LOOK INSIDE: G. E. Kidder Smith Builds

For Giovanni Vito and Emanuele

Dates assigned in the captions of the photos are the dates when Kidder Smith took them.

The Archivio G. E. Kidder Smith is currently being processed in order to render it accessible to scholars in the future. In this book we use nomenclature regarding buildings and sites used by Kidder Smith himself. For his negatives he created a numerical filing system on the photos and in his pocket-size black photo journals (p. 258), which is evident in a few spreads of this book (for example the handwritten annotations in blue ink on p. 42).

The images that have been reproduced for this book have a specific electronic file that can be traced and requested only from the Università Iuav di Venezia, Archivio Progetti [Iuav AP]. For any further information, contact the author at amaggi@iuav.it or the Iuav AP at archivio.progetti@iuav.it

Acknowledg­ ments p. 6

Books as Buildings p. 34

Foreword Michelangelo Sabatino p. 8

Architecture on Display p. 192

Introduction p. 18

Legacies p. 252 A Double Legacy p. 254 Coda Samuel P. Smith p. 264 In His Own Words p. 268 Bibliography p. 270 Archives p. 273 Index p. 274 Author and Contributors p. 279

Acknowledgments

Annotated page dedicated to G. E. Kidder Smith in Eric de Maré’s Photography (1957), 43

This book has a long history. Its origins lie in the time when I started reading Eric de Maré’s books on architectural photography. In 1957, de Maré published his (frequently reprinted) classic Penguin handbook, Photography, that was followed by the masterly Photography and Architecture (1961) and Architectural Photography (1975). In Photography, de Maré refers to G. E. Kidder Smith (GEKS) as one of the foremost figures of architectural photog­ raphy and author of volumes full of hints and suggestions in representing architectural space. He writes: Photography is building with light, there­ fore buildings, especially in their parts and details, offer great scope to the creative photographer, since they possess all the photographic needs of form, line, tone, and texture. Among the finest architectural photographers in the world is G. E. Kidder Smith who took this shot beside the cathe­ dral in Orvieto, Italy [See excerpt above].

Describing architectural photography as “build­ ing with light,” de Maré emphasizes the sim­ ilarities between the disciplines as both being

6

“concerned with constructing forms, lines, tones, textures, and possibly colors, into a sculptural unity” (Photography and Architecture). As an historian of architec­ture and of architectural photography at Università Iuav di Venezia for 20 years and having an endless, indeed an insis­ tent, interest for the subject I teach, I wanted to know more about one of the “finest” archi­ tectural photographers in the world. In 2015, after many years of inquiry, I succeeded in contacting the photographer’s sons, Kidder Jr. and Hopkinson, who, with the rest of their family made me welcome in their parents’ home and gave me several days within which to make some sense of the archive and to study its con­ tents for the first time. It was a period of intense work and, when complete, the family took the remarkable decision to donate the archive— effectively all the papers of their father’s life as an architect and photographer—to the school of architecture where I work. Subsequently the archive was packed into 15 very large boxes and sent to Italy over the Christmas of 2015. The generosity of the Smith family has been excep­ tional for they have also made substantial con­ tributions to the costs of this book, and I thank them with love and gratitude.

Samuel P. Smith has always been a key force like his grandfather, and I thank him for his insightful and emotional coda.

I owe a huge debt to my life-long friend and former classmate Michelangelo Sabatino.

Words cannot adequately express my grati­ tude. He has shared my interests and admira­ tion for GEKS for many years and it is largely through his advocacy, encouragement, criti­ cism, and support that the complex and multi­ ple nature of the photographer’s achievements have been explored and set out here.

Jake Anderson also encouraged me to resurrect the milestones of Kidder Smith’s achievements now. Thanks to Neil Donnelly and Siiri Tännler for their beautiful design!

I am grateful to my friends and fellow scholars who have offered time and criticism over the years: Davide Deriu (Westminster University, London), Nicola Navone (Archivio del Moderno, Mendrisio), Valeria Carullo (RIBA, London), Agnese de Marchi (Università di Trieste), Marco Dalla Gassa and Luca Maria Olivieri (Università Ca’Foscari, Venezia), Johan Linton (Chalmers University of Tech­ nology, Göteborg), Gary Van Zante (MIT Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts), Paolo Scrivano (Politecnico di Milano), Valeria Casali (Politecnico di Torino), Cinzia Daniela Pieruccini (Università Statale di Milano), and Andrea Guerra and Laura Fregolent (Università Iuav di Venezia).

Special thanks are due to my research assistant and PhD student Andrea Nalesso who has helped to select the appropriate images, combine them, hunt for useful refer­ ences, and assist constantly in every moment and at every time. Special thanks to Veronica De Martin for her dedication to this project.

Andrea and Veronica served as my sounding board for ideas as the book evolved.

Luca Guido, Marco Tedone, Ludovica Bortolotto, Maddalena Modenese, Jessica Baiguera, and Cosimo Crescenzo gave their time listing all the architects in Kidder Smith’s books.

Also, I am grateful to Andreina Masotti and Franco Ferialdi, for their financial support and everlasting friendship during all these years. They both were the first to believe in a Kidder Smith monograph. Franco, in partic­ ular, kept asking me every time I met him: “When will I finish the Kidder Smith book?”

Alberto Ferlenga, as a former Rector of Università Iuav di Venezia, strongly believed from the beginning in this project. He generously

supported with financial aid the arrival at Iuav of the entire archive and the same kind sup­ port was received at the end of his mandate and at the final stages of the design of the book.

