I feel so very fortunate to have had the opportunity to get to know architect Arthur Q. Davis through my work at the Tulane University School of Architecture, especially in my efforts since the storm to document the modern architecture of New Orleans. In 2008 Mr. Davis graciously met with my Regional Modernism class and made a great impression on the students. He was a colorful storyteller and shared anecdotes from when he studied under Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer and worked for Eero Saarinen, thus establishing within the room a tangible link to some of the great masters of modernism. We are now beginning to understand that Mr. Davis and his partner Nathaniel C. Curtis, Jr (1917-1997) were masters of regional modernism, committed to designing contemporary architecture relevant to our regional climate and urban fabric.
We tend to think of New Orleans architecture only in the vernacular. We tend to privilege traditional architecture over contemporary. We tend to overlook the modern architecture in our midst. But in the 1950s New Orleans was a hotbed for modern architecture and the partnership of Curtis and Davis were pioneers of the new. However the recent losses are staggering. Since the storm we have lost six significant buildings designed by Curtis and Davis - the St. Frances Cabrini Church, four schools (McDonogh 39, Thomy Lafon, Carver and Cabrini) and the Dr. Lyman K. Richardson Residence. In the past few years Mr. Davis frequently lamented that an architect should not outlive his buildings. We are blessed that the magnum opus of the firm, the recently renamed and brilliantly illuminated Mercedes-Benz Superdome, the most recognized building in the state of Louisiana, stands as a testament to the ingenuity and ambition of Mr. Curtis and Mr. Davis.
Francine Stock
president
DOCOMOMO US/Louisiana
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Arthur Q. Davis (1920-2011)
New Orleans architect Arthur Q. Davis passed away on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 at Ochsner Baptist Medical Center. A graduate of Tulane University's School of Architecture and a World War II veteran, Davis studied with Walter Gropius and apprenticed in Eero Saarinen's Michigan office. In 1947, Davis received an offer from another Tulane alumnus -- Nathaniel C. Curtis, Jr. (1917-1997) -- to establish a joint practice in New Orleans. The Curtis and Davis partnership lasted nearly thirty years, and its Modernist buildings were once pervasive throughout the Crescent City. Structures such as Thomy Lafon Elementary School (razed 2011), the Rivergate Convention Center (razed 1995) and the Superdome garnered international attention. Journals such as Progressive Architecture, Architectural Forum and Architecture d’aujourd’hui highlighted the firm’s notable buildings, a long list that came to include projects in Germany, Vietnam, and Saudi Arabia.
In 1978, the firm was acquired by the West Coast engineering and architecture office of Daniel, Mann, Johnson, and Mendenhall (DMJM). Davis worked with DMJM for twenty years, and then established his own firm, Arthur Q. Davis FAIA and Associates, in 1998.
In 2009, Mr. Davis published a memoir, titled It Happened by Design: The Life and Work of Arthur Q. Davis, which summarizes his career and his reflections on the profession. He was working on a history of the Berlin Medical Center at the time of his death.
Image above: Frank Lotz Miller, photographer. Arthur Q. Davis, Architect. Curtis & Davis Office Records, © Southeastern Architectural Archive, Special Collections Division, Tulane University Libraries.
Monday, October 3, 2011
Shaw, Metz & Associates, 1963
Shaw, Metz & Associates (Chicago, IL)225 Baronne Street, New Orleans, LA
Made use of NATCO Corporation's structural clay called Face Brick:
"Natco Face Brick is available in all standard, norman, roman, jumbo and norwegian sizes . . . modular and conventional dimensions. . . plain and textured finishes. . . "
Image/quoted matter above is from "new ideas in ageless structural clay--brick by Natco" Progressive Architecture (September 1963): p. 115.
Thursday, September 15, 2011
Modernism Along the Avenue: A Bicycle Tour
DOCOMOMO NOLA is proud to partner with AIA New Orleans to present Modernist
Architecture Along and Around St Charles Avenue: A Bicycle Tour.
date: Saturday
October 1, 2011
starts: 2pm, AIA New Orleans, 1000 St. Charles Avenue
ends: 5pm, House of Tomorrow - Wisznia Residence, near Audubon Park
This unique architecture tour of notable and noteworthy Modern architecture buildings along Saint Charles Avenue will begin at 2pm at AIA New Orleans Center for Design, on Lee Circle, and culminate with a reception at the residence of architect Marcel Wisznia - a House of Tomorrow (1936, Moise Goldstein, architect, Nathaniel Cortlandt Curtis, designer).
