Between brotherhood and bureaucracy: Joseph Hudnut, Louis I. Kahn and the American Society of Planners and Architects

Planning Perspectives

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 2005, Pages 147-175

  Shanken, Andrew M ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

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[No Author keywords available]

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ARCHITECTURE;

EID: 17744400703     PISSN: 02665433     EISSN: 14664518     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/02665430500031787     Document Type: Review

References (132)

1. Only a small, undated mock-up of a pamphlet, hand drawn in pencil, remains among Kahn's papers 'Program in the Promotion, Planning and Building of American Village', in folder 'Loose Material: Found Unfiled', LIK Box 68, Louis I. Kahn Collection, University of Pennsylvania and Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission, Philadelphia (hereafter cited as Kahn Collection). The complex recalled a 1939 public housing project of the same size for West Philadelphia called Kirkbride's, which he designed with George Howe and Kenneth Day for the Philadelphia Housing Authority. See David B. Brownlee and David G. De Long, Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (New York: Rizzoli International Publications, Inc., 1991, p. 26).
2. As a promotional pamphlet, American Village also elaborated on his wartime work for Revere Copper and Brass, for whom he and Oscar Stonorov, his partner in the mid 1940s, created two pamphlets on urban planning. See Oscar Stonorov and Louis I. Kahn, Why City Planning Is Your Responsibility (New York: Revere Copper and Brass, 1943)
3. and You and Your Neighborhood: a Primer for Neigbborbood Planning (New York: Revere Copperand Brass, 1944).
4. Alan Brinkley, The End of Reform: New Deal Liberalism in Recession and War. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1995.
5. For Kahn, the ASPA extended his Architectural Research Group (ARG), an architectural Klatsch he founded in 1931, where the young talent in Philadelphia gathered around the charismatic young Kahn to hear him hold forth on Modern Architecture. D. B. Brownlee and D. G. De Long. op. cit. [1], p. 25.
6. Donald Albrecht (ed.), World War II and the American Dream. Washington, D.C.: National Building Museum; Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 1995.
7. See especially, Joel Davidson, Building for War, Preparing for Peace: World War II and the Military-Industrial Complex, in D. Albrecht (ed.), ibid., pp. 184-229.
8. Perry's work on the neighbourhood unit was disseminated through the publications of the Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs. See C. Perry, Neighborhood and Community Planning, Volume VII (New York: Regional Plan of New York and Its Environs, 1929).
9. Perry developed the idea in The Rebuilding of Might Areas (New York: Regional Plan Association, Inc., 1933).
10. C. Perry, Neighborhood ..., ibid., p. 19.
11. Ibid., pp. 30-1.
12. Public Administration Service, Action for Cities. Chicago: Public Administration Service, 1943.
13. We know that Kahn was familiar with the NRPB guide because he built a panel for a 1945 French exhibition on American housing that he called 'Action for Cities'. The very word 'action' deserves attention as a keyword in modern architecture. For another later example, see the pamphlet put out by The American Council to Improve Our Neighborhoods (ACTION), a group composed of Walter Gropius, J. L. Sert, Carl Koch, B. Kenneth Johnstone and planner Martin Meyerson: East Hills, a Demonstration of Better Living (Cambridge, Mass.: ACTION, 1959). ACTION was primarily a Pittsburgh group, but it had its roots with Meyerson in Chicago.
14. Joseph Hudnut, The Political Art of Planning. Architecture and the Spirit of Man. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1949, pp. 194-5.
15. Originally published in Architectural Record 94 (October, 1943) 44-8.
16. The best account of the NRPB is Patrick D. Reagan, Designing a New America: The Origins of New Deal Planning, 1890-1943. Amherst, University of Massachusetts Press, 1999, pp. 186-91, 216-22, 226-34.
17. Also Philip J. Funigiello, The Challenge to Urban Liberalism: Federal-City Relations during World War II. Knoxville, The University of Tennessee Press, 1978, especially pp. 163-86.
18. Eugenie Ladner Birch, Advancing the Art and Science of Planning: Planners and Their Organizations 1909-1980. Journal of the American Planning Association 46, 1 (1980) 22-49.
19. See Donald A. Krueckeberg, The Story of the Planner's Journal, 1915-1980. Journal of the American Planning Association 46, 1 (1980) 11.