While I was working at the Archivio Progetti in Iuav, where the Kidder Smith archive is kept, many colleagues and friends were supportive.

I would mention particularly Serena Maffioletti, Riccardo Domenichini, and Rosa Maria Camozzo for kindly organizing the archival material and Sabina Carboni, Antonella D’Aulerio, Marco Massaro, Michele Ridolfi, and Teresita Scalco.

The book’s publication owes a great deal to the special efforts of Umberto Ferro and Luca Pilot from Università Iuav di Venezia Photog­ raphy Lab. Their valuable expertise makes every illustration in the book look smart and attrac­ tive. Thanks to Francesco Barasciutti for help­ ing me to prepare the images where we had to take the labels off.

I wish to thank Alistair Rowan who spent many days piecing together the visual and metaphorical connections that produced the final form and flow of this book.

I hope my ideas come across clearly: if they do it is due to the kindness of my friend Susan Martin, who has read the text and has helped me with my English.

I should also acknowledge the support offered by several institutions: Lori Dempsey from the Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service and Tad Bennicoff, Archivist at the Smithsonian Institution Archives; Ashley Holdsworth from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; Geoffrey Baer, WTTW, Vice President of Original Content Production; Winter Shanck and Jennifer Bertani from the WNET Group; Paolo Forrer and Simona Margherita Stoppa at OpenEyes Film (Milan, Italy); Elio Dissegna; and Slav Vasilevski.

I offer my sincere appreciation to Paolo, whose patience throughout the years has provided me with more support than I can possibly articulate in words.

I have always thought of Kidder Smith as an energetic and extraordinary man, a loving husband and a wonderful father. Like him I have two sons, who for the past year, while the last stages of the book have been completed, have not had as much of my attention or my time as they deserve. Now that it is done, it gives me great pleasure to dedicate this prolonged effort to my two boys, Giovanni Vito and Emanuele.

Angelo Maggi

7

G.E. Kidder Smith’s Reputational Shadow

Fig. 1: Self Portrait of G. E. Kidder Smith at the Temple of Athena Nike on the Acropolis, Athens, c. 1938

8

Michelangelo Sabatino

As an author, educator, photographer, and “builder” of books and exhibitions, G. E. (George Everard) Kidder Smith (1913–1997) was a multidimensional figure within the wide-ranging field of North American archi­ tectural professionals in the second half of the twentieth century (Fig. 1). From his start during the volatile years leading up to, during, and immediately following the Second World War, Kidder Smith excited the imagination of the general public as well as architecture professionals by publishing photography-rich books about new and old buildings in a range of countries. Although Kidder Smith was propelled in his travels by a powerful wanderlust, he was no flaneur.

His body of photographs consistently con­ veys an engaging and empathetic approach to framing buildings and the people that use them. Almost always, Kidder Smith captured human figures within his photographs. The photographs aim to reveal intimate relation­ ships between buildings, landscapes, and people. More times than not, Kidder Smith’s framing eschews documentary-style “com­ pleteness” in favor of more nuanced glimpses aimed at enticing the viewer to engage with the rest of the building on their own terms.

Examples include cyclists in front of the plaza of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library of Yale University (p. 153), a group of women with a priest in front of the Chapel of Notre Dame du Haut in Ronchamp (p. 119), or tourists in rowboats on Central Park Lake with the distinctive San Remo apartment building in the background (p. 140). Although he was very much interested in modern archi­ tecture, cumulatively his photography explores a wide variety of buildings and urban environ­ ments across time and geographies.

Kidder Smith trained as an architect (licensed in 1946 and elected FAIA in 1959), but he chose not to practice within the conven­ tional strictures of an architecture office.

Instead, he “designed,” researched, wrote, and photographed a remarkably diverse collection of books about architecture and the built envi­ ronment. From the very beginning Kidder Smith also strategically deployed the content of his books to curate exhibitions that would help disseminate his work. All of his books were published by commercial rather than uni­ versity presses and were aimed at reaching a broad audience during a time when new print­ ing technologies were significantly expanding

access and readership. In order to expand readership, Kidder Smith’s books were pub­ lished in English and translated into Italian and German. Additionally he published a number of bilingual editions including EnglishItalian, English-Portuguese, English-Spanish, and German-Italian. Their diverse formats included a hardcover “Builds” series, paper­ back pocket-sized Penguin books, and “luxury” large-format slip-cased editions. Since Kidder Smith’s books were not only illustrated with photos but also included building plans, sec­ tions, and details, often with maps and a select bibliography, they were conceived more as ref­ erence books rather than travel photo essays, a coffee-table genre for the armchair traveler popularized since the 1950s by individuals like the Canadian-born, Rome-based Roloff Beny. Unlike most of his contemporaries who received commissions directly from clients, Kidder Smith’s independent temperament led him to prefer taking photographs for his own books even though this professional free­ dom came at a personal cost; it required a time-consuming process of applying for and receiving grants from a variety of founda­ tions, cultural institutions, and universities such as the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, and Brown University, to name a few. Each of his books required extensive planning and intense travel for prolonged periods of time together with his companion, collaborator, and spouse Dorothea “Dot” (1916–2015). Kidder Smith’s pocket-size black photo journals (p. 259) and “field sheets” (pp. 151, 212) detail the sites vis­ ited and parameters of the photographs taken (camera type, aperture, etc.); he explained that before traveling for his three-volume The Architecture of the United States (1981), he produced approximately 3,000 “field sheets” in preparation for the road trip (“G. E. Kidder Smith on the Photography of Architecture,” Visual Resources 4, no. 3 (1987): 261–72). His work and life were deeply interwoven and punctuated by the research, writing, publica­ tion, and promotion of books that sought to reveal the genius loci of the countries whose built environments he admired and wished to share with a broader audience.

