The three papers in this session explore the ways in which color enriched the materiality and image of twentieth-century modernity/modernism from the 1930s to the 1970s in a range of different building types. The session begins with a discussion about the elaborate polychrome metal ornamentation of the iconic McGraw-Hill Building in New York City (1931) and the challenges associated with preservation. The second paper analyzes the role played by colored, patterned, and textured glass blocks in introducing different types of transparency to post-World War Two modern interiors and exteriors. The session concludes with a third paper focused on the role that variations of the color (pink) for the Spear House in Coral Gables (1979) helped create a tropical “Miami School” alternative to European modernism. Together, these three papers indirectly draw attention to the problematic role that black and white photography often played in publications, before the rise of color, by obfuscating the colorful dimensions of modernity and modernism.
Speakers
- Mixed Metals in Architecture
Edward FitzGerald - An Exploration into Mid-Century Glass Block Design: The Colored, Patterned, and Textured Era
Nicole Frank, MSHP - Five Shades of Pink: Exploring Images of Arquitectonica’s Spear House
Karol R. Williams, MArch
Moderator
Michelangelo Sabatino
All sessions take place at the University of Miami School of Architecture. Exact classroom locations to be announced.