Visitors and locals alike appreciate the Gilded Age
architecture along the St. Charles Avenue streetcar line. This bicycle
tour narrated by Tulane School of Architecture professor John Klingman
will introduce the very fine St. Charles modernist buildings that the
guidebooks omit and many locals ignore. Featured architects include
Charles Colbert; Curtis & Davis; Favrot & Reed; Moise Goldstein
& Associates; August Perez; Skidmore, Owings & Merrill; Leonard
Spangenberg; and Weiss, Dreyfous & Seiferth. Some of the tour's
highlights are included on the DOCOMOMO NOLA iphone app.
Note - this is a 'one-way' tour, beginning at Lee Circle
and ending in Uptown, by Audubon Park.
Registration: This tour is
limited to 50 people. Continuing Education Credits Apply.
$35 General Public
$25 AIA New Orleans/Docomomo NOLA members
$15 Students
This tour is dedicated to the memory of architect and historian Samuel Wilson, Jr. in honor of the centennial of his birth. We are especially grateful for Wilson’s seminal survey of 20th-century architecture in A Guide to Architecture of New Orleans 1699-1959.
[Unity Temple, Leonard Spangenberg architect, 1960-61; photo: Stephanie Day, Tulane School of Architecture New Orleans Virtual Archive]
Monday, August 15, 2011
Schadler Building (threatened)
Th Schadler Building on Tulane Avenue's "Miracle Mile" is threatened with demolition due to its location within the LSU hospital footprint.
Alfons Schadler acquired the site from the Hartwell Estate to construct a new headquarters for his Southern Radio Supply Company (est.1932).
The two story air conditioned building included a "high fidellity sound room," a 2000 SF showroom and 4000 SF of office space. It was designed by architect John M. Lachin, Jr. and constructed in 1956 by Otis W. Sharp and Sons, contractors.
[The Times-Picayune; Date: 03-27-1955]
Alfons Schadler acquired the site from the Hartwell Estate to construct a new headquarters for his Southern Radio Supply Company (est.1932).
The two story air conditioned building included a "high fidellity sound room," a 2000 SF showroom and 4000 SF of office space. It was designed by architect John M. Lachin, Jr. and constructed in 1956 by Otis W. Sharp and Sons, contractors.
[The Times-Picayune; Date: 03-27-1955]
Monday, July 25, 2011
DOCOMOMO US July 2011 E-News Brief
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Docomomo US is thrilled to announce the Philip Johnson Glass House as a partner for the fifth annual Docomomo US Tour Day. Located in lush New Canaan, Connecticut, the Glass House is a National Trust Historic Site and offers its 47-acre campus as a catalyst for the preservation and interpretation of modern architecture, landscape, and art, as well as a canvas for inspiration and experimentation honoring the legacy of Philip Johnson (1906-2005) and David Whitney (1939-2005).
Eligible for listing on the National Register of Historic Places, the Civic Arena (Mellon Arena) was rejected by the Pittsburgh Historic Review Commission and Planning Commission. On June 28th, the Pittsburgh City Council voted 6-3 to reject city historic designation, allowing the Sports and Exhibition Authority to move forward with plans to demolish the structure.
Glenbrook Valley, the subject of last year's "Mad About Mod" tour given by friend organization Houston Mod during Tour Day 2010, has been designated a local historic district. The residential neighborhood is made up of 1,255 tracts of post-WW II housing, the largest post-war locally designated historic district in the country, and the first of its kind in Texas.
Docomomo US seeks to elevate awareness of the buildings, sites and neighborhoods of the Modern Movement by profiling like-minded organizations across the country. This month we spotlight the Los Angeles Conservancy's Modern Committee, headed by Regina O'Brien, Chair. Active for over 25 years, the Modern Committee has been instrumental in the preservation of modern architecture in the Los Angeles area including the Capitol Records Building, Century Plaza Hotel and the Golden State Mutual Building, among others.
Tomorrow's Houses: New England Modernism 
Name this building and architect for a chance to win a prize from the DOCOMOMO archives.Tuesday, July 12, 2011
AIA Building tour :: Mahalia Jackson Center
The McDonogh 36 Elementary School / renamed Mahalia Jackson Elementary (Charles Cobert and Sol Rosenthal, 1954) is the sole survivor of the the thirty modern public schools built in New Orleans in the 1950s.
The school was renovated by architect John C. Williams for a non-profit foundation and re-opened in 2010 as the Mahalia Jackson Early Childhood Family Learning Center. During renovation, the facility was stripped bare to the concrete and steel structure, shedding years of unsympathetic alterations and redundant mechanical systems. The form is a fusion of a ‘finger plan’ school with a double galleried plantation house. Mature live oaks inhabit the courtyards between the wings.
The renovation includes walls of operable windows and maintains the open air circulation gallery. The new program is brilliant and the renovation reminds us how modern school facilities could be retrofitted to serve the community in new ways if only given the chance.
AIA New Orleans is hosting a FREE tour of the Mahalia Jackson Center on Thursday, July 21. Please visit the AIA website to register.
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