G. E. Kidder Smith’s multifaceted contribu­ tions as an author, educator, photographer, and “builder” of books received praise through­ out his life by contemporaries ranging from architects to journalists. Scholarly overviews

9

have been published about other individuals and firms in the North American professional landscape such as Hedrich Blessing, Robert Damora, Balthazar Korab, Maynard L. Parker, Panda Associates, Cervin Robinson, Ezra Stoller, and Julius Shulman. Kidder Smith, how­ ever, had not been the subject of an historical assessment. Happily, this lacuna is now filled with G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architec­tural Photography, an abundantly illus­ trated book written by Italian-British educator and architectural photography historian Angelo Maggi, currently based in Venice. Focusing on the intersections of architecture, photogra­ phy, and graphic design, this publication draws upon the vast and variegated archive donated by the Smith family to the Archivio Progetti of the Università Iuav di Venezia. The archive con­ sists of prints, negatives, correspondence, lec­ tures, and book-design-related and promotional materials as well as ephemera of all sorts. The archive in Venice is part of a broader network of Kidder Smith photographic holdings that include the RIBA (London), MIT (Cambridge, Massachusetts), and more recently, Corbis Historical (Getty Images). Kidder Smith’s pho­ tographs are part of the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, the New York Public Library, and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. G. E. Kidder Smith Builds: The Travel of Architectural Photography is the first overview of a multifaceted career and sprawling body of work of one of America’s most talented, if over­ looked, architectural photographers. While this study is comprehensive in scope, one hopes that future scholars will take the opportunity to fur­ ther explore its impact as well as blind-spots.

The selection of Kidder Smith photographs discussed in this book spans the late 1930s to the mid-1990s. Though he photographed in black and white as well as color, in an inter­ view near the end of his career he stated: “Black-and-white allows for more interpreta­ tion, thus might be said to be more creative.

Certainly my own best photographs are black and whites” (Visual Resources: 261–72).

Although Kidder Smith tended to photo­ graph early on in both color and black and white, during the printing phase he inevita­ bly defaulted to black and white. Kidder Smith photographed building exteriors with natural light and relied upon the work of other pho­ tographers for interiors. In search of meaning­ ful images, Kidder Smith and Dot visited not only known but also lesser-known buildings

10

and sites in towns and cities throughout the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, and India. Shortly after the Second World War and during the dawn of the Jet Age, travel was still relatively difficult. Kidder Smith’s first books produced during the early 1950s through the early 1960s provided glimpses into worlds that were still out of reach for most Americans. Whether by foot, bicycle, automo­ bile, train, ship, or airplane, the Smiths were a cosmopolitan and adventurous couple pro­ pelled by a combination of curiosity and dis­ cipline without which the remarkable body of published books would not have been possible.

Through it all, G. E. Kidder Smith remained a peripatetic and prolific cultural impresario who relentlessly pursued his pub­ lishing agenda. Kidder Smith was a soughtafter public speaker who frequently engaged with audiences at universities, museums, and associations. Maggi’s study reveals Kidder Smith's creative process in which photography and graphic design are the primary tools for his carefully “built” books. Each book can be understood as an episode in a creative trajectory rooted in a specific time and place.

In fact, the section dedicated to “Books as Buildings” treats books as a corpus of work in a way similar to how buildings would be discussed in a typical monographic study of architecture. Although Kidder Smith collabo­ rated, especially for dust covers, with a series of graphic designers (ranging from Elaine Lustig Cohen and Leo Lionni to Paul Rand) and discussed book concepts with his publish­ ers, he ultimately played a vital creative role in shaping the structure, contents, and visual narrative of his books. Maggi analyzes Kidder Smith’s books against the backdrop of chang­ ing photographic technologies (black and white eventually gives way to color in main­ stream publications; prints give way to pro­ jected slides) as well as a handful of recurring themes that inform the photographs and books such as the relationships between historic and modern buildings as well as those between vernacular and architect-designed buildings.

With his illustrated books of the early ’50s, Kidder Smith used “Builds” to address the built environment as a complex whole in which vernacular buildings co-existed along­ side architect-designed ones: he first used the “Builds” concept in his 1941 Stockholm Builds exhibition, “The Navy Builds” essay in 1946, and finally in his first three books:

Fig. 2: Detail of the medieval Cathedral and piazza of Orvieto, 1950

Fig. 3: Italy Builds dust jacket designed by Leo Lionni, 1955

Sweden Builds (1950), Switzerland Builds (1950), and Italy Builds (1955). Kidder Smith also contributed photographs to Brazil Builds (1943) authored by Philip L. Goodwin, which was the first high-profile MoMA exhibition and publication to use “Builds” in the title.

Shortly afterwards Goodwin also contributed a Foreword to the accompanying catalog Built in the U.S.A., 1932–1944 of Elizabeth Mock’s 1944 exhibition with the same title.

(Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Arthur Drexler used the term again in their 1952 Built in the USA: Post-war Architecture.) Whether in Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, or the US, Kidder Smith typically showcased modern architec­ ture within the historic built environment.

G. E. Kidder Smith was part of a distinct group of individuals who simultaneously wrote and illustrated their books. Unlike Julius Shulman or Ezra Stoller who typically worked for clients, none of Kidder Smith’s photographs have assumed “iconic” status.

He often drew attention to his dual role as author and photographer on the frontispiece of his books (see Switzerland Builds, 53). Some of his peers in America include the prolific

architect-turned-photographer and curator Bernard Rudofsky (1905–1988), cultural histo­ rian Wayne Andrews (1913–1987), and archi­ tect Norman F. Carver Jr. (1928–2018). All of them were particularly interested in exploring how traditional environments (whether in Italy and the Mediterranean, Japan, or the US) could inspire contemporary architecture and urban design at a time when American cities were struggling with the pressures of “mod­ ernization.” Although his photographs were published by several leading professional journals, for the most part, Kidder Smith pre­ ferred the independence of pursuing the lon­ ger-term project-based focus of books. Yet, he was still considered part of a larger group of leading architectural photographers as is clear from Margaret R. Weiss’s article “Shooting on Site”:

G. E. Kidder Smith’s Reputational Shadow

But I might just as easily have been Alexandre Georges or Samuel Gottscho, Balthazar Korab or G. E. Kidder Smith, Ezra Stoller or any of a hundred others who have made both an art and a science of recording buildings for architects,

11

Figs. 4–5: Monument to the Fallen in the Concentration Camps in Germany, designed by BBPR, Cimitero monumentale di Milano, 1951

12

contractors, industrial clients, advertising agencies, and publications.

—Saturday Review, January 23, 1965, 28–30 Kidder Smith’s coming of age occurred as modernity was taking hold in the American artistic, built, and literary imagination.

Photography was also finally gaining trac­ tion among a broader audience due to the pioneering efforts made early by photogra­ phers-turned-gallerists such as Alfred Stieglitz.

Kidder Smith graduated with a Bachelor of Arts (A.B. 1935) and a Master of Fine Arts in Architecture (1938) from Princeton University.

He attended the Fontainebleau School of Fine Arts during the summer of 1935. He arrived to the East Coast from his native Birmingham, Alabama before the outbreak of the Second World War. Upon marrying Dot, a native of New York, they established themselves in the metropolis and took advantage of the con­ centration of cultural and philanthropic insti­ tutions that supported their lives. Most importantly, New York provided easy access to a network of publishers, graphic designers, and funders for Kidder’s books. Although his first journey outside of the United States predated the war, Kidder Smith’s wanderlust really intensified after the conflict ended and while its battle scars remained visible in towns, cities, and the countryside. The cou­ ple’s travel (often accompanied by their two sons Hopkinson and Kidder Smith Jr.) during the postwar years overlapped with a hearten­ ing, albeit challenging, rebirth of countries, thanks in part to the resources and sup­ port provided by the Marshall Plan, the US European Recovery Program. During this time and throughout his entire career, Kidder Smith served as an architectural ambassa­ dor, a bridge between the United States and the various countries to which he focused his photographic gaze. Later in life, Kidder Smith would also embrace mainstream audiences at home by way of his PBS television program An Architectural Odyssey with G. E. Kidder Smith, aired in 1978 and focused entirely on the built environment of the United States of America (Robert A. M. Stern’s Pride of Place: Building the American Dream eight-part PBS series aired in 1986).

I first encountered Kidder Smith by way of his groundbreaking book Italy Builds: Its Modern Architecture and Native Inheritance, published in 1955 in English with a preface

G. E. Kidder Smith’s Reputational Shadow

by Ernesto Nathan Rogers and translated that same year by Edizioni di Comunità, a publishing house founded by Adriano Olivetti.

Around the time of publication, Rogers had risen to prominence by advocating for “conti­ nuity” in terms of a modern architecture that sought to harmonize boldly, instead of break­ ing with existing historic contexts. Not by coin­ cidence, the Leo Lionni–designed dust jacket features an image of Pier Luigi Nervi’s Palazzo delle esposizioni Salone C in Turin, 1950 (Fig. 7 and pp. 11, 75), and the medieval Cathe­ dral of Orvieto and adjacent piazza (Fig. 2).

The Torre Velasca, a mixed-use residential and office tower designed by Rogers’ firm (Studio Architetti BBPR) and completed a few years after Italy Builds, between 1956–58 for the historic center of Milan, best exemplifies this approach. Just after the war’s end, the Studio Architetti BBPR designed the Monument to the Fallen in Concentration Camps in Germany for Milan’s Monumental Cemetery (1946), photographed by Kidder Smith during his stay in Italy (Figs. 4–5). I read Kidder Smith’s beautifully illustrated book while writ­ ing a book that examined how Italian modern architects engaged with tradition, especially by way of their longstanding interest in folk art and architecture, subsequently published as Pride in Modesty: Modernist Architecture and the Vernacular Tradition in Italy (2011; Italian translation 2013). At a time when mili­ tant critics continued advocating for modern architecture as a radical break with the past in terms of structure, space, and materiality, Kidder Smith’s presentation of new buildings alongside historic sites did not go unnoticed.