20. Earlier informal meetings had already been held for several months. In a letter Hudnut wrote to Philip Goodwin (May 18, 1944), he explained that he was invited to join only after two meetings. See Harvard University. Graduate School of Design, Records of Office of the Dean, 1894-1980, Subseries X: Records of the External Offices and Organizations, in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', UAV 322.7, Box 5, XB, Harvard University Archives (hereafter cited as ASPA Papers).
21. Harris and Sert belonged to CIAM, which disbanded during the war and must have provided the ASPA with its emphasis on planning. See Eric Mumford, The CIAM Discourse on Urbanism, 1928-1960. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2000.
22. CIAM, with Sert as the writer, had just published Can Our Cities Survive, a scathing indictment of the modern city and a prescription for its survival.
23. See José Luis Sert, Can Our Cities Survive?: An ABC of Urban Problems, Their Analysis, Their Solutions. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1942.
24. Stonorov worked with the former head of the Urban Section of the NRPB, Robert Mitchell, to set up a local planning institute in Philadelphia. See Oscar Stonorov to Joseph Hudnut (April 9, 1945), in folder 'ASAP-General Correspondence', ASPA Papers, Box 5, XB.
25. Henry Wright, the son of the well-known planner and an architect in his own right, worked as managing editor at Architectural Forum, the Luce publication that had turned its pages into a propaganda machine for planning. See, for example, Syracuse Tackles Its Future. Fortune 27 (May 1943) 120-3, 158, 160, 162;
26. City Planning: Battle of the Approach. Fortune 28 (November 1943) 164-8, 224, 226, 228, 230, 234;
27. and So You're Going to Plan a City. Fortune 29 (January 1944) [122]-5, 172, 174, 177, 178, 180, 183.
28. Perkins provides the most important line of connection between professional planning and architecture organizations. Associated closely with Gropius and Hudnut at Harvard, he was a key figure in the ASPA and later served as the editor of the Planners' Journal from 1950 to 1952.
29. The group got permission to use the name Telesis East, but decided not to use it. See Minutes of the Meeting, May 6, 1944, in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', G. Holmes Perkins Collection, Architectural Archives of the University of Pennsylvania (hereafter cited as Perkins Collection).
30. Jill Pearlman, Joseph Hudnut's Other Modernism at the Harvard Bauhaus. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 56 (December 1997) 452-93. Pearlman demonstrates Hudnut's early interest in planning through his work with Werner Hegemann between 1917 and 1921.
31. Ibid., 459-60.
32. Following the first meeting, an Executive Committee met regularly and larger annual meetings took place beginning in January 1945, with local chapters in Washington, Philadelphia, New York and Boston cities meeting on their own.
33. The AIA was just beginning to take public relations seriously during the war and would undertake its first major collective campaign for the profession in the immediate post-war years. This first PR campaign of the AIA deserves more attention.
34. Of course, architects like Royal Barry Wills, who did not consider themselves Modernists, also embraced public relations techniques, but the Modern Movement's ties with publicity emerge out of two key characteristics of the movement. Its close ties with industry, beginning with the Werkbund, made publicity less a distasteful act of self-promotion than a programmatic part of design. Also, the deep faith in the role architecture could play in improving society has important affinities with the ways in which advertisers enlist faith as a tool for selling. In some cases, advertisers expressed a sincere faith in their project, Bruce Barton going so far as to liken himself to Jesus Christ. See Leo P. Ribuffo, Jesus Christ as Business Statesman: Bruce Barton and the Selling of Corporate Capitalism. American Quarterly 33 (Fall, 1981) 206-31.
35. The ASPA thought about collaborating with the CIO on a planning primer. Simon Breines, a member of FAECT and of the ASPA, had been given funds by the Education Committee of the AIA to write a similar pamphlet, which suggested a collaboration. Elizabeth Mock considered having the ASPA write one for the Museum of Modern Art, which was considering a pamphlet called 'Look at Your Neighborhood'. Minutes of the April 1, 1944 Meeting of the ASPA, in folder 'ASAP Minutes [1944-1945]', Box 4, ASPA Papers.
36. Planning With You, Architectural Forum 79 (August 1943).
37. Minutes of the Meeting, March 4, 1944, p. 2, in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection.
38. Tacoma Looks Forward. American City 58 (September 1943) 53-5;
39. Pencil Points also reported on their general effort in: Genesis of the NRPB Demonstrations. Pencil Points 24 (August 1943) 32-3.
