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No period in American architecture encompassed more sweeping changes, possessed a greater sense of dynamism, and approached the diversity of views and expression than the post-World War II era. During the period between the mid-1940s and the early 1960s, the United States enjoyed world leadership in what was then simply referred to as modern architecture. This was a significant change for a country that previously had persisted in embracing eclecticism and Art Deco rather than the radical agendas of the avant-garde.
This rich legacy is in trouble. For many years it was taken for granted. Much of it was later vilified, and most of it is now largely forgotten. Changing taste, new programmatic needs, improved systems, demands for more intense land use, and a host of other factors are placing many significant examples of postwar architecture at risk, and embarrassingly little is being done about it.
False sense of security
To a certain degree, a false sense of security exists because the most famous work of the mid-20th century appears to be safe. Skidmore, Owings & Merrill's Lever House in New York City and the Inland Steel Building in Chicago are protected by landmark ordinances, as are Ludwig Mies van der Rohe's Seagram Building in New York City and Lake Shore Drive apartments in Chicago. Frank Lloyd Wright's Marin County Civic Center in California is a National Historic Landmark, Richard Neutra's Kaufmann House in Palm Springs, Calif., has been lovingly restored by its new owners, and Philip Johnson's compound in New Canaan, Conn., will become a museum. Time after time in recent years threats to well-known and widely admired modern symbols of the postwar era have been met by onslaughts of protest and, for the most part, unsuccessful resolution.
Eccentric indulges in kitsch
When one looks beyond the rarified world of the most famous examples, the situation is very different.
Take the work of Bruce Goff, for example. As David De Long's meticulous research has shown, Goff ranks among the most original American modernists of the century and one of the few followers of Wright to develop his ideas in significantly new directions. But in many circles Goff remains cast as an...