A Thriving Modernism celebrates the remarkable careers of architects
Wendell Lovett and Arne Bystrom and their contributions to modernism and
to the architectural legacy of the Pacific Northwest.
Wendell Lovett joined the University of Washington faculty in 1948; Arne
Bystrom was one of his first students. Their work, now encompassing half
a century, has been published in Germany, Spain, Italy, Japan, Denmark,
England, Brazil, Switzerland, and France, and their reputations in these
places are established. Yet in the United States, despite their being
elected Fellows of the American Institute of Architects in 1978 and
1985, respectively, they remain little known outside the Northwest.
Both men believe deeply in the emotional dimension of architecture; both
are dedicated to expressive detail, executed through exquisite
craftsmanship; both have been offered remarkable sites on which to
build. In a series of domestic projects, each has found, in his own way,
a much enriched modernism. Lovett draws influences from modern
Scandinavia and Italy, from Alvar Aalto and Santiago Calatrava. Bystrom
acknowledges debts to medieval Scandinavia and the ancient Far East,
Frank Lloyd Wright, and Greene and Greene. Lovett's dedication to
industrialized materials and methods is informed by gesture and
anthropomorphic metaphor. Bystrom, devoted to the natural and the
handcrafted, develops an abstract discipline of geometry and physics
into a crisp structural concept. Lovett's manipulation of space, light,
and mechanistic detail yields a richness undreamed of in early
modernism, while Bystrom's delight in wood as inspiration is comparable
to that of ancient Asian crafts.
This lavishly illustrated book sets forth the extraordinary work of
these two architects. It will appeal to practicing architects, as it
will to any reader interested in a vital tale of architects and
architecture helping to define the cultural history of the American
Northwest.
