ann arbor rotary award to david w osler

September 2, 2012 In News

ann arbor rotary award to david w osler


Architect David W. Osler received emeritus status by the Ann Arbor Rotary Society August 22, 2012. The event was held in the Michigan Union. Architect Ed Wier provided the talk on Osler’s many achievements. Those remarks are provided below:

David W. Osler
David was born and raised in Ann Arbor, graduating from University High in 1938. There, he met Connie Lorch, the young lady who would later become his wife. David has always been an artist – as a young man he was enamored with the beautiful hand-drawn illustrations found in the magazine publications of the day, such as the Saturday Evening Post.

David attended the University of Michigan, studying design and illustration and graduating in the class of ’42. David was a golfer while here at Michigan and was part of a Big Ten championship golf team. Following his time at the U-M, David enlisted in the Navy and served on the USS Thomas Jefferson, an assault transport ship. The Jefferson, with Osler aboard, played a key role in the Normandy invasion helping to transport the first wave of troops in the assault on Omaha Beach. Often overlooked, but equally harrowing from David’s perspective was a later assault that he participated in while serving on the Jefferson that occurred in southern France.

After returning home from the war, David married his high school sweetheart, Connie. Connie’s father, Emil Lorch, established the school of architecture at the University of Michigan and served as the school’s first dean. David had already been working in the field of architecture – working with Ann Arbor architect Pete Loree. Having spent this time around architects and in architecture, David decided that a career in architecture could also fulfill his need for creative and artistic expression—and today we’re all the better for it. David W. Osler Associates was established in 1958.

Over the course of a 50-year career, David compiled a diverse portfolio of building types ranging from single family homes to condominiums, libraries and churches. Notable projects in and around Ann Arbor include the Oslund Condominiums, St. Clare of Assisi Episcopal Church, the First Unitarian Universalist Church, the former Nellie Loving Branch of the Ann Arbor District Library, the Standing House at the Leslie Park Golf Course, Geddes Lake Condominiums, the Independence Lake Pavilions, and numerous private residences. Other noteworthy projects include the Gerstacker Language Center at Albion College, the Williams Research Corporation Headquarters in Walled Lake, and a particularly thoughtful and elegant addition to the Historic Howell Carnegie Library – a project that would win numerous library and design excellence awards. David Osler Associates won 22 Michigan AIA honor awards. This is a truly remarkable accomplishment – very rare for a small firm without departments delegated to marketing and public relations. In 1981, Osler was a finalist in the design competition for the Vietnam War Memorial in Washington, D.C. – one of only 15 entries to receive honorable mention for the commission that ultimately went to Maya Lin. In 2005 David W. Osler Associates was designated as Firm of the Year by the Michigan AIA, and in 1996 Osler was awarded the Michigan AIA Gold Medal Award – the highest honor the American Institute of Architects can bestow upon an architect.

When I recently asked David if he had any favorite projects, he was reluctant to name anything in particular – but felt the most important thing for all to know was that he tried to do his best on every project. Regardless of the size of the job, or the size of the budget, it was important to give each project your best effort. David’s projects all share a care for context – they are modern, appropriate and timeless. I first came to know David when I was a young architect back in 1988. I was three years out of architectural school and looking for a new opportunity. David had recently been awarded the commission to design the addition to the downtown Ann Arbor library and was looking to add to his staff. Of course I was thrilled with the opportunity, but also a bit anxious. I knew little about David personally at the time, but I knew much about his reputation. You see, back in 1988, as is still true today, in the community of architects, we all know he’s the best and most talented among us. Back at that time in 1988 – as a recently married frugal young architect – I would typically bring my lunch to work in a paper sack. To my surprise, David often did the same- except for Wednesday when he tried his best to get here. It was during those lunch times- usually still at our drafting boards – that I got a chance to know David better. One thing I learned was that we both shared a love for Michigan athletics. We’d swap stories of our favorite athletes, and compare eras. His favorite football team of all time – the 1947 team- now I didn’t get to see that team play, but David says they were exceptional – and beyond that, many went on to exemplary careers outside of athletics.

