Watch: The Newest Trailer for Coast Modern

A film that will take you on a journey through three generations of modern architecture on the West Coast of North America.  From LA to Vancouver, a legacy of inspired living by the pioneers of West Coast Modernist Architecture.

From Rudolf Schindler and Richard Neutra's 1920s Hollywood, through to the second wave of post WWII America to today's current modernist renaissance.

This film speaks with the architects and their patrons and asks if Modernism’s time has finally come or did it ever really go away.

From filmmakers Michael Bernard and Gavin Froome.  Via Coast Modern's facebook.

Classic Spaces: 1960: Hans G. Conrad: Braun: Frankfurt

Amazing vintage photos of Braun's Frankfurt office, circa 1960, taken by by Braun's exhibition designer/photographer/graphic designer Hans G. Conrad.

Via ReneSpitz

Classic Spaces: 1940: Franco Albini's Milan Apartment

Rare 1940 photos of Franco Albini's Milan home. The one-off sailboat inspired bookshelf-prototype from 1938 acted as a space divider until it collapsed. It has now been meticously re-constructed and reproduced by the technicians of Cassina. Via L'Esprit Nouveau.

Creative Spaces: Alexander Calder in his Workshop: 1952

From an article by Lucia Fontana:

Today we take you back to the year 1952 and offer a rare glimpse inside the Alexander Calder workshop in Roxbury, Connecticut (the property is still owned by the Calder family but not open to the public). Alexander Calder (or Uncle Sandy as he was often called), one of America's best-known and best-loved sculptors, famed for his kinetic abstract mobiles and huge grounded stabiles, was in many ways an artistic Renaissance man. In addition to his celebrated sculpture, he excelled at creating paintings, drawings, book illustrations, jewelry, tapestry, toys and stage sets. His effervescent personality infused all facets of his oeuvre with elegance, vigor — and fun. These beautifully fuchsia-discolored photographs show Alexander Calder at the top of his game working on one of his famous stabiles, mobiles, animal figurines and wire sculptures. Look a bit closer and you will notice that some of them even have a price card attached to them (where is a time machine when you need it). These photographs were taken by Gordon Parks who was a leading photojournalist for Vogue and Life magazine during the 1950s.


Via moderndesign.

MUST Watch: The Bertoia

Beautifully shot and directed, watch this amazing and touching short-film by Steven Sebring, documenting the re-installation of Harry Bertoia's masterpiece sculpture inside Gordon Bunshaft's masterpiece building 510 5th Avenue, New York (see my previous feature here).

Starring Joe Mimran and Val Bertoia, with appearances by Michael Boodro, Jim Elkin, and Francois Guillemin.

Via Alexandra Robson, via Joe Fresh.

Classic Spaces: Harry Bertoia x Gordon Bunshaft: Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building

Beautiful photos by Ezra Stoller of The Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building, a 1954 Modernist masterpiece designed by Gordon Bunshaft for Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The breathtaking multifaceted bronze screen was created by Harry Bertoia and served as a sculptural backdrop inside Bunshaft's clean lined box. The sculpture was recently in the centre of controversy, removed when the building was sold, but thankfully will soon be reinstalled (read the full story at The Architect's Newspaper).

An interesting side note, the screen will now serve to camouflage the dressing rooms for one of the building's new tenants: Canadian fashion retailer Joe Fresh, founded by Joseph Mimram (whose home I've previously featured here before).

Thanks Colen for the link.

Classic Spaces: Frank Lloyd Wright: Kenneth Laurent House

This home and all its furnishings will be auctioned in Wright's Important Design sale.

In 1948 Kenneth Laurent commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build a home that integrated his needs as a wheelchair-bound disabled veteran with Wright's signature open plan designs. Wright took the opportunity to develop an elliptical plan for the first time; the resulting soft curves, open floor plan and flowing space were utilized in later houses of the 1950s. The Laurents became friendly with Wright and traveled often to Talisen commissioning interior furnishings for the home and a later addition to the property. This beautifully maintained home is sold by the original owners. Originally custom-built furnishings by Frank Lloyd Wright are included in the sale.

See more photos and full details here.

Classic Spaces: Gio Ponti's Villa Arreaza

From an article by Dina Broadhurst:

Built in 1956 in Caracas, Venezuela, Ponti envisioned the project from start to finish in an all-encompassing fashion, from the design of the furnishings and decorative objects, down to the articles of daily use.

Architecture and landscape were integrated using his modernist principles, and the exterior became as much a feature as the interior. The façade is alive, clad in white mosaic tiles appearing like a second skin, organic and at one with nature, while being referred to by Ponti as “sitting on the hill as gently as a large butterfly”.

The interiors were arranged to appear like a house with no walls, arriving behind the entrance to a flowing landscape with different ceiling heights and foldable walls, in which a giant mobile by Alexander Calder swings gently in the breeze.

Gio Ponti's Villa Arreaza, a.k.a. Diamond House. One of his finest private residences, and a masterpiece of 20th Century Modernism.

Via Pages.

Classic Spaces: The Interiors of Warren Platner

Warren Platner crafted his own brand of luxurious and opulent modernism throughout the 1970s, utilizing brass, gold leaf, fur, and his famous sculptural wire chairs for Knoll.

See a great retrospective at Dwell.