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‘Bauhaus in America’ documentary hits home in downtown Cleveland
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| The Ameritrust Tower in downtown Cleveland is an example of Bauhaus architecture by Jewish architect Marcel Breuer. It is slated for the wrecking ball.
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Reviewed by: FRAN HELLER Contributing Writer
In America we tear down buildings to make room for new ones, notes architect Philip Johnson. Blame the developers, he says.
Author Tom Wolfe (From Bauhaus to Our House) adds that it’s the developer who tries to convince corporate heads that they can erect a building cheaper and better than the existing one.
These lightning-rod viewpoints, eloquently expressed in Judith Pearlman’s stimulating 1995 documentary “Bauhaus in America,” hits home in downtown Cleveland, where the Ameritrust Tower has been slated for demolition. It was designed by world-renowned Bauhaus-trained Jewish architect Marcel Breuer.
Pearlman’s film is being shown in conjunction with a series of educational events on modernism and green building called “Greening the modern preservation movement: Bauhaus at the brink.” The program is designed to raise awareness about preservation and conservation; how to “green” these buildings rather than demolish them.
The 90-minute film explores the impact of the Bauhaus Modernist movement on American architecture and design from the 1930s to the present. Coupling archival footage with original graphics, historic perspective, and incisive observations from some of the country’s leading architects, the informative documentary opens a window into a leading art movement whose giant footprint permeates the landscape.
The narrative begins with three Americans who were students at the Bauhaus in Germany the day the Nazis closed the institution in Berlin in 1933.
Crisscrossing between past and present, the documentary traces the Bauhaus’s historic beginnings. It was founded in 1919 by German intellectual Walter Gropius whose democratic ideas about mass design were considered revolutionary at the time.
When Gropius visited America and the Henry Ford plant in 1928, he began to think how he could apply the idea of the assembly line to housing; he wanted an architecture that would be available to all. The name “Bauhaus” stems from the German words “to build” and “house.”
The Bauhaus faculty, a number of whom are referenced in the movie, reads like a “Who’s Who” of major artists. In addition to Gropius, they include Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Anni and Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Piet Mondrian, Herbert Bayer, Lyonel Feininger and Lászl— Moholy-Nagy.
The Bauhaus style, which emphasized simplicity and form following function, became one of the most influential currents in Modernist architecture and design. Industrial and product design were important components. A seminal figure in product design is Cleveland’s own Viktor Schreckengost, who recently celebrated his 100th birthday.
With the rise of Nazism, Bauhaus visionaries were driven into exile. Many chose America, where they would radically transform a nation reeling from war and the Depression.
Gropius went to Harvard, where he created the architecture and design program that became a model for schools across the nation. While Breuer joined Gropius at Harvard, Mies van der Rohe found his calling in Chicago, where he became one of the world’s preeminent architects. The IBM Plaza in Chicago, the Barcelona Pavilion in Spain, and the Seagram Building in New York are but three of the many edifices bearing his legacy.
When these exiles first arrived here, their responses to America ranged from ecstasy to despair. Ironically, the Depression provided them with an unprecedented opportunity to influence the future of building and design. Chicago, which had been destroyed by fire in 1871, became a mecca of progressive design as the “city of architecture.”
The late Richard Stein, who is interviewed in the film, was a student of Gropius’s at Harvard. In accordance with Gropius’s vision, Stein describes how the practice of architecture became inseparable from the way people lived.
Stein’s son Carl served his architectural internship with Breuer from 1968-71. Working together on rehabilitation projects, father and son were innovators of energy use and conservation in building and design. Carl Stein will speak in Cleveland Nov. 28.
Leading architects who appear in the film include Philip Johnson (Breuer’s student), who designed The Cleveland Play House, and I.M. Pei (Gropius’s student), who designed Cleveland’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. The 1971 Cleveland Museum of Art expansion is a Breuer building.
One of the most important Bauhaus contributions was in furniture design, including the Wassily Chair designed by Breuer.
According to online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the Bauhaus had a major impact on trends in art and architecture in Western Europe, the U.S., and Israel, particularly Tel Aviv, which has been named to the list of world heritage sites by the UN, thanks to its abundance of Bauhaus architecture.
Like clothes, architectural ideas go in and out of fashion, notes the nattily dressed Tom Wolfe. This is what happened to Modernist architecture in the 1960s and 1970s. It came to be seen as a design for a modular society without regard for human values. In the process, the skyline of inner-city neighborhoods was destroyed and replaced with taller and taller buildings.
Today, the pendulum is swinging back in the form of “New Urbanism” and a return to a socially relevant, more humane architecture with a strong sense of community. Gropius, who died in 1969, would be pleased.
“Bauhaus in America” will be shown Sat., Nov. 17, at 4 at The Cleveland Institute of Art. A panel discussion follows. Carl Stein will speak at Judson Manor, Wed., Nov. 28, at 6. 216-229-6527 or gcbl.org/green-modern.
Gloria Vando Hickok wrote on Nov 20, 2007 1:32 AM: " The Cleveland Institute of Art missed a great opprtunity by not inviting Judith Pearlman, director of Bauhaus in America, to speak at the showing. I've heard her speak about her other films, specifically The Idea of North (with Glenn Gould) and she is erudite, fascnating, and charming. Too bad! But I truly loved seeing the film! So happy the Institute showed it. Maybe some other organization can show The Idea of North or her film on the Harkness Ballet---all celebrating and preserving a bit of America's history and art. "
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