docomomo newsletter

Docomomo US is pleased to welcome Modern-STL as an official Friend Organization. Led by local architectural enthusiasts and historic preservationists, Modern-STL was formed in 2010 as a membership-based non-profit seeking to protect and foster a deeper appreciation for the St. Louis region’s mid-century modern heritage. The organization fulfills this mission through events, tours, and lectures, and serves as St. Louis’ leading advocate for the preservation of local modern architecture.

By Emily Rinaldi

Olivetti began as an Italian office machine manufacturer and grew into an international corporation, transforming into the leader of modern industrial design. Today, there is not only a renewed interest in reexamining the products they produced, but also a new movement, among contemporary industrial designers, in emulating Olivetti’s groundbreaking corporate philosophy that revolutionized the industrial design of the post-World War II era.

By Peter Meijer & Patience Stuart

Oregon’s Modern Movement legacy spans the spectrum from the exquisite Memorial Coliseum, to the benign Drive-in Restaurants, and world renowned structures such as the Michael Graves Portland Building that push the edges of its modern architecture inventory. As we welcome our fourteenth chapter, Docomomo US/Oregon, chapter President Peter Meijer discusses the state's modern resources and its unique interpretation of modernism defined as the Northwest Regional Style.

The 2012 World Monuments Fund/Knoll Modernism Prize has been awarded to the Architectural Consortium for Hizuchi Elementary School for its restoration of Hizuchi Elementary School in Hizuchi, Yawatahama City, Ehime Prefecture on Shikoku Island, Japan. Designed by the Japanese municipal architect Masatsune Matsumura, the school was nominated by a consortium of Japanese architects and professors including Docomomo Japan Chair Hiroyuki Suzuki.

This summer, students of the Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation, Jennifer Whisenhunt and Mary Park joined Docomomo International as editors for the International Specialist Committee on Education and Theory (ISC E+T).

By: Emily Rinaldi

AMC’s fifteen time Emmy Award winning series, Mad Men, has become the pop culture standard for everything 1960s. From fashion to interior design, Mad Men spawned a renewed interest in the period.

By: Alison Chiu

Existing shopping centers built between the 1950s through the 1970s on the island of Oahu are unique examples of Modernist architecture in Hawai’i, and they comprise the majority of large-scale commercial buildings on the island (or, even amongst the other islands, which did not experience the same level of commercial impact and tourist travel as Oahu during the post-war era). Precast arches, folded plates, thin shells, and barrel roofs are among the various methods of concrete forms adorning the structures. The Modernist architecture of post-war Hawai’i blended international appeal and construction techniques with a distinct regional style that looked to reinforce traditional Hawaiian heritage and articulate new perspectives on Hawaiian American identity. Although these shopping centers retain varying degrees of design and material integrity, market-driven development and renovation continually threaten to erase this important snapshot of Modern aesthetics and construction.