This session explores the profound impact of postwar infrastructure on community transformations, focusing on architectural innovations, pedagogy, and housing through case studies from Caracas, Chicago, and Miami.

“Rise and Fall of a Gasoline Driven Building (El Helicoide, Caracas Venezuela). From the Machine toward an Architecture”
Henry Rueda

“Pedagogy and the Paradoxes of Modern Architecture in Chicago’s South Side”
Junko Taguchi
 

“Concrete Monsters: Charting the Postwar Architectural History of Housing Segregation in Miami”
Hector Fernando Burga
 

The three papers in this session explore the ways in which color enriched the materiality and image of twentieth-century modernity/modernism from the 1930s to the 1970s in a range of different building types. 

"Mixed Metals in Architecture," Edward FitzGerald

"An Exploration into Mid-Century Glass Block Design: The Colored, Patterned, and Textured Era," Nicole Frank, MSHP

"Five Shades of Pink: Exploring Images of Arquitectonica’s Spear House," Karol R. Williams, MArch

This session offers two studies in the endurance of the modern Brutalist style into the present. 

“Test of Time: 1960s Tropical Brutalist Architecture Today”
Veronica A. Castro

“Revisiting 111 Lincoln Road: on the Lineage and Persistence of (Sub)tropical Brutalism"
Carlos Eduardo Comas and Marta Peixoto

This session explores the intersection of Modernist architectural design aesthetics and the evolution of Race relations in the American city during the second half of the 20th century. The presentation focuses on the role of public space as protest, school design as “progressive” yet segregated politics and urban renewal as monumental planning.

"Caught In The Middle: Ralph and William Zimmerman’s Sarasota School Designs Through The Era of Desegregation," Susan Singh

"Urban Renewal and Post-Modern Legacy of Oklahoma City," Selena Bagnara Milan

"Dive-In at the Monson Motor Lodge: St. Augustine, 1964," Arièle Dionne-Krosnick

Many pre- and post-war Modern buildings were adorned with artworks designed by notable artists and designers of the era, and many were integral to the designs of the buildings themselves. What happens to these artworks when their buildings are slated for demolition, and how is a building impacted when its integral art is removed due to disrepair or changing taste? This session explores a number of case study projects that have successfully relocated integral artworks, provided much-needed conservation, or resulted in losses that underscore the importance of advocacy.

"Cherished and Repurposed: Relocating Monumental Modern Mosaics"
Caroline Dickensheets

"Color and Light: The Allied Arts in Milwaukee’s Postwar Churches"
Justin Carlos Miller

Architects in mid-century South Florida, working in a subtropical context, eagerly appropriated the Modern Movement but also challenged its rational foundations, its functionalism, and its aesthetics. Responding to climate and landscape, but also to the region’s vocation as a touristic hotspot and to the expectations of diverse waves of immigrants, many architects indulged in flights of whimsy, luxury, and theatricality, creating environments designed to appeal to visitors and the global market. 

"The Architecture of Whimsy: Mid-20th-Century-Modern Architecture in South Florida"
Arthur Marcus

"A Coney Island State of Mind: Morris Lapidus"
Deborah Desilets, RA

"Morris Lapidus Abandons Bourgeois Baroque for Tropical Brutalism"
David D. McKinney

This session discusses the history of Miami Marine Stadium, the 16 year advocacy effort to restore it and "lessons learned" in the advocacy effort. It also considers the architectural design and use of concrete in the structure and details the complex task of removing 200 coats of graffiti. 

"Miami Marine Stadium – A Preservation Playbook – 16 Years and Counting"
Don Worth

"Conserving Modern Concrete in Tropical Environments: The Special Case of the Miami Marine Stadium"
Paul Gaudette and Rosa Lowinger

This session explores how individuals and nonprofit organizations in Sarasota and the greater South Florida Gulf Coast are engaging with the conservation and preservation of modern and postmodern structures, focusing on both individual architects and broader regional concerns that engage the wider public.

"Moderns That Matter: Sarasota 100"
Marty Hylton III and Kristine Ziedina

"The Rise of Leedy – Florida’s Favorite Brutalist"
Max Strang, FAIA

From post-war to post-revolution, this session will explore the development of confident and
striding modern identities in architecture through the design of tropical campuses and buildings.
Each of the subjects the speakers will present embrace some form of new political, technological,
and/or economic paradigms, and respond with solutions that would range from the practical to
the poetic. 

"Henry Klumb’s Modernism and Poetic Legacy in Puerto Rico"
Paolo Sanza and Prof. Awilda Rodríguez Carrión

"Building a Postwar American Campus in the Tropics: The work of Marion Manley and Robert Law Weed at the University of Miami"
Carie Penabad

"Divergent Revolutionary Modernisms: Two Campuses in Havana"
Belmont Freeman, FAIA