This exhibition catalog documents the emergence of modern American design in the second quarter of the 20th century. Cranbrook was one of the few institutions in the United States that offered instruction in design during the 1920s and 30s and its influence on architecture, interior design, art and crafts after World War II was crucial and extensive. The exhibition includes over 200 objects and photo-panels and surveys the history of the Cranbrook facility, as well as the achievements of the teachers and students. Presenting the history of the Cranbrook community, it covers Eliel Saarinen's contribution to architecture and urban design, interior design and furniture, metalwork and bookbinding, textiles, ceramics, sculpture and painting. ISBN 0-89558-097-7 (pbk.); ISBN 0-87099-341-0 (pbk.) : $45.00 (For use only in the library).
A history of design that is often overlooked—until we need it Have you ever hit the big blue button to activate automatic doors? Have you ever used an ergonomic kitchen tool? Have you ever used curb cuts to roll a stroller across an intersection? If you have, then you’ve benefited from accessible design—design for people with physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. These ubiquitous touchstones of modern life were once anything but. Disability advocates fought tirelessly to ensure that the needs of people with disabilities became a standard part of public design thinking. That fight took many forms worldwide, but in the United States it became a civil rights issue; activists used design to make an argument about the place of people with disabilities in public life. In the aftermath of World War II, with injured veterans returning home and the polio epidemic reaching the Oval Office, the needs of people with disabilities came forcibly into the public eye as they never had before. The US became the first country to enact federal accessibility laws, beginning with the Architectural Barriers Act in 1968 and continuing through the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act in 1990, bringing about a wholesale rethinking of our built environment. This progression wasn’t straightforward or easy. Early legislation and design efforts were often haphazard or poorly implemented, with decidedly mixed results. Political resistance to accommodating the needs of people with disabilities was strong; so, too, was resistance among architectural and industrial designers, for whom accessible design wasn’t “real” design. Bess Williamson provides an extraordinary look at everyday design, marrying accessibility with aesthetic, to provide an insight into a world in which we are all active participants, but often passive onlookers. Richly detailed, with stories of politics and innovation, Williamson’s Accessible America takes us through this important history, showing how American ideas of individualism and rights came to shape the material world, often with unexpected consequences.
This second volume displays the work of 37 of the best designers and design firms from across the United States. Organized by DK Holland of the Pushpin with Chip Kidd and Jessica Helfand, the selection presents such firms as Looking, Los Angeles; Post Tool, San Francisco, Modern Dog, Seattle; Carlos Segura, Chicago; Go Media, Austin Texas; Greteman Design, Wichita, Kansas; P. Scott Makela, Minneapolis; Werner Design Works, Minneapolis; and Design!, Atlanta.
Hailed a “significant contribution” by The New York Times, David Noble’s book America by Design describes the factors that have shaped the history of scientific technology in the United States. Since the beginning, technology and industry have been undeniably intertwined, and Noble demonstrates how corporate capitalism has not only become the driving force behind the development of technology in this country but also how scientific research—particularly within universities—has been dominated by the corporations who fund it, who go so far as to influence the education of the engineers that will one day create the technology to be used for capitalist gain. Noble reveals that technology, often thought to be an independent science, has always been a means to an end for the men pulling the strings of Corporate America—and it was these men that laid down the plans for the design of the modern nation today.
Written by the author of A History of Architecture, America by Design is a beautifully illustrated survey of America's built environment that stresses the historical perspective, viewing architecture in its social context. 280 black-and-white and 20 color photographs.
This book explores the career of one of the twentieth century's foremost theatrical and industrial designers. This book outlines the career of this complex and influential man through approximately fifty projects, bringing together never before exhibited drawings, models, photographs and films. Norman Bel Geddes was an innovative stage designer, director, producer, architect, industrial designer, futurist and urban planner. His professional credo was to simplify, to unify, to use form to communicate and, at times, shape function and to question the status quo. His research based approach to problem solving followed by his complete re imagining of a design problem, as if starting from scratch, resulted in the creation of a new, ideal product. hroughout his multi faceted career, Bel Geddes was a paradoxical figure made up of equal parts visionary and pragmatist, naturalist and industrialist, democrat and egoist. A number of products and practices now taken for granted can be traced directly back to Bel Geddes. His impact on the American landscape ranges from the U.S. federal highway system to all weather sports stadiums, revolving restaurants, modular domestic appliances and stylish home entertainment systems.
Almost fifty years ago, America's industrial cities—Detroit, Philadelphia, Cleveland, Baltimore, and others—began shedding people and jobs. Today they are littered with tens of thousands of abandoned houses, shuttered factories, and vacant lots. With population and housing losses continuing in the wake of the 2007 financial crisis, the future of neighborhoods in these places is precarious. How we will rebuild shrinking cities and what urban design vision will guide their future remain contentious and unknown. In Design After Decline, Brent D. Ryan reveals the fraught and intermittently successful efforts of architects, planners, and city officials to rebuild shrinking cities following mid-century urban renewal. With modern architecture in disrepute, federal funds scarce, and architects and planners disengaged, politicians and developers were left to pick up the pieces. In twin narratives, Ryan describes how America's two largest shrinking cities, Detroit and Philadelphia, faced the challenge of design after decline in dramatically different ways. While Detroit allowed developers to carve up the cityscape into suburban enclaves, Philadelphia brought back 1960s-style land condemnation for benevolent social purposes. Both Detroit and Philadelphia "succeeded" in rebuilding but at the cost of innovative urban design and planning. Ryan proposes that the unprecedented crisis facing these cities today requires a revival of the visionary thinking found in the best modernist urban design, tempered with the lessons gained from post-1960s community planning. Depicting the ideal shrinking city as a shifting patchwork of open and settled areas, Ryan concludes that accepting the inevitable decline and abandonment of some neighborhoods, while rebuilding others as new neighborhoods with innovative design and planning, can reignite modernism's spirit of optimism and shape a brighter future for shrinking cities and their residents.
