Get their look: Mies van der Rohe Detroit townhouse

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We’ve just learned about a fabulous Mid-century Modern housing estate in Michigan. The photo above is of a Mies van der Rohe Detroit townhouse; located in the city’s historic Lafayette Park.

Completed in 1963, there are a total of 162 three-storey townhouses and a further 24 two-storey court houses. These homes are owned and operated as a co-operative. As well as the town and court houses, Lafayette Park consists of a further 3 components designed by the architect; the Plaisance (a public park), the Pavillion and the East and West Towers. With an area covering 46 acres, it’s the world’s largest Mies van de Rhoe project. Interspersed between the housing are integrated children’s play areas, open space meadows, and pedestrian walkways. There’s also a school and retail outlets within the development.

In 1996, in recognition of its importance in the history of architecture and urban renewal, the Mies van der Rohe Residential District was listed in the National Register of Historic Places. In 2015, Lafayette Park was designated a National Historic Landmark.

Mies van der Rohe Detroit townhouse units come up for sale fairly seldom, and don’t come cheap – especially if it’s a courtyard unit which boasts the addition of an outside area. One of these would set you back about $600,000… with steep monthly maintenance fees of around $800-$1,400.

Get their look

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Cube glass terrarium

3-piece peekaboo acrylic nesting table set

George Mulhauser Plycraft lounge chair

Bertoia Diamond armchair

Barcelona low coffee table

12-light sputnik chandelier

Cube glass terrarium

3-piece peekaboo acrylic nesting table set

George Mulhauser Plycraft lounge chair

Bertoia Diamond armchair

Barcelona low coffee table

12-light sputnik chandelier

Cube glass terrarium

3-piece peekaboo acrylic nesting table set

George Mulhauser Plycraft lounge chair

Bertoia Diamond armchair

Barcelona low coffee table

12-light sputnik chandelier

Designer Desire: Viola Gråsten

Viola Gråsten (1910-1994) was a leading Finnish textile designer. Her most well-known pattern is probably Oomph (pictured at the very top of the montage above) which was printed in a number of colourways.

Some of the fabric patterns that she designed include Sparv (1959) and Hassel for Ljungbergs; the striped Snark blankets (see above) for Tidstrand; Tulipuu, Såpbubblor, Casa (1954) and Kalas (1955) for Swedish department store, Nordiska Kompaniet (NK) and Pelagonia (1965) and Kastanj (1966) for Mölnlycke Tuppen AB.

Her eye-catching rug designs produced for Elsa Gullberg’s Textiles and Interior in Stockholm have come to be known as Gråstens colours. She also produced a great many rug designs for the aforementioned, NK Textilkammare.

There are currently a number of her textile designs available on Etsy – including rugs, blankets and lengths of fabric.

I’ve come across a book by Anne-Marie Ericsson, Viola Gråsten och modernismen i svensk textilkonst (Viola Gråsten and modernism in Swedish textile art), that delves into the history of her creations.

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Additional image credits:

Artnet | Auctionet | Bukowskis

Designer Desire: John and Sylvia Reid

This week, we feature a British, mid-century modern design duo – John and Sylvia Reid. Architects/designers who produced furniture for Stag Furniture and lighting for Rotaflex. They’ve also been involved in designs for the Boys Club, Stamford Hill, Hackney; Piazza Coffee Bar, Marylebone High Street, London and the Wheatsheaf Pub, Cumberland Road, Camberley.

The couple’s son, Dominic Reid, is reproducing some of the designs from their archive. He’s collaborated with Nicholas Radford, the Managing Director of Nathan Furniture (which is produced here in little old Todmorden!) and son of the original manufacturer. They’re reissuing a capsule collection from the S-Range which initially launched in 1960 and ended production a mere 3 years later.

The collection will be launched at Clerkenwell Design Week next month (22-24 May 2018). Said Radford:

Dominic and I are very excited about the re-issue of the S-Range, as it represents not only one of the very best examples of British mid-century design, but has a great collaborative heritage behind it which we are both very proud to be a part of. We hope the design community attending Clerkenwell will love what we have to show them.”

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Additional image credits:

1st Dibs | Artnet | Artsy | Pinterest

Designer Desire: Richard Koppe

Richard Koppe (1916-1973) was an American modernist artist, designer and educator. In the late 1930s, Koppe attended the New Bauhaus in Chicago where he was taught by László Moholy-Nagy. You can really see the tutor’s influence on the pupil’s style.

For ages we’ve hankered after a menu he designed in 1948 for Well of the Sea restaurant located in the basement of Hotel Sherman, Chicago. Examples appear on eBay occasionally – but they are never cheap!

He produced other designs for the restaurant including 5 impressive ‘glow in the dark’ wall murals, coloured recessed back-lighting and kinetic mobiles. A range of crockery was produced for the restaurant by Shenango in 1953 using his designs. Someone on Zazzle is currently producing exact replicas of this restaurant-ware; putting it to china, melamine and textile home accessories.

We have an illustration painted by Cal Dunn of one of Koppe’s Well of the Sea murals in one of our vintage cookbooks, ‘The Ford Treasury of Favourite Recipes from Famous Eating Places‘. We’ve also found a couple of contemporary black & white photographs of the restaurant here and here.

Richard Koppe exhibited widely at international institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, the National Academy in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Carnegie Institute in Pittsburgh, the Pennsylvania Academy in Philadelphia, the Royal Academy of Art in London, the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

He also taught for many years as Head of Visual Design and Fine Arts at the Institute of Design (ID) at the Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and later as Professor of Art at the University of Illinois at Chicago.

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Additional image credits:

Art in America magazine | Corbett vs Dempsey | Elmhurst Art Museum | Invaluable | Flickr

H is for Home Harbinger

Tag: mid-century modern

Get their look: Mies van der Rohe Detroit townhouse

Get their look

Designer Desire: Viola Gråsten

Designer Desire: John and Sylvia Reid

Designer Desire: Richard Koppe