40. These groups included the American Society of Planning Officials, CIAM, the National Committee of Housing Officials, the National Committee on Housing, the National Planning Association, the National Public Housing Conference, Inc., state and local planning bodies, the American Medical Association, the Congress of Industrial Organizations, the Committee on Economic Development, the Foreign Economic Administration, and the Building Industry Committee of the National Council of American-Soviet Friendship (NCASF), many of whose members joined the ASPA. Members of both the ASPA and this last group included Simon Breines, Serge Chermayeff, Jules Korchein, Morris Sanders, Henry S. Churchill, Vernon DeMars, Joseph Hudnut, Roland A. Wank and William W. Wurster.
41. Letter from Joseph Hudnut to G. Holmes Perkins (April 28, 1944), in folder 'American Society of Planners 1944-1945', Perkins Collection. For a copy of this first letter, see Joseph Hudnut to Walter Gropius (April 28, 1944), in folder 'Hudnut 1941-42, 1944', Box 9, Reginald Isaacs Papers, Archives of American Art.
42. G. Holmes Perkins wrote 'Dean Hudnut's Statement' above a typescript that is almost verbatim the same as the constitution. See folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection.
43. 'Constitution for Planning Associates, a Society of Architects and Planners', in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection.
44. Eric Mendelsohn to Joseph Hudnut (May 3, 1944), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
45. Philip Goodwin to Joseph Hudnut (May 5, 1944), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
46. Joseph Hudnut to Philip Goodwin (May 12, 1944), Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers. Hudnut may have been referring obliquely to CIAM, as well.
47. Philip Goodwin to Joseph Hudnut (May 15, 1944) and Hudnut to Goodwin (May 18, 1944), Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
48. G. E. Kidder-Smith to Hudnut (May 5, 1944), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
49. Robert Allan Jacobs to Joseph Hudnut (May 10, 1944), Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
50. Officers and Directors of the American Institute of Architects, 1943-1944. Architectural Record 95 (April 1944) 74-9.
51. Joseph Hudnut to Robert Allan Jacobs (May 12, 1944) 1-2, in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
52. The animus against the AIA continued in later appeals for membership, as well. Robert Cerny, a Harvard-trained architect who had worked for Roland Wank on the TVA wrote in 1945: ... I might say quite frankly that although I am a member and past director of the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects I find them typically stodgy and inactive. I fear they resent my rather futile attempts to stimulate planning activities by the Chapter group. Robert G. Cerny to Hugh Stubbins (May 23, 1945), in folder 'ASPA-Secretary-Stubbins-Mock 1944-45', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
53. Joseph Hudnut to G. Holmes Perkins (Nov. 27, 1944) p. 1, in folder 'External Relations, Committee for 1944 ASPA', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
54. Philip Goodwin to Joseph Hudnut (May 5, 1944), in folder Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
55. Hudnut to Goodwin (May 12, 1944), op. cit. [13].
56. William Wurster to Joseph Hudnut (March 15, 1945), in folder 'ASPA Membership Committee 1944-46', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
57. Joseph Hudnut to William Wurster (March 19, 1945), in folder 'ASPA Membership Committee 1944-46', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers..
58. I b i d.
59. This statistic was a commonly cited figure in the early 1940s. The actual figures are more firmly established in Turpin C. Bannister (ed.), The Architect at Mid-Century: Evolution and Achievement. New York: Reinhold Publishing Corporation, 1955. See, especially, p. 73. By 1950, membership had reached 44% of all registered architects.
60. Roland A. Wank to Joseph Hudnut (May 8, 1944), in folder 'ASPA Membership Committee 1944-46', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
61. Ibid., p. 2.
62. Letter G. Holmes Perkins to Mrs C. Paul O'Connell (Novembrer 18, 1944), in folder 'External Relations, Committee for 1944 ASPA', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
63. 'List of names for Dean Hudnut, furnished by Robert Kennedy', in folder 'ASPA Membership Committee, 1944-46, 'Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
64. 'Notes on a meeting held at 235 East 46th Street, New York City on February 3, 1944', in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-1945', Perkins Collection.
