Each day leading up to the April 16 announcement of the Minnesota Book Awards, and in collaboration with community editors from the award-winning Saint Paul Almanac, we highlight one of the thirty-two finalists. Today we feature 2016 Minnesota finalist:
Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury by Larry Millett, photographs by Denes Saari and Maria Forrai Saari
Published by University of Minnesota Press
Category Sponsor: Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota
From the genteel elegance of Christ Lutheran Church in Minneapolis to the lowbrow wonder of Porky’s Drive-in in Saint Paul, the Twin Cities and other Minnesota communities are nothing short of a living museum of midcentury modernism, the new style of architecture that swept through much of America from 1945 to the mid-1960s.
A history lesson as entertaining as it is enlightening, Minnesota Modern provides a close-up view of a style that penetrated the social, political, and cultural machinery of the times. Extending from modest suburban ramblers and ranch houses to the grandest public and commercial structures, midcentury modernism expressed new ways of thinking about how to live, work, and play in communities that sprang up as thousands of military members returned from World War II.
Author Bio:
Larry Millett, a Minneapolis native, spent much of his career as a writer, reporter, and editor for the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In 1985 he became the newspaper’s first architecture critic, a post he held until his retirement in 2002. His many books include Minnesota’s Own: Preserving Our Grand Homes and Once There Were Castles: Lost Mansions and Estates of the Twin Cities. He has also written a series of Sherlock Holmes mysteries set in the United States and Minnesota in the 1890s.
An Excerpt from Minnesota Modern:
Midcentury Modernism has in recent years become a prized “retro” look among the young and stylish. The furnishings that helped define the era—from atomic wall clocks to banana-shaped coffee tables to the sleek chairs designed by Charles and Ray Eames—are back in fashion after spending several decades of exile in the realm of the passé, and even three-bedroom ramblers are suddenly hip again. Yet it is important to remember that Midcentury Modernism was more than just a style. At its heart, it offered the prospect of a world unchained from the past. Behind the movement lay a whole way of thinking about how to live, work, and play in the new suburban communities that sprang up after World War II.
Emphasizing simplicity, functionality, and rationality (but not always adhering to these lofty ideals), Midcentury Modernism as it came to be practiced in Minnesota flowed from at least three distinct sources. One tributary was the work of European masters such as Ludwig Mies van der Rohe (1886–1969), Walter Gropius (1883–1969),and Marcel Breuer (1902–1981), all of whom were connected with the Bauhaus, a tremendously influential German school of design founded by Gropius in 1919. [Also influential was the severe and minimalist International Style.] Practitioners of the style favored hygienic white buildings with plain wall surfaces, long bands of windows, and a pronounced horizontal emphasis.
A third key strain of midcentury design came not from faraway Europe but from neighboring Wisconsin, birthplace and home of the Midwest’s very own architectural rebel and genius, Frank Lloyd Wright (1867-1959). … Although he was approaching 80 years of age by the time World War II ended, Wright remained among the era’s seminal architectural figures. Although heavily influenced by the work of designers elsewhere, midcentury architecture in Minnesota was mostly a homegrown product. Architects based in the Twin Cities or in larger outstate communities designed the majority of office and public buildings, schools, churches, and high-style houses between 1945 and the early 1960s.
Reviews and Conversations:
“Millett offers insight into the careful thinking that went into these designs, highlighting the details that give them lasting appeal and speak to the idealism of their time.” — Amy Goetzman, MinnPost
The Star Tribune’s Lynn Underwood reviews and interviews Larry Millett about Minnesota Modern
The June Halverson Alworth House, in Duluth, Minnesota, seems to leap off its hillside toward the lake.
The Roseville Dairy Queen is the oldest in the Twin Cities.
Listen:
Teri Knight has 15 Minutes with Larry Millett
MPR’s Tom Weber chats with the author
SELCO Reader’s Advisory Review: Reagen Thalacker reviews Minnesota Modern
The evening features a Preface Reception with complimentary passed wine and cash bar, author meet-and-greet, book sales and signing; the Awards Ceremony with live music, celebrity presenters, artisan cheese plates and breads, complimentary wine and lemonade, with emcee Stephanie Curtis of MPR; and the Epilogue After-Party with complimentary champagne, sumptuous desserts, and additional live music. Tickets now on sale, or click here for more information.
Today’s winner: Kenya Cleary. (We’ll be in touch via email, and arrange getting the book to you!)
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