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“Unforgettable Palm Beach: Modernist buildings among town’s most endangered cultural resources - Palm Beach Daily News” plus 1 more

Unforgettable Palm Beach: Modernist buildings among town’s most endangered cultural resources - Palm Beach Daily News

Posted:

By BY AUGUSTUS MAYHEW

Special to the Daily News

In Palm Beach, being modern is a thing of the past.

However much Palm Beach's architectural tradition remains best known for its Spanish adaptations, Italian variations and Caribbean inspirations, progressive designers, as notable and diverse as Edward Durell Stone, Howard Chilton, John Volk, Eugene Lawrence and John Stetson, among them, once crafted sleek Modernist buildings throughout Palm Beach. And although never in the same numbers as their Old World counterparts, these most often commercial buildings and condominiums still rival the aesthetic significance of the island's columned loggias and wrought-iron balconies.

For more than three decades, Modernism prevailed as Palm Beach's post-World War II paradigm of style, found among the South End and Midtown's co-ops and condominiums, as well as commercial buildings along Worth Avenue, County Road and Royal Palm Way.

Despite Modernism's recognition and popularity, a period when architects shaped concrete and steel into functional geometric forms rather than crusted ornamental facades, beginning in the 1980s Palm Beach retreated back into the artifice of historical facades, having today declared itself "a Mediterranean-style mecca of architectural beauty," according to the town's website.

Considering the town's more welcome appreciation for contextual new contruction and spec builders' passion for the curb appeal of colossal French-styled chateaus and high-volume Palladian-modeled villas, several hundred of the town's residential mid-century houses have been demolished, leaving its Modernist architectural tradition fragmented, and thus, more predominately evident among its commercial and condominium buildings.

From Moderne to Modern

Following Palm Beach's swing from its 1920s extravagant barrel-tiled skyline to the 1930s' "less is more" standard — when building trends shifted toward less formal and more functional designs — Palm Beach broadened its motifs with British Colonial, Georgian, Monterey and Bermuda design styles.

At the same time, the town's Old Guard was comfortable introducing new wave designs, amassing an artful collection of Modernist buildings, providing additions to the town's decorum as an international destination. The era's Modernist zeitgeist made it a popular genre for Midtown's commercial buildings, small hotels and apartment houses.

On the surface, it appeared faster trains, air travel and modern conveniences such as air-conditioning accelerated Palm Beach's post-World War II economy. But actually, a late 1940s zoning change increasing density in Midtown sparked a building boom that endured for more than two decades, as houses and small hotels were replaced by apartments and co-ops, and later by the proliferation of condominiums.

The nifty '50s

In 1951, the sleek Riviera apartments opened at 455 Worth Ave., offering decorator-furnished suites floored with wall-to-wall carpeting and complete hotel service with a switchboard and daily maid service. The John Stetson-designed multi-story building added a distinctly contemporary flair to the otherwise established row of Worth Avenue facades.

Several years later, the three-story Armour Building implanted a similar sense of modernity to Worth Avenue's east end. In 1955, Irving Armour and his son Robert built a 35,000-square-foot mixed-use building on the corner of County Road and Worth Avenue with street-side shops and upper-level offices. Although extensively renovated in 1986, shortly before the Armours sold the building to a Canadian concern for $18 million, the building's rows of glass windows and concrete eyebrows reflect mid-century Modern's appreciation for functional style.

The Palm Beach Towers remains the town's dominant mid-century Modern design, designed by Washington, D.C., architect John Hans Graham. Built as the largest apartment-hotel resort in the United States, the Towers was created in sharp contrast to The Breakers, its 1920s predecessor, which featured an enclosed Renaissance courtyard patterned after Rome's Villa Medici. Connected by a two-story concourse with a floor-to-ceiling glass lobby overlooking the free-form pool, Intracoastal Waterway and West Palm Beach skyline, the Towers' multi-storied H-shaped wings were angled and flared along the lake, providing views from the ocean to the waterway.

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Rochester's PCCA to honor cultural leaders in the area - The Oakland Press

Posted:

By ANNETTE KINGSBURY
Special to The Oakland Press

Reggie Harrison, executive director of the Orion Art Center, is one of nine recipients of the inaugural Regional Arts and Culture Awards. The awards will be handed out March 24 by Rochester's Paint Creek Center for the Arts.

At a time when public funding for the arts in Michigan is disappearing, a small nonprofit art center has decided to honor the people and organizations that are helping keep the arts alive.

Rochester's Paint Creek Center for the Arts will present its first-ever Regional Arts and Culture Awards March 24 at the Royal Park Hotel. Oakland County Executive L. Brooks Patterson will receive the inaugural Distinguished Arts and Culture Award. In addition, the leaders of eight local communities served by PCCA were asked to select one winner per community to receive Mayors' Arts and Culture Awards.

Auburn Hills selected Shelly Chapman, the city's senior services event coordinator. Orion Township's selection is Reggie Harrison, executive director of the Orion Art Center. For Rochester Hills, the winner is the Rochester Symphony Orchestra. From Troy, the award goes to the Image and Arts Council of Troy. Ray and Mary Nicholson are Oakland Township's selection. Art conservationist LaVere Webster is the winner for the city of Rochester.

Two Macomb County communities are also included. Shelby Township chose Barbara Gasparski, an artist and founder of the Shelby Township Art Fair. Washington Township chose painter Dolores Kurily.

PCCA Executive Director Suzanne Wiggins said she hopes to expand the awards in the future.

"As we've been developing partnerships with the region around us, we really felt there was a need to recognize people doing great things to help foster arts and culture in their communities," she said. "It could be an artist, it could be an arts educator, or a family who has given financial support."

Rochester Hills Mayor Bryan Barnett, who nominated the orchestra, said it is an asset to the community.

"They're well-organized, well-managed and extremely well-accepted," he said. "It's one of those things that separates us as a great place to live."

Linda Shears, executive director of the Image and Arts Council of Troy, said the award recognizes her group's work to improve the image of Troy.

"We're bringing together artists, performing arts, educators, business owners and city facilitators and anyone who just loves the arts," she said. "It's pulling Troy together." Continued...

Formed in 2006 at the suggestion of a chamber of commerce committee, I/ACT was originally envisioned as an economic development tool.

"Then the economy tanked and we realized we had to start smaller," Shears said. Now the council offers seminars, mingling and nurturing of the arts community. Not officially a nonprofit, the council operates under the financial wing of the North Woodward Community Foundation.

The tiny Orion Art Center was established in 1979 to nurture the arts in north Oakland County.

"We say we're driving the vision of a culturally rich community," said Harrison, who has been at the helm for 10 years. "You say that and people say, 'Lake Orion?' "

But a community doesn't have to be big or rich to have a cultural life, she said.

"Look at Flint. They're like the poster city for down and out. But yet they have all these soul-nurturing institutions," she said. "I feel like we're perfectly placed between Flint and Detroit."

The OAC has upped its profile in the last two years by sponsoring a new festival in Lake Orion, Dragon on the Lake. It's revamped its biggest annual fundraiser in support of the festival.

"I feel like we've really accomplished something with that," Harrison said. "It's exciting … to offer something that has the potential to grow and have artists and nonartists participate."

That's happened at a time when grant funding has dried up. Harrison said that just makes sponsorships, memberships and volunteers all the more important.

"Right now I have such a dedicated board that is really in tune with what's going on and really trying to take this to the next level," she said. "You could say we didn't get that grant, we should close. But you can't close. Continued...