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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 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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