In the summer of 1937; Walter Gropius; founder of the Bauhaus and a professor at Harvard’s new Graduate School of Design; rented a house on Planting Island; near the base of Cape Cod. There; he and his wife; Ise; hosted a festive reunion of Bauhaus masters and students who had recently emigrated from Europe: Marcel Breuer; Herbert Bayer; László Moholy-Nagy; Xanti Schawinsky and others. Together they feasted; swam and planned their futures on a new continent; all sensing they were on the cusp of a momentous new phase in their lives. Yet even as they moved on; the group never lost its connection to the Cape Cod coast. Several members returned; when they had the means; to travel farther up the peninsula; rent cabins; buy land and design their ideal summer homes. Thus began a chapter in the history of modern architecture that has never been told--until now. The flow of talent onto the Outer Cape continued and; within a few years; the area was a hotbed of intellectual currents from New York; Boston; Cambridge and the country’s top schools of architecture and design. Avant-garde homes began to appear in the woods and on the dunes; by the 1970s; there were about 100 modern houses of interest here. In this story; we meet; among others; the Boston Brahmins Jack Phillips and Nathaniel Saltonstall; the self-taught architect; carpenter and painter Jack Hall; the Finn Olav Hammarström; who had worked for Alvar Aalto; and the prolific Charlie Zehnder; who brought the lessons of both Frank Lloyd Wright and Brutalism to the Cape. Initially; these designers had no clients; they built for themselves and their families; or for friends sympathetic to their ideals. Their homes were laboratories; places to work through ideas without spending much money. The result of this ferment is a body of work unlike any other; a regional modernism fusing the building traditions of Cape Cod fishing towns with Bauhaus concepts and postwar experimentation.
#907285 in Books Baylor University Press 2005-01-03Original language:EnglishPDF # 1 9.02 x .48 x 5.98l; .79 #File Name: 1932792090196 pages
Review
10 of 20 people found the following review helpful. Our Godly heritageBy curlyThe Faith of our Founders; so aptly described by the author; is a vital part of our heritage as a nation too many people; including many of our religious; government; and educational leaders today have either forgotten or consider irrelevant. Yet; it was the teachings of Christianity; so eloquently and repeatedly expressed in their statements and writings; that provided the foundation for the nation; its government; and democratic principles which the Founders established. The Founders; Washington; Adams; Franklin; Jefferson; Madison; and the others repeatedly emphasized that the morals; virtues; and values of Judeo-Christianity were absolutely essential to the prosperity and security of the democratic republic they were building. Today; many who hold to the ideology of secular-liberalism; seek to draw the nation away from its Judeo-Christian roots and the vision and values of our Founders. This is the greatest internal danger facing our nation. Washington said that no man should consider himself a patriot who would draw the nation away from its fundamental Christian heritage and roots. Illiteracy concerning our nation's founding; its Christian roots; and the beliefs of our Founders is common today because of the failure of our educational institutions to follow the advice of the Founders. Hopefully; more books like this will serve to awaken the people. If you liked this book; you will also like "Divine Love / Divine Intolerance" which gives clear perspective on the "tolerance" of secular liberalism; how its meaning has been corrupted today; and the corrosive effects of this corruption on Church; Government; Education; and SocietyDIVINE LOVE / DIVINE INTOLERANCE
