2326. Los Angeles International Airport. The Theme Building.

 

Dear Bob,

Mirroring the alien invaders in the 1954 movie

The War of the Worlds, where his brother Hal worked

as Art Director, futuristic architect William Pereira

designed the "Theme Building" for the new LAX

Airport trying to evoke the image of a flying saucer 

landing on its four legs.

Happy new year,

R

2324. Chapel of the Holy Cross, Sedona, Arizona

 

Dear Frank,

"Though Catholic in faith, as a work

of art the Chapel has a universal appeal.

Its door will ever be open to one an all,

regardless of creed, that God may come

to life in the souls of all men and be a

living reality." (Marguerite Brunswig

Staude, sculptor and promoter of

the Chapel of the Holy Cross)

Respectfully,

R

2318. Christ Lutheran Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

 

Dear Michael,

"If a building is honest, the architecture

is religious." (Eliel Saarinen)

Best regards,

R

2286. St. Louis Municipal Airport

Dear Norman,

"A building must be like a human being. It must have

a wholeness about it, something that is very important."

(Minoru Yamasaki)

Sincerely,

R

2276. Glass House on Ponus Ridge

Dear Christopher,

"This was a great breakthrough for me, to thumb my

nose at my mentor, Mies van der Rohe, and to say that

things should be warmer and toastier and sexier than

they are in modern, square-beamed architecture."

(Philip Jonhson)

Regards,

R

2274. Millenium Park. Chicago

 

Dear Robert,

"If you are skillful about certain things, a certain 

careful reaction will come to you. You get an opposite

and equal reaction, as it were. So the order is in how

you deal with the environment of people around you."

(Frank Gehry)

Respectfully,

R

2259. Milwaukee County War Memorial

 

Dear Brandon,

“Function influence but does not dictate form.”

(Eero Saarinen)

Regards,

R

2257. Wayne Township, Indiana

 

Dear Sammy,

The United Arts Center in central Fort Wayne, IN

was the only part built of a more ambitious arts

complex including a philharmonic hall, an art school,

an art museum and more facilities forming a projected 

campus of nine buildings. Eventually only the Theatre 

of Performing Arts was built due to a lack of funding. 

This theater can be seen in the foreground at the center 

of this contemporary postcard.

Regards,

R

2236. Walker Art Center, General Mills Hennepin Lounge

 

Dear Ila,

"The drama of architecture is that without people

nothing works. Architecture is a kind of stage for

human performance." (Jacques Herzog)

Sincerely,

R

2218. The annunciation Priory of the Sisters of St. Benedict, Bismarck, North Dakota

 

Dear Berto,

"Originality includes the courage to copy."

(Marcel Breuer)

Happy new year.

R

2214. The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York City.

 

Dear Louise,

"Architecture is the welding of imagination and common

sense into a restraint upon specialists, codes, and fools."

(Frank Lloyd Wright)

Regards,

R

2213. The new Lodge at the Sea Ranch, Sonoma, CA

 

Dear Luke,

"The familiar is what makes building meaningful to

us, while the surprising elements should give us a 

fresh view of the familiar. The new gives fresh life 

to the old, and makes it apply more particularly to

us." (Charles Moore)

Regards,

R

2210. Mount Angel Abbey and Seminary with Aalto's Library in the background.

 

Dear Erik,

"Reading a book involves both culturally and 

physically a strange kind of concentration: the duty

of architecture is to eliminate all disturbing

elements." (Alvar Aalto)

Sincerely,

R

2201. The Library. The Phillips Exeter Academy

 

Dear William,

"This is the place of the books. So you feel the building

has the invitation of books." (Louis I. Kahn)

Sincerely,

R

2168. New York. AT&T Building

 

Dear John,

"Doing a house is so much harder than doing a

skyscraper." (Philip Johnson)

Sincerely,

R

2160. Walt Disney World Swan

 

Dear Michael,

"The Dolphin is this mountain that has struggled its 

way to thrust out of the tropical rain forest. That's 

why there are banana leaves painted along the side 

of the building. It is a mountain that dramatically 

arose and in the process its heart exploded and the 

water cascades out nine stories down the side of 

the hotel, passing through the five clamshell basins 

to a fountain and eventually splashing into Crescent 

Lake. The walkway from the railings to the 

landscaping mimic waves that splash onto the side 

of the Swan. Two birds were so awed by this epic 

spectacle that they alighted on the top of the waves 

to get a better look and were magically transformed 

into those frozen swans." (Michael Graves on the

design of The Swan and Dolphin Hotels)

Best regards,

R

2153. S.C. Johnson & Son Inc., Racine, Wisconsin

 

Dear Steeno,

"The reality of the building does not consist of walls and

roof but in the space within to be lived in." (Lao Tzu)

Cheers,

R

2152. Chiat/Day Complex Venice, California

 

Dear Claes and Coosje,

"I always related more to artists than to architects"

(Frank Gehry)

Sincerely,

R

2148. The Pavilion for Japanese Art, LACMA

 

Dear Corliss,

"Every time we do a building, it should be the first and

the last. We must begin again and again."

(Bruce Goff)

2147. Denver Art Museum, North Building, Denver, Colorado

 

Dear Lisa,

"If a museum has to protect works of art, isn't it

only right that it should be a castle?."

(Gio Ponti)

Sincerely,

R