Yesterday was Buckminster Fuller's birthday, and that commemoration sent me on a visual journey to find the most beautiful images of some of his most famous works: the US Pavilion at the 1967 Montreal World Expo, The Dymaxion House and the Dymaxion car, his Fly's Eye dome.
Richard Buckminster Fuller, born July 12, 1895 in Milton, Massachusetts, was a futurist visionary. I was also pleased to find out that he was a bit of a troublemaker, having been kicked out of Harvard twice for raucous misbehavior (the first time for blowing all his money partying with a vaudeville troupe).
Recently, artist and documentarian Sam Green, in conjunction with the San Francisco MOMA's exhibit "The Utopian Impulse: Buckminster Fuller and the SF Area,"
created a multi-part documentary project on Fuller entitled
The Love Song of R.Buckminster Fuller. The film premiered May 1, 2012 with a live soundtrack performance by Yo La Tango. Heavy Sigh. This experience makes me seriously lament the fact that I live in the middle of f***ing nowhere, and cannot experience these types of things first hand. Heavy Sigh squared.
At least I have these gorgeous images to peruse, so that I can experience his modernist, space-age visions vicariously. His geodesic domes, and houses and cars of tomorrow are stunning design achievements and the dream settings for so many films I have in my head. Spy spoofs, Sci-fi monsters, and chic dystopias all.
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| 1967 Montreal Biosphere |
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| Materials Park Dome in Ohio |
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| Dymaxion House |
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| Dymaxion House interior |
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| Dymaxion Car |
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| Fly's Eye Dome |
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| Protective Dome over Midtown Manhattan |
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Wishing Bucky Fuller a happy birthday immediately got me thinking about my favorite building in Chicago, the Marina City towers, affectionately known by Chicagoans as the Corn Cobs. These towers were completed by Betrand Goldberg in 1964, and he actually collaborated with good friend Fuller on several projects. People can (and still) live in Marina City, and it also houses Chicago's House of Blues in its theater. Here are some of my favorite Marina City images:
Goldberg also created the stunning Prentice Women's Hospital, which is now part of Northwestern University. His eye for bold shapes really filters through all of his Chicago works.
So, as it usually happens when one is stumbling around the internet looking for certain images, one can also make some cool discoveries. In an
article on balconies for the
Chicago Tribune, I unsurprisingly ran across images of the
Aqua Tower in Chicago. At 82 stories, it is the tallest building in the world designed by a woman, and Jeanne Gang designed it when she was 45 years old in 2009.
Yes, I have a major crush on her. She won a MacArthur Genius Grant in 2011, and her building is so beautiful. I'm heading to Chicago for a conference in early August, and I am going to take a zillion photos of this place!