Reyner Banham’s accusation of an Italian “retreat” from modern architecture directed toward Rogers and other architects collectively associated with so-called “Neo-Liberty” came four years after the publication of Italy Builds in an article published as “Neoliberty: The Italian Retreat from Modern Architecture” (Architectural Review 125, no. 747 (April 1959): 231–35).

In America, Yale architectural critic and historian Vincent J. Scully Jr. was also intrigued with Kidder Smith, writing in a multi-book review entitled “Architecture and Ancestor Worship”: “It is hoped that the pat­ tern of past and present which Kidder Smith has developed through his series of books will continue to develop in his future works and to liberate itself further from the blinders

13

Fig. 6: Pier Luigi Nervi’s Exhibition Hall (Salone B), Turin, Italy, 1951

14

Fig. 7: Pier Luigi Nervi’s Exhibition Hall (Salone C), Turin, Italy, 1951

G. E. Kidder Smith’s Reputational Shadow

15

of a past generation” (Art News 54, no. 10 (1956): 57). In a time of ideological battles over competing approaches to modern architecture and planning, Kidder Smith was interested in photographing beautiful and meaning­ ful buildings and sites of all ages. It is worth noting that Scully’s comments were writ­ ten just as urban renewal was leading to the destruction of the historic fabric of many American cities, including his hometown of New Haven, Connecticut. In addition to Italy Builds, Scully refers to a “series of books,” all of which present modern architecture within a broad chronological period: Brazil Builds: Architecture New and Old, 1652–1942, pub­ lished in 1943 by Philip L. Goodwin with Kidder Smith contributing photographs; this was followed in 1950 by the sole-authored Sweden Builds: Its Modern Architecture and Land Policy, Background, Development, and Contribution with introduction by leading Swedish architect Sven Markelius. In 1950 Kidder Smith also published Switzerland Builds: Its Native and Modern Architecture with introduction by distinguished Swiss critic and historian Sigfried Giedion. In 1955 he published Italy Builds: Its Modern Architecture and Native Inheritance, with introduction by Rogers.

Although the Builds series became his early “brand,” Kidder Smith continued to pro­ duce a range of other ambitious survey books about modern architecture aimed at a broad audience, including The New Architecture of Europe (1961) and The New Churches of Europe (1964). After his far-flung travels over the decades, Kidder Smith focused on his own country and produced a series of ambitious books on the United States that coincided with the celebrations of the nation’s Bicentennial in 1976 spanning broad chronological time frames: A Pictorial History of Architecture in America (1976), a three-volume The Architecture of the United States (1981). Although some additional book projects remain unrealized, he concludes his career with The Beacon Guide to New England Houses of Worship (1989), Looking at Archi­tecture (1990), in which he gathers his favorite photos taken over the years through­ out all countries, and finally Sourcebook of American Architecture: 500 Notable Buildings from the 10th Century to the Present (1996) with preface by Paul Goldberger.

Recall that up until the rise of the Jet Age in the early 1960s (and well before the world

16

wide web made images of buildings and cities widely available), most architects relied heav­ ily upon magazines, journals, and books as a substitute to first-hand experience. Yet, as Malcolm Laprade wrote in the mid-1940s: “It ought not to be forgotten, however, that it is pleasant and profitable to read travel books when the prospect of actually going places is limited. Thanks to travel books, today’s arm­ chair traveler becomes tomorrow’s tourist” (“The Armchair Tourist and the Sightseer,” New York Times, Sunday, December 8, 1946, 24). Travel in the years during the Jet Age became increasingly accessible to middle class Americans. Furthermore, the expansion of the hospitality industry spearheaded by Conrad Hilton during the 1950s and ’60s led to the realization of hotels in cities like Athens (1963), Istanbul (1955), and Madrid (1963); these efforts were part of an American business, cultural, and political strategy, ostensibly to encourage exchange and goodwill among ally countries.

With a characteristically “can-do attitude” of overcoming logistic challenges of being not fully acquainted with language and customs, Kidder Smith took pride in personally visit­ ing sites and including mostly his own pho­ tos in his books. The Smiths belonged to an American elite that emerged after the war and were eager to educate their peers to be more curious and worldly. Not until 1945 did Senator J. William Fulbright introduce a bill in the US Congress seeking to fund the “promotion of international good will through the exchange of students in the fields of education, culture, and science” (us.fulbrightonline.org). President Harry S. Truman signed it into law on August 1, 1946. Additionally, during those years, a number of American universities established new study-abroad programs in Italy and older research and arts institutions, such as the American Academy in Rome, became increas­ ingly more visible.

In an obituary that appeared in the New York Times, architecture critic Herbert Muschamp described Kidder Smith as a “civic watchdog,” noting the “more than 70 sharply opinionated letters published in The New York Times” (Oct. 26, 1997, 38). In addi­ tion to publishing books, curating exhibi­ tions early in his career, he also taught: Critic at Yale University School of Architecture, 1948—1949; Visiting Professor at MIT School of Architecture + Planning, 1955—1956.

Additional contributions include appearing

on television (An Architectural Odyssey with G. E. Kidder Smith in 1978) and his preservation activism. During the 1950s and 1960s when the preservation movement was struggling to assert itself in the US, Kidder Smith campaigned vigorously against the demolition of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Robie House in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Similarly, when it was still inconceivable for the mainstream to consider modern architec­ ture historic, Kidder Smith campaigned for safeguarding Le Corbusier’s imperiled Villa Savoye in the Parisian suburb of Poissy.