Dave joined Rotary in 1974 at the urging of his friend, Chuck Cares. Chuck, a landscape architect and former chair of the Landscape Architecture Department here at U-M, was of course Ann Arbor Rotary club president in 1989. David’s Rotary badge shows the patina of a longtime member. I’m sure most of us can look back on the early years of our professional careers and identify those people who taught us important lessons that would serve us throughout our careers. I consider myself fortunate to have had David Osler be one of those people for me. Now I know I’ll never be the artist that David is – I’ve come to terms with that – but David taught all those around him about the value of consistent effort – coming to work every day and giving your best effort. That the details matter – that every project matters, even if it may seem minor or insignificant, if you’re spending time to work on it, then give it your best effort. Don’t make excuses, treat people right.

David and Connie have three children – they, too, are all artists. Molly is an interior designer here in Ann Arbor. Robin is an architect in New York and Peter, with whom I worked when I was at the firm, established the Landscape Architecture program at the Illinois Institute of Technology and now serves as the director of that program. I am honored to present David Osler as an Emeritus member of the Ann Arbor Rotary Club. (Remarks by Ed Wier, Aug. 22, 2012)

Photograph of David W. Osler courtesy of Ann Arbor Rotary.

August 22, 2012 In News

modern yet historic, vintage yet sustainable

a2modern was asked by Concentrate Media about homeowners who have modernized their homes with the goal of making the structure more energy efficient. The architects at midcentury were also thinking about sustainability in decisions they made. a2modern recommended that the writer Denise McGeen talk to Craig Borum, principal Ply Architecture Ply Architecture about the work he did this spring on Bob Metcalf’s first commission–the Richard and Florence Crane home. See the full story at:
Modern yet Historic, Vintage yet Sustainable (August 22, 2012).

August 9, 2012 In News

10.9.12 Brian Conway to speak on Michigan Modern

Ann Arbor to Celebrate Modernism October 9
As Part of a National Observance Honoring Modern Design

ANN ARBOR – State Historic Preservation Officer Brian Conway will be at the Bentley Historical Library in Ann Arbor on October 9, 7:00 p.m., to discuss the pivotal role Michigan played in the development of Modernism. The event is being hosted by a2modern as part of Docomomo US Tour Day Event, which raises the awareness of and appreciation for buildings, interiors, neighborhoods and landscapes designed in the United States during the mid-20th century. Docomomo is an organization devoted to the documentation and conservation of buildings of the modern movement. The group a2modern has the same mission for architecture in Ann Arbor.

Conway will discuss MichiganModern™, the State Historic Preservation Office’s (SHPO’s) effort to make people aware of the important role Michigan played internationally in the development of Modernism. “Michigan’s influence on Modernism began with the design and construction of automobile factories as early as 1907. The clean lines, materials, and construction techniques used to build factories inspired the architecture that came later and flourished during the post-World War II period,” said Conway. “After the war there was a convergence of ideas and people at places like the Cranbrook Academy, the University of Michigan, in the automobile companies, and in the furniture industry that resulted in Michigan having a huge impact on design.”

The SHPO will host a four-day symposium at Cranbrook and is partnering with the Cranbrook Academy of Art on an exhibition, Michigan Modern: Design that Shaped America, which will open during the symposium June 13-16, 2013.

“Just as with the development of modernism in Michigan, the effort to educate people about Michigan’s role in Modernism is a collaborative effort. We want communities throughout the state to recognize modern buildings that might otherwise go unnoticed,” said Conway.

“The goal of a2modern, and with this event, is to facilitate the understanding and appreciation of this rich history in Ann Arbor, which is the home of the University of Michigan where many of the forward thinking educators were teaching and researching at mid-century,” said a2modern co-founder Nancy Deromedi.

In June 2010, a group of homeowners, architects and enthusiasts joined together in Ann Arbor with the goal to raise the awareness of and appreciation for mid-century architecture and design. Through its activities, a2modern celebrates the accomplishments of the architects, designers, builders and homeowners in Ann Arbor. Ann Arbor is home to the University of Michigan and the U-M provided access to the advancements in engineering and building materials, as well as the forward-thinking architects and educators that brought modernism to the area. These mid-century architects with domestic modern works in the area include George B. Brigham, Robert Metcalf, David W. Osler, James Livingston, Alden B. Dow, Walter Sanders, William Muschenheim, Edward Olencki, Joseph Albano, Joe T.A. Lee, Robert Pond, Herb Johe and Tivadar Balogh.

