abstract vernacular :: modernism in the humid south

Dr. Henry G. Simon Residence, 1961, Charles R. Colbert architect. 922 Octavia Street, New Orleans, LA. Progressive Architecture

It's probably too late to rename this blog, but I absolutely love the term "abstract vernacular." I just came up with it in an attempt to describe works that formally express a modern spirit while integrating the wisdom of our ancestors to design for and with our environment and landscape.

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome, originally uploaded by regional.modernism.

DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana and AIA New Orleans present the Louisiana premiere of 

A Necessary Ruin: The Story of Buckminster Fuller and the Union Tank Car Dome
a documentary film by Evan Mather
Wednesday September 8, 2010
reception @ 7pm, screening @ 8pm
AIA New Orleans Center for Design
1000 St. Charles Avenue

Upon its completion in October 1958, the Union Tank Car Dome, located north of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, was the largest clear-span structure in the world. Based on the engineering principles of the visionary design scientist and philosopher Buckminster Fuller, this geodesic dome was, at 384 feet in diameter, the first large scale example of this building type. A Necessary Ruin relates the powerful, compelling narrative of the dome’s history via interviews with architects, engineers, preservationists, media, and artists; animated sequences demonstrating the operation of the facility; and hundreds of rare photographs and video segments taken during the dome’s construction, decline, and demolition. (Evan Mather, U.S.A., 2009, 29:54)

hand crafted films

National Trust :: Modernism in New Orleans

Many of the Big Easy's Midcentury Buildings Face Demolition.

By Jennifer Farwell | Online Only | Aug. 2, 2010 

Whitney Bank, New Orleans

Credit: Trevor Meeks

The year is 1955; the place, New Orleans. Progressive Architecture magazine has just held its second annual Design Awards, juried by Bauhaus School founder Walter Gropius. The list of winners brings a surprise: New Orleans and Louisiana capture six of the awards—more than any other city and state in the nation. The awards recognize the work of five different architectural teams, including the noted firm Curtis and Davis, whose later work will include the 1975 Superdome.

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