Origin of the Meatcutter's Medical Clinic

Meatcutter's Medical Clinic
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist

project: Meat Cutter's Medical Clinic.
architect: Harris Armstrong.
date: 1957.
location: 4488 Forest Park Boulevard, Saint Louis, Missouri.
condition: good condition, somewhat modified.

In Saint Louis, the International Amalgamated Meatcutters' Union organized Local 88 in January 1897. Eventually this union became one of the most forward thinking such groups in the United States by creating facilities for the health and welfare of their members.

From a website posted by a president for the organization:

Local 88 was the first labor union in the United States to negotiate "Preventative Health Care" for it's members. In 1958 the "Medical Institute of Local 88" opened its' doors, thanks to its' visionary President and leader, Colonel Nicholas Blassie.

This state of the art medical facility (part of the Local 88 Health and Welfare Trust Fund) offered full-service medical, dental, vision and pharmaceutical services to all Local 88 members.

The Health and Welfare Fund received regular contributions from the companies it represented, thus union members received most services free-of-charge. Many other labor unions, primarily the Teamsters, soon copied this model of health care for their members.

Color photographs by Andrew Raimist, October 2006.

Armstrong ~ perforated stacked bond brick

perforate.
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

project: Meat Cutter's Medical Clinic.
architect: Harris Armstrong.
date: 1957.
location: 4488 Forest Park Boulevard, Saint Louis, Missouri.
condition: good condition, somewhat modified.

Harris Armstrong's design for the Meat Cutter's Medical Clinic pushed many boundaries. It was apparently the first medical clinic created specifically for the members of a union. Armstrong also took the building as an opportunity to experiment with many materials combined in unorthodox ways.

This photograph of a detail of the north face of the building (now part of the expanding Medical Center at Washington University in Saint Louis) faced onto a playground designed as an integral part of the center, so members children could play in a safe environment while their parents sought medical care.

The combination of the stacked bond red brick wall with the rusticated granite seems almost perverse in it's combination of two load-bearing materials in direct contact where the granite is firmly rooted in the ground while the stacked bricks have a somewhat precarious aura.

The slits and slots cut into the brick plane are sometimes blind, but some of them allow for views from the interior out to the playground. Perhaps the idea was to keep the children on their best behavior in a situation where they couldn't be sure whether or not their parents were spying them through a narrow slot.

The sills of the vertical slots feature slate set into the brick coursing. The cuts seem random, but a certain logic suggests itself. The series of slots at the bottom right suggest a bar graph or scientific reading. The four elements are cut into the brick in a way so that two of them align with the stacked bond and the other two cut into a pair of stacks. Either way, the sense of oddly floating bricks over the openings create a curious condition.

The other types of cuts into the wall represented along the base (where the children would be playing) offer a full void, a half void and another vertical slot centered on a vertical joint. The playful, picturesque organization of the cuts in the wall are riffs on these basic themes.

These cuts undermine the sense of solidity normally associated with brick masonry construction. If studied in any detail, they become a source of wonder and curiosity. Perhaps that was sufficient justification for Armstrong: providing a light-hearted, playful dance of voids for the playground.

The other aspect that likely motivated Armstrong was the sheer technical challenge of constructing, detailing and crafting such a wall. One can only imagine the conversations between the masons and the architect in resolving particular details.



Photographs by Andrew Raimist, October 2006.

Armstrong Residence II will be coming on the market

Parents Magazine article.
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

project: Armstrong Residence II, 1938
location: Oakland, Missouri
condition: excellent, somewhat modified
architect: Harris Armstrong, FAIA


This wonderful, truly one-of-a-kind home will be coming up for sale later this spring. I first heard this news through Ted Wight's blog St. Louis Style. He's posted several exterior and interior photographs of the house recently, one of which you can find here.

I will post more images, descriptions and discussion of this house that will help situate it in the contemporary architectural scene of the late 1930s. In addition, I'll relate the story of Frank Lloyd Wright's visit to the house to visit the Armstrongs as told to me by Louise Armstrong (Mrs. Harris Armstrong).

There are some elements of the International Style (white stucco and corner windows), but I would not generally think of it in those terms. The hipped roof and ornamental treatment of the copper fascias clearly suggest a strong Wrightian influence.

The house has a fundamentally eclectic, almost collage-like blending of styles, materials, forms and references. It has taken me many personal visits over many years and quite a bit of time, effort and thought to gain an appreciation for the complex and sometimes confounding ideas embodied in its design and construction.

This image above is taken from a Parents Magazine article of the early 1940s.  It was the first in a series of articles developed in cooperation with Architectural Forum Magazine in its "campaign to stimulate home building and remodeling".


Magazine article courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Matta-Clark :: The City as Studio

Panel Discussion :: The City as Studio

Thursday 28 January 28 2010
7:30pm (doors open at 7pm)

Art-based interventions in the community take many forms and can have a powerful impact. How alternative art spaces and creative interventions can empower both individuals and communities will be a focus of the discussion . The panel will highlight some of the initiatives that are taking place in St. Louis and other similar cities.