In addition to the MICHIGANMODERN endeavor, the State Historic Preservation Office leads the effort to protect Michigan’s historic built environment and archaeological sites by collaborating with government partners, developers, nonprofits, and other interested parties. Other SHPO programs include the National Register of Historic Places, the Federal Historic Preservation Tax Credit Program, and the Michigan Lighthouse Assistance Program. For information about these programs and more, visit Michigan.gov/shpo.

For information about the Ann Arbor event visit www.a2modern.org. For information about the MICHIGANMODERN project, go to michiganmodern.org. For information about all docomomo events held celebrating modernism see http://www.docomomo-us.org/events/tour_day_2012.

August 9, 2012 In Events

lunch time tour of "the flatness of ambiguity" 8.15.12

Join a2modern for a special tour of the current exhibit of architectural photographs by Judith Turner “The Flatness of Ambiguity.”
The tour will be guided by Pam Reister of the University of Museum of Art and will be Wednesday August 15th at 12:10 p.m. at the Museum. Meet us in the exhibit which is on the second floor for a lunch time discussion!

Judith Turner is a noted American photographer whose subject matter is mostly architecture. Turner’s training as a designer allows her to visually understand an architect’s intention and to reveal it in compositions that she constructs and edits through her camera work. Her photography can be seen as a metalanguage of architectural intention and as an artistic expression that is inseparable from the representation of the built work. Turner’s signature style consists of highly abstract black-and-white compositions that play with the ambiguity of light, shadow, and tonality to heighten the aesthetic character of her subject matter and reveal visual relationships not readily apparent. This exhibition will present approximately forty photographs spanning Turner’s three-decade career. See UMMA for more information www.umma.umich.edu

July 23, 2012 In News

cranbrook, flw in the area

This past weekend several of us carpooled to Cranbrook Art Museum for a guided tour of the George Nelson exhibit–it was fantastic. We then had a tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed “Gregor Affleck” home on Woodward avenue. What a beautiful home. Just so you know, the Nelson exhibit continues at Cranbrook until October 14, 2012. In addition, there is an accompanying exhibit “Vision and Interpretation: Building Cranbrook 1904-2012” in the lower level of the museum. For FLW enthusiasts, Cranbrook is sponsoring a tour of the Smith house on September 30, 2012 at 1:00 and 3:00. Tickets are $25 and you can obtain them by calling 248-645-3319.

Photographs of a2modern at the Gregor Affleck residence by Frank Lloyd Wright. The tour was lead by Brian Shell.

July 10, 2012 In News

umma 2 great exhibits to see this summer

The University of Michigan Museum of Art currently has until September 2, 2012 two great exhibits. One is abstract art form the collection (including works by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell and Joan Miro) curated by Professor Celeste Brusati and the other (exhibited in the gallery next to the abstract art) is a wonderful architectural photograph exhibit “The Flatness of Ambiguity.” The photographs are by Judith Turner and include photographs of architectural works by Wright, Alvar Alto and Meier. Both exhibits are outstanding and a2modern highly recommends a stop at the museum before September 2.

June 6, 2012 In News

residential modern receive ann arbor awards

Six modern homes received Ann Arbor Historic Preservation awards this past Monday evening June 4th at the 24th Annual Ann Arbor Preservation Awards ceremony held at the City Council meeting! As Susan Wineberg, chair of the preservation awards committee states “Mid-Century Modern is getting more attention.” Six such properties were recognized, five of which are in the Ann Arbor Hills neighborhood.

Preservation awards are in recognition of superior maintenance of a significant property to preserve its essential historical, cultural or architectural value for a period of 10 years or more.

Let’s celebrate:

1. Kenneth and Elizabeth Baird – 1223 Pontiac Trail. Residence built by Jean Paul Slusser, designed by George Brigham (1939)

2. Kenneth and Elizabeth Nesbit – 1334 Arlington Boulevard, originally built for UM Professor Carl Rufus and his wife; House known by its “Moon Gate” in the front yard, inspired by original owners’ work in astronomy and world travels.

