briefly for a small Chicago-area architectural firm before being hired by Skidmore, Owings & Merrill (SOM) to work on the design of the city of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, for the United States Atomic Energy Commission. In 1954, he was invited to join SOM’s Chicago office.
One of his first assignments there was the Inland Steel Building, the first major structure built in Chicago’s Loop after the Depression. Clad in stainless steel panels that were one of Inland Steel’s products, the building was completed in 1957 and granted landmark status in 1998. Although Netsch’s original design was altered somewhat by SOM architect Bruce Graham, the building marked the start of Netsch’s long history of fame and controversy. His Brutalist design for the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) was often seen as merely brutal by critics and students. Netsch refused to accept blame for the harsh, unwelcoming quality of the complex, built between 1963 and 1968, citing compromises to his plan and his lighting designs as the reasons for its failure. Much of Netsch’s work at UIC was demolished within his lifetime.
Netsch’s 1955 design for the Air Force Academy campus in Colorado Springs was also harshly criticized at first, particularly by Frank Lloyd Wright, who hated the futuristic complex, reserving the major portion of his wrath for Netsch’s Cadet Chapel, completed in 1963. But the chapel, with its glass and aluminum spires composed of hundreds of delicately entwined tetrahedrons that reach to the sky, has since become one of America’s best-known and loved examples of modernist architecture; the structure was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1994.
Notwithstanding the controversy surrounding his work at UIC, Netsch was in great demand for university buildings, particularly libraries. He contributed designs to the campus of the Illinois Institute of Technology, intended to complement existing ones by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, as well as structures for the University of Iowa, Grinnell College and Texas Christian University. Netsch also taught architecture at several universities including the Rhode Island School of Design, where he was a trustee.
Netsch married Illinois politician Dawn Clark in 1963, who survives him. Their shared interest in modern art resulted in a major collection whose works were often on loan for exhibits. Later, Netsch sold some of their holdings, including a Roy Lichtenstein painting, to finance his wife’s unsuccessful 1994 run for governor of Illinois. He also served as Commissioner of the Chicago Park District from 1986–89 and maintained a private consulting practice, advising other architects, until his death.– SM
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