Above all, G. E. Kidder Smith should be remembered for his intimate and thought­ fully framed photographs that reveal relation­ ships between buildings, sites, and people.

With determination and skill, he expanded the culture of architectural appreciation. In the Foreword of the first of his three-volume The Architecture of the United States (1981), with subtitle An Illustrated Guide to Notable Buildings, Open to the Public, G. E. Kidder Smith elegantly summarizes his life-long “edu­ cational” objective as an author, photographer, and “builder” of books: The purpose of this guidebook is to help establish architecture more fully in the cultural life of the United States.

For “architecture” is largely unknown to the public, all but ignored in general art courses at our universities, and—with the pioneering exception of New York’s Museum of Modern Art—rarely shown in our museums. By pinpointing excellence and introducing the reader and traveler to distinguished building, it is hoped that the book will encourage interest in the heritage of this country’s architecture.

For unless we develop more discernment regarding urban and architectural quality, we will continue to commission and pro­ duce the mediocrity which characterizes most of our cities and buildings today. (p. vi) His photos and books will continue to serve as an important documentary record of cities and landscapes that have subsequently undergone significant transformations due to mass tourism, pressures associated with “development,” and neglect. Although Kidder Smith relied primarily on national frameworks for most of his books even when the broader

G. E. Kidder Smith’s Reputational Shadow

context was Europe, his voracious curiosity for the built environments of the world is pal­ pable as one assesses his multifaceted oeuvre.

Readers will hopefully find the images and the associated book-design process materi­ als compelling enough to seek out the origi­ nal publications. These carefully “built” books about architecture, both modern and historic, both vernacular and architect-designed, serve as a testament to G. E. Kidder Smith’s extraor­ dinary talent as photographer and author who directed his wanderlust to the service of audiences in America and around the world.

According to Cervin Robinson, GEKS was the “quintessential architect-photographer of the postwar years.” (Cervin Robinson and Joel Herschman, Architecture Transformed. A History of Photography of Buildings from 1839 to the Present (New York, N.Y.: Architectural League of New York; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1987, p. 137).

Although Kidder Smith’s voracious curiosity for the built environment spanned different centuries and geographies, he was mainly interested in modern architecture. Furthermore, the texts that accompanied his photographs reflect his experience living and working in America. His article “The Tragedy of American Architecture,” published in the November 1945 issue of Magazine of Art shortly after the end of the Second World War, is animated with urgency; in this article he seeks to per­ suade mainly his American readers to demand an architecture that eschews sensationalism in favor of “an architecture of the people, by the people, and for the people.” Perhaps this aspect of his legacy, more than any other, has something to teach us today.

Special thanks to Angelo Maggi for sharing his passion and deep knowledge about G. E. Kidder Smith.

Through the extended process of conceptualization and production of this book, my understanding of the interrelationship between the writing, photographing, and the design of books has been greatly enhanced through the lens of G. E. Kidder Smith. Special thanks are also due to Neil Donnelly and Siiri Tännler, our talented team of designers, for their thoughtful retro-future design.

17

52

Switzerland Builds

53

92

Opposite page: Maps and sequenced slide viewpoints of Piazza della Signoria, Florence, Italy, 1950s This page: Maps and sequenced slide viewpoints of the Piazzetta of Portofino, Italy, 1959

Italy Builds

93

Color photo sequence of the main pivoting door decorated with enameled panels of Le Corbusier’s Notre-Dame du Haut, Ronchamp, France, 1959

130

12 The New Churches, cit., 203.

13 Giorgio Casali was well-known for his long-term collaboration with Gio Ponti and the international magazine Domus. See Angelo Maggi and Italo Zannier, Giorgio Casali, Photographer, Domus 1951–1983.

Architecture, Design and Art in Italy, Silvana Editoriale, Cinisello Balsamo 2013.

essence of the church by himself, he borrowed evocative images from other photographers. This was the case of the Glass and Concrete Church in Baranzate, near Milan, by the Italian archi­ tects Angelo Mangiarotti (1921–2012), Bruno Morassutti (1920– 2008), and Aldo Favini (1916–2013). Here “an admirably scaled wooden cross”12 located outside the church became the key point of Kidder Smith’s analysis of the façade while the shadow of the same cross was portrayed by the Italian photographer Giorgio Casali (1913–1995) in a very powerful scene. Kidder Smith made use of Casali’s photography only in this specific case.13 He had found a man who “spoke” his same language. In the living spir­ itual places of worship, at that time, there were few other pho­ tographers who knew how to capture the interplay of light and shade and the atmosphere of the interior in such a memorable and vibrant way.

Typefaces Plantin, Pressio Stencil

Scope of Book, Layout of Book, Color Slides Available, Photographic Note).

