Last night, the Department of Interior Design held a reception for the exhibition, Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks, which is on display through Sept. 24 in the gallery in the Architecture Building. Interior design assistant professor Marty Hylton coordinated the exhibit, which is scheduled to travel to New York City where it will be on view at the American Institute of Architects New York Center for Architecture from Jan. 21 through April 10, 2010.
I asked Marty for a copy of his speech, so I could share it with you.
Marty Hylton
Assistant Professor of Interior Design
Speech given on Sept. 10, 2009 at reception for Modernism at Risk exhibit
On September 10, 1967, a traveling exhibition opened here at the University of Florida. Funded in part by grants from the National Endowment of the Humanities and the Florida Arts Council, the exhibition celebrated the innovative modern architecture of Paul Rudolph. The exhibition, among other projects, highlighted Riverview and Sarasota High Schools in Sarasota, Florida and Chorley Elementary School in Middleton, New York.
Traveling to venues throughout Florida, including the University of Tampa, one of the purposes of the exhibition, among others, was to inspired design students and young professionals to emulate Rudolph’s search for new, progressive modern design that would help address the challenges of the day.
In some 30 years, we have gone from promoting the unabashedly modern buildings of Paul Rudolph and his contemporaries to destroying them.
Like the exhibition 0f 1967, Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks hopes to galvanize design students and practicing professionals to take an active role in preserving our modern architectural heritage.
The exhibition presents five case studies in which architects, designers, and students employed their critical thinking and problem solving skills to not only fashion solutions to address technical challenges, but to create advocacy campaigns that helped raise public awareness.
Through their initial interest in architectural significance, the designers involved in efforts to save the buildings highlighted in the exhibition contributed to a growing public debate about the social and cultural relevance of modern buildings and their important place in the continuum of architectural history.
To quote one of the founding members of the Modern Architectural Protection Agency whose efforts helped save Marcel Breuer’s 1954 Grosse Pointe Public Library:
Even people who publicly admitted they did not care for the modern design of the Breuer [building] began to realize that it was a place of memories for their families as well as other families. They began to understand that even if they personally disagreed with it [the modern architecture of Grosse Pointe Public Library], that the building did embody values of the community and that that was something that should be discussed, explored, maybe even celebrated…rather than quickly dismissed.”
We applaud the efforts of World Monuments Fund and Knoll, Incorporated whose collaboration resulted in the formation of the Modernism at Risk program.
This exhibition is dedicated to the members of the SAVE Riverview Committee and Sarasota Architectural Foundation for their tireless efforts to save the seminal modern landmark, Riverview High School.
As one recent contributor to the “Saunders Blog” on the Sarasota Herald Tribune web site reflected on the impact of the buildings destruction for future generations, “…it will be a sad irony when graduates of the new Riverview, who go on to study architecture in college, learn that their alma mater’s original structure—now a revered genre of American architecture—is nothing more than a picture in a textbook.”
