Modernist Architecture

Town House on the Park // 1964

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By the turn of the 20th century, the growth of industry around Wooster Square neighborhood of New Haven, Connecticut, forced out the wealthy residents which had lived there, to be replaced by recently arriving Lithuanian, Italian, and Italian-American families who established a thriving immigrant community here, which still exists today. After WWII, suburbanization saw families leaving urban centers, and to attempt to draw back in tax dollars, city officials began to plan for urban renewal areas, where “slum clearance” would redevelop areas with new and modern housing and offices with federal tax dollars. Strong neighborhood support for preservation of the area, paired with a sympathetic Planning Department, saved much of the core of the Wooster Square neighborhood with a few exceptions. The former Greene Street School and a number of residences along Greene Street and Hughes Place were razed in the 1960s and replaced by Town House on the Park, a Mid-Century Modern townhouse development. The project is comprised of thirty-six, three-story dwellings in a rowhouse configuration designed with their ground floor below grade as so to reduce their scale from the street. The development was designed by architect William Mileto and was given an award by House+Home Magazine in 1964 and featured in other publications as a good example of infill housing in a dense urban environment. What do you think about Town House on the Park?

Alumnae Memorial Library – Elms College // 1973

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Located just north of and in stark contrast to the ornate Neo-Gothic 1932 Administration Building of Elms College, the school’s main library building showcases how much architecture styles changed in just 40 years. The college’s library was long in the main Administration building, but was outgrown in the latter half of the 20th century. The two-story steel and cast-concrete library building was built in 1973 with exterior details in red brick and concrete, a nod to the historic materials of the older campus buildings. Unapologetically Modern, and somewhat Brutalist, the building has complex geometry of sunken voids and solid sections, broken up by a horizontal band of windows with concrete fins to mitigate sunlight. The building was designed by Boston architects, Carroll & Greenfield, and recently celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Yale University Art Gallery // 1953

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Yale University’s School of Architecture was in the midst transition when Louis Kahn joined the faculty in 1947. The post-war years at Yale trended away from the school’s Beaux-Arts lineage towards the avant-garde, and Modernist principles brought over from European architects. When the University called for a new wing for its existing Venetian Gothic style Art Gallery Building (1928), they obviously had no choice but to make a statement for the future of the school. Architecture professor Louis Kahn worked with Anne Tyng, who was both a professional partner and his “muse”, who heavily influenced his works, including here where she designed the concrete tetrahedral slab ceiling at the interior galleries. As a professor and practicing architect, Kahn hoped for students and visitors would engage with the building, even interior spaces often overlooked design-wise, such as the stairwells. While the facades are fairly minimal in design details, because the attention was paid to the interiors, which provide protection from natural light while also allowing for large floor plates for customizable exhibitions. The structure is Yale’s first true Modernist building on a campus which soon after was dominated by some of the country’s most iconic examples of the style.