Printer Shenval Press, Hertford (UK)

Architects discussed Alvar Aalto; Hermann Baur; Dominikus Böhm; Göttfried Böhm; Bornebusch Gehrt; Bruel & Selchau (Max Bruel, Jørgen Selchau); Carvajal Ferrer & Garcia De Paredes (Javier Carvajal Ferrer, José Maria Garcia De Paredes); Peter Celsing; Albert Dietz; Egon Eiermann; ELLT Architects (Alf Engström, Gunnar Landberg, Bengt Larsson, Alvar Törneman); José Luis Fernández Del Amo; Figini & Pollini (Luigi Figini, Gino Pollini); Miguel Fisac; Carl Rademacher Frederiksen; Guillaume Gillet; Pierluigi Giordani; Ernst Gisel; Graae & Wohlert (Rolf Graae, Vilhelm Wohlert); Glauco Gresleri; Nicolas Kazis; Josef Lackner; Lanners & Wahlen (Edi Lanners, Ruth Lanners, Res Wahlen); Le Corbusier; Josef Lehmbrock; Sigurd Lewerentz; Lindroos & Borgström (Bengt Lindroos, Hans Borgström); Robert Maguire; Mangiarotti & Morassutti (Angelo Mangiarotti, Bruno Morassutti); Edward Mills; Nicola Mosso; Carl Nyrén; Dieter Oesterlen; Passarelli V. F. & L. (Vincenzo Passarelli, Fausto Passarelli, Lucio Passarelli); Auguste Perret; Magnus Poulsson; Ludovico Quaroni; Sep Ruf; Aarno Ruusuvuori; Schädel & Ebert (Hans Schädel, Friedrich Ebert); Schlegel & Kargel (Gerhard Schlegel, Reinhold Kargel); Joachim Schürmann; Rudolf Schwarz; Karel Lodewijk Sijmons; Osmo Sipari; Siren Kaija & Heikki (Kaija Siren, Heikki Siren); Basil Spence; Emil Steffann; Helmut Striffler; Pierre Vago; van den

Binding Hardbound Extent 291 pp.

Size 28.5 × 22 cm / 11.2 × 8.7 inches Photographs 558 black-and-white photos Drawings 263 Language Bilingual English-Spanish / bilingual German-Italian. Eugenio Batista translation into Spanish; Karl Kaspar and Liselotte Mickel translation into German; Lucia Sebastiani translation into Italian.

Date of completion 1964 Introduction/Foreword G. E. Kidder Smith (An Era of Profound Change, Historic Background, Church Building and the Impact of New Materials, Development in Liturgy Affecting Architecture, The Evolution of New Shapes in Church Design, Specific Tendencies, Caveat, Selection of Churches in Book,

The New Churches of Europe

Broek & Bakema (Johannes Hendrick van den Broek, Jacob Bakema); Gijs Joost van der Grinten.

Noteworthy features The two four-page foldouts with line drawing plans and inner views of the 60 churches.

Reception of the book (1) Emily Genauer, [review] New York Herald Tribune, December 13, 1964; (2) William Alex, “Building for Worship,” The New York Times, December 20, 1964, section BR, 7; (3) Heinrich König, “Neuer Kirchenbau in Europa” [review], Architektur und Wohnform, Heft 6, June 1965; (4) Louise Ballard, [review] The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 25, Issue 2, Winter 1966, 228.

131

San Francisco de Asis, Ranchos de Taos, New Mexico, 1970

164

Looking at Architecture

165

The Dome of St. Peter’s Basilica, designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti, Rome, Italy, 1951

166

San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane, designed by Francesco Borromini, Rome, Italy, 1951

Looking at Architecture

167

Architecture on Display

Stockholm Builds 1941 p. 194 Brazil Builds 1943–1948 p. 198 Power in the Pacific 1945 p. 206

The Postwar Church in Germany 1957–1960 p. 210

America’s Architectural Heritage 1978–1983 p. 234

The Work of Alvar Aalto 1963–1980 p. 214

The Architecture of India c. 1967, c. 1990 p. 242

An Architectural Odyssey with G.E. Kidder Smith 1976–1978 p. 224

Wolfsburg Cultural Centre, designed

by Alvar Aalto, Wolfsburg, Germany, 1962

222

The Work of Alvar Aalto

223

An Architectural Odyssey with G.E. Kidder Smith 1976–1978

224

Concept, writing, and production Milton Hoffman Reception of the documentary Wolf Von Eckardt, “TV's Monumental Miss,” Washington Post, August 2, 1978, D9 Transcript and screengrabs of the TV documentary WNET/13 © 1976, aired in 1978, 57:47 Special thanks to Simona Margherita Stoppa at OpenEyes Film (Milan, Italy), Elio Dissegna, Slav Vasilevski, and Paolo Forrer.

Throughout his productive career, Kidder Smith moved seamlessly from “building” books (i.e. writing and photographing) to curat­ ing exhibitions, always with an eye toward both general and specialized audiences. With his PBS television program, An Architectural Odyssey with G. E. Kidder Smith aired in 1978, he further extended his reach with main­ stream audiences. Significantly, after years of Dot, his “companion and collaborator,” working with him behind the scenes, she appeared a number of times throughout this documentary.

00:36 [An Architectural Odyssey with G. E. Kidder Smith] 00:47 [Narrator: Steve Post] This man, G. E. Kidder Smith has made a journey through America, unlike any who preceded him. He has traveled 150,000 miles to observe, photograph, and write about the parade of distinguished buildings we have produced.

1:03 [Narrator] Here, in the Southwest, at the Sun Temple in the Mesa Verde National Park, he is beginning the last leg of a 10-year odyssey.

1:09 [GEKS] It is one of the most magnificent and enigmatic of the dwellings in this whole four corners area. What we see today was probably started in the 1270s, and when the drought began half a dozen years later, the people began to leave, the temple was never finished, the excavated walls we see now were gradually covered with dirt.

1:39 [GEKS] There are obviously all sorts of puzzles as to how it would have been finished, the prize uses to be made of it, but we just don’t know.

