Category Archives: Blog
Creating Community: Lafayette Park
Created by architect Mies van der Rohe, developer Herbert Greenwald, planner Ludwig Hilberseim and landscape architect Alfred Caldwell, Lafayette Park is listed in the National Register of Historic Places because of the excellence of its urban design and the quality of its community planning.
“You could reasonably say this would be a true example of new urbanism, build a village in a city and make it work.” -Jerry Herron, Director of American Studies, Wayne State University
Green Towns USA: A New Deal
During the Depression, the Roosevelt Administration built experimental new towns to address the problems of urban sprawl and lack of affordable housing. The planning principles involved, the effectiveness of the solutions, and the state of the towns today are the subject of this documentary. Narration by Glory Southwind, past president of the National New Deal Preservation Association, who grew up in one of the towns.
The Glass House
Produced 2010 at Resonance Theatre in New York City, written by June Finfer and directed by Evan Bergman and presented at the Farnsworth House in Illinois and the Philip Johnson House in Connecticut. World War II has been won by the Allies. German architect Mies van der Rohe sees an opportunity, in America, to build his vision of a new architecture when he meets Chicago Dr. Edith Farnsworth, who seeks peace with a house in the countryside. Can their relationship survive his ambition and her trust?
“The Glass House” explores the romantic relationship between a female client and a male architect that merely happens to have, at its center, one of the most famous houses in history.” – “Sex and Real Estate,” Paul Goldberger, The New Yorker
“An absorbing drama.” – Curtain Up
For her play about Mies van der Rohe to get noticed in Chicago, June Finfer had to take it to New York.” –“If You Can Make it There,” Deanna Isaacs, The Chicago Reader
“Ambitious new play.” – Brian Scott Lipman, Theatermania
“The Glass House – a new, immensely satisfying play with smart writing.” – Oscar E. Moore, Off Broadway
The Tugendhat House: Mies van der Rohe’s Czech Masterpiece
Mies van der Rohe’s European residential masterpiece, built in 1930 in Brno, Czechoslovakia. The story of this house is told by a daughter of the family, art historian Daniella Hammer-Tugendhat and architects who have visited the house, which is now being restored.
Lost and Found Productions 