65. Ibid., p. 1. Perkins Collection. They also considered working on the pamphlet with the FAECT Planning Commission. George Nelson, the Architectural Forum editor who was behind much of Planning With You, and Jules Korchein, a member of FAECT, proposed a workshop for the pamphlet and suggested bringing in experts in graphic presentation - 'a first-rate graphic artist should be secured for the actual layouts'. 'Draft of minutes for the meeting held Saturday, March 4, 1944 at 235 East 46th Street', in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-1945', Perkins Collection.
66. I b i d.
67. 'Report Submitted by Mr. Kahn', in folder, 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection. Kahn consulted with Eero Saarinen, planner Jacob Crane, Mordecai Ezekial (of the Department of Agriculture), Willard Day (of the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration) and Holmes Perkins.
68. These included the American Society of Planning Officials (ASPO), CIAM, the National Committee of Housing Officials (NAHO), the National Committee on Housing (NCH), the National Planning Association (NPA) and the National Public Housing Conference, Inc. 'Report Submitted by Mr. Kahn', ibid., p. 1.
69. Ibid., p. 3.
70. I b i d.
71. Joseph Hudnut to G. Holmes Perkins (November 27, 1944), in folder 'External Relations, Committee for 1944 ASPA', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
72. 'Report Submitted by Mr. Kahn', op. cit. [55], p. 5.
73. I b i d.
74. George Howe, 'Master Plans for Master Politicians', p. 1.
75. Typescript, in folder 'ASPA-Publicity', Box 15, Series X, ASPA Papers. This was later published under the same title in Magazine of Art 39(Februar 1946) 66-8.
76. Ibid., p. 1.
77. Ibid. Sigfried Giedion, Space, Time and Architecture: The Growth of a New Tradition. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1962 [1941], p. 542.
78. G. Howe, ibid..
79. Ibid., p. 2.
80. Ibid., p. 3.
81. I b i d.
82. Ibid., p. 4.
83. Ibid., p. 5.
84. I b i d.
85. Boris Shishkin, Untitled typescript, 1-2, in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection.
86. Ibid., p. 3.
87. Jacob Crane, 'Urbanism in England', typescript, in folder 'ASPA: Notebook Assembled by GHP, 1943-45', Perkins Collection.
88. Joseph Hudnut to Serge Chermayeff (November 13, 1944). S. I. Chermayeff: Correspondence about A.S.P.A. 1945-46, HUG 4281.5, Harvard University Archives (hereafter cited as Serge Chermayeff Papers).
89. I b i d.
90. Elizabeth Mock served as Secretary. See folder 'ASPA-Secretary-Subbins-Mock 1944-1945, Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers. Janet O'Connell may have served in some official capacity, as well.
91. I b i d.
92. Female members included: Mary Cooke [Barnes], Catherine Bauer, Mary Goldwater, Alice Carson Hiscock, Victorine Homsey, Elizabeth Mock, Dorothy Schoell Montgomery, Janet O'Connell.
93. George Howe served as Vice President; Hugh Stubbins, Jr was Secretary and Treasurer; and the Executive Committee included: Chermayeff, Gropius, Sert, Perkins, Roland Wank and John Burchard. See folder 13, Box 26, Douglas Haskell Papers, Avery Architectural and Fine Arts Library, Columbia University.
94. E. L. Birch, op. cit. [11] 26. Birch details how the American City Planning Institute suffered from identity problems in the 1920s and 1930s. Thomas Adams favoured a 'gate-keeping' organization with a technical base overseeing entrance into the profession. Others advocated a wider view of planning that would allow a more diverse body of practitioners, administrators and allied professionals to join, even at the cost of losing its power to register and qualify planners, to oversee education and to administer a code of ethics.