3. Jane and James Kister – 2250 Belmont Road
• Built in 1950
• Designed by Walter Sanders, UM Professor.

4. Peter Hinman – 1075 Chestnut Street
• Built for physician Dr. Lyle Elliott and his wife Pauline in 1961
• Designed by UM Professor of Architecture Robert Metcalf

5. Glenn Watkins – 1336 Glendaloch Circle
• Built in 1959
• Designed by UM Professor of Architecture Herbert Johe

6. Myron and Barbara Levine – 356 Hilldale Drive
• Built for the Levines in 1962 • Designed by Donald Van Curler

In addition, a2modern received a Special Merit Award for the promotion of modernism in Ann Arbor!

Related article:
See related full article at: Concentrate Media

May 31, 2012 In Events

exhibit: george nelson: architect, writer, designer, teacher

Central Figure in Defining Modernism

“GEORGE NELSON:
Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher”

Opens at Cranbrook Art Museum
June 16, 2012

Note: a2modern is taking a field trip to the exhibit Saturday July 21. The trip will include a docent tour of the George Nelson exhibit at Cranbrook followed by a docent tour of the Frank Lloyd Wright designed Affleck home. The cost for the field trip is $25. Volunteers are needed to drive (carpool). Please email modernists@a2modern.org if you would like to join the caravan!
Space for this trip is limited so, please let us know of your interest.
We will be leaving Ann Arbor at 9:00 a.m. and will be leaving the Affleck house at approx. 2:30.

Bloomfield Hills, MI— George Nelson is considered one of the most influential figures in American design during the second half of the twentieth century. Operating from the western-side of Michigan as Design Director at the Zeeland-based furniture manufacturer Herman Miller for more than twenty-years, Nelson had his sights firmly focused on Cranbrook, which was also playing a defining role in the development of Modernism. This shared Michigan history comes into sharp focus in the exhibition, “George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher,” which opens at Cranbrook Art Museum on June 16 and runs through October 14, 2012.

“Cranbrook and George Nelson helped to define what Modernism would be,” says Gregory Wittkopp, Director of Cranbrook Art Museum. “Although Nelson never formally studied or taught at Cranbrook, he traveled in the same circles as many of our legendary architects and designers.” It was Eero Saarinen, in fact, that first introduced him to the work of Charles Eames who ultimately helped him radically reinvent the Herman Miller brand and the look—and feel—of the American interior.

Organized by the Vitra Design Museum in Germany, the exhibition “George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher,” is the first comprehensive retrospective of Nelson’s work. It has been touring in Europe and most recently in the United States at the Bellevue Art Museum in Seattle. Cranbrook is the final stop in the US tour and the last opportunity to see this major exhibition before the work returns to Germany.

With an architectural degree from Yale, Nelson was not only active in the fields of architecture and design, but was also a widely respected writer and publicist, lecturer, curator, and a passionate photographer. At Herman Miller, the renowned manufacturer of modern furniture design, Nelson had a major influence on the product line and public image of the company. He played an essential role in bringing the company together with designers such as Cranbrook’s own Charles and Ray Eames. Early on, Nelson was convinced that design should be an integral part of a company’s philosophy, and by promoting this viewpoint, he also became a pioneer in the areas of business communication and corporate design. Nelson was responsible for the production of numerous furnishings and interior designs that became modern classics, including the Coconut Chair (1956), the Marshmallow Sofa (1956), the Ball Clock (1947) and the Bubble Lamps (1952 onwards).

As an architect, designer and writer, Nelson was deeply interested in the topics of domestic living and interior furnishings. In the bestselling book, Tomorrow’s House (1945, co-authored with Henry Wright), he articulated the groundbreaking concept of the “storagewall.” The walls of a house, Nelson explained, could be used to store things by transforming them into floor-to-ceiling, two-sided cabinets. A revolutionary idea at the time, it anticipated the flood of consumer goods that the economic boom in the western world would soon produce, turning the single-family home into a small warehouse.

Nelson designed several private homes, including a New York town house for Sherman Fairchild (1941, together with William Hamby) and Spaeth House on Southampton beach (1956, together with Gordon Chadwick). As a committed proponent of industrial building methods, Nelson published numerous texts on the topic of prefabricated architecture. In the 1950s, he developed the “Experimental House,” a modular system of cubic volumes with Plexiglas roof domes that owners could assemble into personal habitations according to their own spatial requirements.

