A small Indiana town boosts its big architectural legacy
Columbus is a surprising mecca of Modernist design
YEARS BEFORE I.M.Pei designed the Louvre Pyramid in Paris or the Bank of China Tower in Hong Kong, he planned a squat yet elegant library in a midwestern city of 50,000 people. In Columbus, Indiana, Pei’s Modernist Cleo Rogers Memorial Library sits across 5th Street from Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church. The imposing glass-fronted structure is only the second-most attractive of Saarinen’s churches in Columbus. North Christian Church, with its slender spire and vaulted concrete interior, takes pride of place. Across town, the white bricks of Robert Venturi’s Fire Station 4 recline in a sly number four.
This article appeared in the United States section of the print edition under the headline “Modernism in the cornfields”
United States September 14th 2019
- What to expect after John Bolton’s exit
- What a Republican victory in North Carolina means for 2020
- Beleaguered unions seek members beyond the factory floor
- New rules in California could reshape the gig economy
- A deadly outbreak casts a dark cloud over e-cigarettes
- Facebook has unleashed a new dating service
- A small Indiana town boosts its big architectural legacy
- A full-court press
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