University Reformed Church, Ann Arbor / Birkerts & Straub / 1964

“Although Birkerts’ approach as a whole has changed little in his last five years of independent practice, he has reconsidered the matter of symmetry, designing a symmetrical building today ‘only when it is really called for’ […] the nave of the church is enclosed by a three-dimensional composition of planes that incorporates both structural support and sources of daylight.”… Read More University Reformed Church, Ann Arbor / Birkerts & Straub / 1964

Parroquia de San Antonio de Huatusco / José Villagrán / 1964

José Villagrán was a hyper-functionalist architect crucial in the construction of many public Mexican institutions in the post-Revolutionary decades. This parish church which he designed in 1938 is something of an outlier among all the hospitals. Observe how his constructive pragmatism squares with the spiritual demands of a parish.… Read More Parroquia de San Antonio de Huatusco / José Villagrán / 1964