In addition to his preoccupation with architecture and the domestic interior, Nelson intently pursued the topic of office furnishings. Besides designing the first L-shaped desk, he played a major role in the development of Herman Miller’s Action Office, and in the 1970s he created his own office system, Nelson Workspaces. Similar to Nelson’s home furnishings and experimental architecture, this system was based on a variety of modular elements that could be freely combined.

The extraordinary diversity of design tasks taken on by the Nelson office extends far beyond the field of furniture design, although the latter forms the basis of his reputation today. Numbering among his clients were many large corporations including Abbott, Alcoa, BP, Ford, Gulf, IBM, General Electric, Monsanto and Olivetti, as well as the United States government. In his New York office, which he established in 1947 and ran for more than three decades, Nelson employed over fifty people at times, including familiar figures such as Ettore Sottsass and Michael Graves. Along with exhibitions, restaurant interiors and showrooms, George Nelson & Company designed kitchens, flatware and dishes, record players and speakers, birdhouses and weathervanes, computers and typewriters, company logos and packaging, rugs and tiles.

Nelson’s wide-ranging abilities culminated in the organization and design of the American National Exhibition in 1959, which was held in Moscow. Nelson and his associates selected several hundred industrial products manufactured by American companies and displayed them on a vast three-dimensional multi-level platform designed especially for the exhibition. He also furnished a “model apartment” and designed a large fiberglass umbrella for two other modular exhibition pavilions. The Moscow exhibition made history as the backdrop for the famous “Kitchen Debate” between Nixon and Khrushchev. Similarly spectacular was Nelson’s exhibit for Chrysler at the 1964 New York World’s Fair, which featured a Pop-Art-inspired, 64-foot-long “giant car” and a huge walk-in engine as part of the exhibition space. While this fair still celebrated the automobile, Nelson expressed a more critical view of automotive transportation in his essays and lectures on urban planning. As early as 1943, he outlined the mall concept as an auto-free shopping zone in the article “Grass on Main Street.”

After earning an architectural degree, Nelson began his career as a writer and journalist. Throughout his lifetime he was regarded as a brilliant publicist. He was not only co-editor of the eminent journal Architectural Forum, but also worked for many other well-known magazines including Fortune, Life, Industrial Design, Interiors and Harper’s. He also published more than half a dozen books on design topics. Nelson was one of the speakers at the first Aspen Design Conference in 1951 and a regular participant in the years thereafter. His engaging sense of humor and penchant for radical theories surely contributed to his popularity as a speaker at a wide range of conferences and symposiums. In 1961, at the height of the Cold War, he created a television program entitled “How to Kill People: A Problem of Design” — both an apt and bitingly ironic commentary on warfare from the designer’s viewpoint. Like the Eameses, Nelson was one of the early pioneers of multi-media lectures. He often used his own photographs for this purpose, many of which were taken on his wide and numerous travels. His photographic work and engagement with questions of everyday aesthetics found expression in the book How to See, which offered suggestions for sharpening one’s conscious perception of the everyday environment.

The exhibition is divided into five subject areas. Numerous furnishings by Nelson from the collection of the Vitra Design Museum—not only many classics, but also lesser-known pieces— form the core of the exhibition. They are organized in three categories:

1. Nelson and the House: Nelson as a pioneering planner and designer of the modern single-family home during the 1940s and 1950s: Sherman Fairchild House (townhouse in New York, 1941), The House of Tomorrow (bestselling book on modern housing, 1944), The Holiday House (model vacation home for Holiday Magazine, 1950), and Experimental House (design of a modular prefabricated house, 1952-57). Additional subjects: Storage Wall (1944), Herman Miller Casegoods (from 1946), Comprehensive Storage System (1959), Seating (Coconut Chair, 1956; Marshmallow Sofa, 1956; etc.) and kitchen design.

2. Corporate Design: Nelson’s work as a designer and design director for Herman Miller. Brochures, advertisements and vintage audiotapes document the development of corporate design at Herman Miller from the mid-1940s into the 1960s. In this context, corporate design programs for other firms, such as the pharmaceutical company Abbott (1959), also are presented.