95. Joseph Hudnut to John Burchard (October 17, 1945), in folder 'ASAP-General Correspondence', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
96. Roland A. Wank to Joseph Hudnut (April 10, 1945), in folder 'ASPA-Secretary-Stubbins-Mock 1944-45', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
97. I b i d.
98. Josée Luis Sert to Joseph Hudnut (May 15, 1945), in folder'Project Committee ASPA [1944-45]', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
99. Joseph Hudnut to John E. Burchard (October 17, 1945), in folder 'ASAP-General Correspondence', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
100. I b i d.
101. John E. Burchard to Joseph Hudnut (October 18, 1945), in folder 'ASAP-General Correspondence', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
102. Form letter from Hugh A. Stubbins, Jr (March 24, 1945), in folder, 'ASPA-Publicity 1944-46', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
103. Frederick J. Adams to Joseph Hudnut (January 16, 1945), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
104. Tracy B. Augur to Joseph Hudnut (December 10, 1945), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
105. William Wurster to Joseph Hudnut (January 25, 1945), in folder 'External Relations, Committee for 1944 ASPA', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
106. I b i d.
107. I b i d.
108. Joseph Hudnut to Clark (December 17, 1945), p. 2, in folder 'Executive Committee Meetings ASPA 1944-46', Temp Box for UAV 322.7 (Box 4), ASPA Papers
109. Henry S. Churchill to Joseph Hudnut (January 4, 1946), in folder 'ASPA-Membership Correspondence-Individuals re: Joining', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
110. I b i d.
111. I b i d.
112. John Johansen to Joseph Hudnut (January 7, 1946), in folder 'ASAP-General Correspondence', Box 5, XB, ASPA Papers.
113. I b i d.
114. 'Report to the Executive by a Sub-Committee on the Annual General Meeting', in folder 'Proposed Annual Meeting 1946 (not held)', Box: Temp Box for UAV 322.7 (Box 4), ASPA Papers.
115. Minutes of the meeting called by the sub-committee of the Executive Board of ASPA (11/23/46).
116. Carl Koch to G. Holmes Perkins (12/13/46), in folder 'Executive Committee Meetings ASPA 1944-46', Box: Temp Box for UAV 322.7 (Box 4), ASPA Papers.
117. Letter to Joseph Hudnut (December 13, 1946), in folder 'Executive Committee Meetings ASPA 1944-46', Box: Temp Box for UAV 322.7 (Box 4), ASPA Papers. The signature on the letter is illegible, but it was written on Harvard Club stationery from New York City, and the author was also a member of CIAM, making Christopher Tunnard a possibility. Tunnard was active in MARS (the British CIAM group), the ASPA and he had taught at Harvard before joining the war effort.
118. Even in 1948, Kahn proudly put ASPA on his letterhead next to AIA.
119. A. Brinkley, op. cit. [2].
120. S. Giedion, op. cit. [64] and Paul Zucker, New Architecture and City Planning, a Symposium. New York: Philosophical Library, 1944. Many members of the ASPA took part in the symposium, including Kahn, George Nelson and Giedion.
121. Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style: Architecture since 1922. New York: W. W. Norton and Company, 1932.
122. Andrew M. Shanken, From Total War to Total Living: American Architecture and the Culture of Planning, 1939-194X. PhD thesis, Princeton University, 1999.
123. The comparison is a bit unfair, since C. R. Ashbee wrote Where the Great City Stands: a Study in the New Civics (London: The Essex House Press, 1917), which easily could have been a model for modernist interest in planning.
124. Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Réjean Legault (eds), Anxious Modernisms: Experimentation in Postwar Architectural Culture. Montréal: Canadian Centre for Architecture, 2000. See, especially, the introduction.
125. William Graebner, The Age of Doubt: American Thought in and Culture in the 1940's. Boston: Twayne Publishers, 1990.
126. For a rich discussion of these ideas, see Thomas L. Haskell (ed.), The Authority of Experts: Studies in History and Theory. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1984.
127. The outline of this argument depends on Thomas Bender, The Erosion of Public Culture: Cities, Discourses, and Professional Disciplines, in T. L. Haskell (ed.), ibid., p. 86.
128. Jeff A. Cohen, Building a Discipline: Early Institutional Settings for Architectural Education in Philadelphia, 1804-1890. Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 53 (June, 1994) 139-83.
129. Also, see Mary N. Woods, From Craft to Profession: The Practice of Architecture in Nineteenth-Century America. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1999.
130. T. Bender, op. cit. [113], p. 89.
131. I b i d.
132. Note, for instance, the winners of the AIA's Gold Medal after the war: Eliel Saarinen (1947), Frank Lloyd Wright (1949), August Perret (1952), William Marinus Dudock (1955), Louis Skidmore (1957), followed by Gropius, Mies van der Rohe and Le Corbusier in 1959, 1960 and 1961, respectively.