1:50 [Narrator] Kidder Smith, a trained architect, is also an accomplished photographer. With the completion of this grand survey, he has now established the finest visual record of existing American architecture: a study which includes 2500 buildings.

2:04 [GEKS] One of the things I tried to do is to get a picture in the building, to try to extract what I think of

a meaningful part of a building or a meaningful essence of the building.

3:00 [Narrator] It is with his wife Dorothea, that G. E. Kidder Smith has made much of his journey. She’s been both companion and collaborator.

3:27 [Narrator] In the next 60 minutes we will travel through the last nine centuries of American buildings with a man who has seen as much of the world’s architecture as anyone alive. He has made a life’s work of trying to bring the message of great architecture to as wide an audience as possible. Kidder Smith believes as did Thomas Jefferson, that architecture is a civilizing force.

03:52 [GEKS] Interestingly, Jefferson was at his finest when he was least traditional, when he was pioneering. His first building, the Capitol at Richmond was a scaled-down Roman temple.

225

In His Own Words

Because America does not realize the fundamental approach of modern architecture and the great benefits (which we hope to make clear) accompanying it, it neither knows nor cares about it.

It does not seek buildings generated by plan instead of façade; it does not look for living beauty and restfulness in its houses; it is horrified at anyone proposing that some responsible and capa­ ble authority plan its subdivisions, approaches, and highways in an effort to make its cities and surroundings coherent and beau­ tiful. It seemingly frowns on other than the false-fronted and compromising colonial.

—“The Tragedy of American Architecture,” Magazine of Art, November 1945, 255 Because of the extraordinary diversity in Switzerland of the fac­ tors which fashion native architecture, the maximum lessons can be drawn from the minimum spaces. One of the greatest of these is the use of materials both structurally and esthetically.

In construction the Swiss natives dared limits we find novel today: in simple esthetics they produced designs which make ours effete and self-conscious.

—Switzerland Builds (1950), 21 There is a tendency, in the United States, especially, to embrace only the architecturally sensational. There is furthermore a ten­ dency to consider only the isolated building, not the setting or the relation of a building two other structures. Swedish archi­ tecture does not work on this sensational or isolated unit basis.

Instead, it has concentrated on producing the highest general level of architecture in the world, and one intimately tied to the progressive planning and social betterment.

—Sweden Builds (1950), 17 It is difficult to think of any great building in the history of architecture which did not represent a union of the talents of the architect with those of the painter and the sculptor. In most of the world for the past several hundred years the archi­ tects—and their clients—seem to have forgotten this essential lesson. Not so in Italy, where the tradition of this union of the arts is as alive as it ever was, even under present economic conditions which tend to restrict all but the essential in con­ struction. It is high time that we philistine northerners more fully realized the strategic importance of painting and sculpture to architecture, and even to planning. More than in any other period of our cultural development we need such accent and enchantment.

—Italy Builds (1955), 122 While it is unquestionably true that the United States can muster a greater number of significant ‘post-war’ buildings . . . than any single country elsewhere, there are few building types in the U.S. which are not surpassed in excellence by European examples. Indeed, excepting the contributions of the American pioneer genius, the late Frank Lloyd Wright (him­ self a powerful influence on European building), the present advanced state of U.S. architecture can be traced directly to

268

the influx there of extraordinarily talented architects from the Continent, and to the influence of their pioneering, teaching, and achievement.

—The New Architecture of Europe (1962), 8–9 There is too much concern about originality and not enough on that emotional experience in religious space which makes such transcending demands on all concerned with church building.

—The New Churches of Europe (1965), 8–9 For in our democratic society, unless our voters, and through them our legislators, develop a sharper awareness of our man-made environment and keener judgments of what is being built (or torn down), the future of our architecture and of our cities will be left to the financial interests, primarily the banks and insurance com­ panies, whose record has so far not been encouraging.

—A Pictorial History of Architecture in America (1976), 8–9 A few architects, probably properly publicized, seemingly are more concerned with conjuring novelty for novelty’s sake, or with producing seductive exhibition drawings, than they are willing to be vexed by the tough, three-dimensional realities of a client’s program, his money, or the annoying details of site and climate.

Professional responsibility—let alone societal responsibility— appears to be of little moment. We are increasingly witnessing what Sigfried Giedion called “Playboy Architecture.”

—The Architecture in the United States (1981), ix The architecture of New England, like that in all the thirteen colonies, was naturally influenced by England itself for some two hundred years. This does not mean, however, that the needs and materials of the six New England states did not fashion their own building interpretations, usually on a modest scale.

—The Beacon Guide to New England Houses of Worship (1986), xvi My expeditions stemmed from a curious obsession: a concern for architecture. Its repute, though not seriously ill, is ailing.

In perhaps quixotic fashion, I would like to help open more eyes to the provocative rewards of well-turned buildings in space.

Though most of us are throughout the day surrounded by what passes for architecture, little of what we see is distinguished, while even fewer of the buildings’ occupants care.

—Looking at Architecture (1990), 7 The buildings in this book seek to trace our oft-confused, occa­ sionally sparkling, architectural evolution of some thousand years. It is not a history of our architecture but a log book of the stepping stones in the evolution of our shelter. Many splendid structures do not appear, while conversely the inclusion of a few may be unexpected. However, having personally tracked down and photographed almost two thousand distinguished struc­ tures in all fifty states, I think the five hundred discussed here are representative of their always-ambitious times.

—Source Book of American Architecture (1996), 5

269