3. The Office: Nelson as a prominent innovator in the development of the modern office environment: L-shaped desk as the forerunner of the workstation (1947), Action Office (1964), and Nelson Workspaces (1977).

4. Exhibition Design: This section will focus on the American National Exhibition in Moscow (1959), for which Nelson was responsible as head designer. Other topics include the Chrysler Pavilion at the 1964-65 New York World’s Fair, and Nelson’s exhibition work for the United States Information Agency.

5. Nelson as an author, editor, and one of the most important thinkers and visionaries in the realm of twentieth-century design. In addition to providing an overview of the numerous articles and books published by Nelson, this section of the exhibition will also show some of his films and slide presentations, in which he addressed the topics of urban planning, consumerism, and aesthetic perception in Western society.

The exhibition will be complemented at Cranbrook Art Museum with a second exhibition, “Vision and Interpretation: Building Cranbrook, 1904-2012.” Drawing from Cranbrook’s own rich collections, this exhibition presents the architectural legacy of Cranbrook as an artistic narrative emerging for the visionary ideas of George Gough Booth.

“George Nelson: Architect, Writer, Designer, Teacher” is an exhibition of the Vitra Design Museum, Weil am Rhein, Germany. The American tour of the exhibition has been generously sponsored by Herman Miller. Herman Miller also is the presenting sponsor of the exhibition at Cranbrook Art Museum. Additional support for the exhibition at Cranbrook is provided by the Alden B. Dow Home & Studio. Promotion of the exhibition is supported by an award from the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Museum Hours and Admission
Cranbrook Art Museum is open to the general public Wednesdays, 10am – 5pm; Thursdays and Fridays, 10am – 8pm; and Saturdays and Sundays, 10am – 5pm. Regular admission is: $8 for Adults; $6 for Seniors; $4 for Full-time Students with ID; FREE for Children 12 and under. For more information, please call 248-645-3320, or visit www.cranbrook.edu.

About Cranbrook Art Museum
Cranbrook Art Museum is a contemporary art museum, and an integral part of
Cranbrook Academy of Art, a community of Artists-in-Residence and graduate-level students of art, design and architecture. The Art Museum, which was established in 1930 and opened at its current site in 1942, is Eliel Saarinen’s final masterwork at Cranbrook. Today, the Art Museum presents original exhibitions and educational programming on modern and contemporary architecture, art, and design, as well as traveling exhibitions, films, workshops, travel tours, and lectures by renowned artists, designers, artists, and critics throughout the year. In 2011, the Art Museum completed a three-year $22 million construction project that included both the restoration of the Saarinen-design building and a new state-of-the-art Collections Wing addition. For more information, visit www.cranbrook.edu.

May 8, 2012 In News

preservation news:

Architect Minoru Yamasaki’s work to be restored at Wayne State University
by John Gallager, from the Detroit Free Press:
“One of Detroit’s most significant works by famed architect Minoru Yamasaki will be restored thanks to a $1.8-million project beginning next month.

The work will restore the pools of water and surrounding sculpture garden at the McGregor Memorial Conference Center at Wayne State University.

The jewel-like McGregor Center has long been considered by many to be among the finest buildings designed by Yamasaki, the Detroit-based architect best known for designing the World Trade Center towers in New York City. Yamasaki died in 1986.

The McGregor Center was built in 1958. The pools remained filled with water until the early ’80s, when leaks and other functional problems led Wayne State to drain them. The pools have remained empty and something of an eyesore ever since.

See full article at: Architect Minoru Yamasaki’s work to be restored at Wayne State University

May 7, 2012 In News

ann arbor women's city club tour

Interior view: Robert C. Metcalf’s home

This year, Robert C. Metcalf’s modernist home will be part of the Ann Arbor Women’s City Club tour Sunday June 3, 2012. This is a wonderful opportunity to experience Ann Arbor modern. Even if you have had the opportunity in the past to see this home, Bob added an addition in 2008 that includes an office and garage. Definitely worth seeing the seamless integration of the original 1952 home with the 2008 addition. See the Ann Arbor City Club website for further information and hold this date!

See annarbor.com article at Women’s City Club Features Metcalf home