Panelists will include:

• Christy Gray, Executive Director, Whitaker Foundation, St. Louis, MO

• Theaster Gates, 2010 Whitney Biennial artist, Chicago, IL

• Juan William Chávez, Artist & Director, Boots Contemporary Arts Space, St. Louis, MO

• Mary Jane Jacob, Executive Director of Exhibitions, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

• Luis Croquer, Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit

Photograph: Gordon Matta-Clark, Bingo, 1974. The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Nina and Gordon Bunshaft Bequest Fund, Nelson A. Rockefeller Bequest Fund, and the Enid A. Haupt Fund. Installation photography © Francois Robert.  Gordon Matta-Clark works © Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark / Artist Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Deffaa Residence -- stair

Deffaa Residence -- stair
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

Armstrong's design for this compact cubic white-painted brick house features a surprising vertical slice of glass blocks on the west face of the house. This wall is largely hidden from view on the exterior since it abuts a neighboring house rather closely. The other three exterior walls of the house are largely public and visible since the house is located at the end of a block on a corner, raised up from street level.

The consequences of creating this almost arbitrary cut into the brick masonry shell could hardly be more surprising. From the outside, the uninterrupted column of glass blocks spanning the first and second floors suggests the presence of a relatively large space with a high ceiling.

In truth, the house contains no such high, open airy space. Rather the slot admits light to the narrow stair beginning at the far side of the living room and climbing steeply toward the center of the house where it is surrounded by sleeping quarters, bathroom and an outdoor terrace.

The house's interior isn't particularly flooded with natural light although a grouping of windows at the southwest corner of the living room does admit a healthy dose of light.

Nevertheless, the visceral shock of the vertical slash at the stairs is all the more gratifying for being unexpected. The light admitted in this corner penetrates to the core of the house, lighting and orienting the staircase as a primary organizational feature within the home.

Armstrong's desire to keep the glass blocks clear of any structural or visual interruption from the interior results in some unusual cantilevering of a second floor bedrooom, held up over the point of maximum tension where the stair turns ninety degrees and a support post would normally be encountered.

In fact, the original construction drawings for the house (in plan, interior elevations and stair details) Armstrong indicates the use of a round wood post at this location. Perhaps he realized once the framing was underway that the post was not structurally necessary given the rigid framing of the floor diaphram (including 14" and 7" high steel 'I' beams to maintain the open column free areas of the living and dining rooms.

Instead, a curious sense of open lightness appears where it would be least expected. Far from being a generic white International Style cube, the house creates a spatial and structural puzzle of interlocking rooms and elements.

The use of a simple bent bar of solid aluminum provides just the right contrast, complementing the unusual cut out of the wall and overhanging unsupported ceiling.



Photographs by Andrew Raimist.  Architectural drawings courtesy of the Harris Armstrong Archives, Special Collections, Washington University in Saint Louis.

Ethical Society -- seating

Ethical Society -- seating.
Uploaded by Andrew Raimist.

Armstrong worked with the congregation's building committee to select the fabric for the auditorium seating for the Ethical Society. How the selections were made and how the colors were distributed throughout the very controlled, axial, symmetrical space is rather marvelous.

On the one hand, it is a great surprise to the visitor who sees only the painted metal backs of the theater style seating upon entering the space. Only after searching for a place to sit or perhaps upon leaving does a visitor realize the playful use of color and texture.

A few years ago when the copper roofing was replaced, a leak damaged the seats and wood finishes. True to their dedication to the building, the membership reinstalled the colorful fabrics according to their original distribution.


Photograph: Andrew Raimist.

(re)Presenting G. Matta-Clark

The current exhibition of Matta-Clark’s work at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts has been very thoughtfully and carefully designed and presented.  A critical part of this effort involves the printed and on-line graphics.  Subtly, yet powerfully, the typographic composition and brochure layout reflect many of the concerns and methods employed by the artist.

The freely distributed brochure immediately presents the recipient with hints of the kinds of procedures and experiences that are central to Matta-Clark’s practice.  The splitting of the all cap text using a modern, simple non-serif font puts his work into a formal context immediately, that is, disruption and alteration of standardized modernist design practice.

The inversion of 'Urban Alchemy' from 'Gordon Matta-Clark' creates a sense of uncertainty and imbalance.  There is already a degree of unclear sense of proper orientation to the earth and gravity.  The slippage of the dark bar of the 'H' in alchemy into the vertical of the 'K' in Matta-Clark suggests the kinds of geometrical slicing and interchange you are about to experience.

The inversion of 'Upper' from 'Level' adds a new dimension to the graphic play placing the two sections of upper case text inline, but inverted from one another.

If you look carefully, you’ll notice that the cut letters are not consistently altered throughout the headline and caption text.  Sometimes E’s are sliced and other times remain whole.  Taking these modifications down to the level of the bold titles for the captions reveals the extent of the thought and care of this method.  It’s not simply deployed willy-nilly.  Rather, the geometry of the project often informs the typographic slices.

Good examples of this correspondence between almost unnoticeable alterations to the captions are:

• Day’s End: the slice through the letter ‘y’ relates to the diagonal cutting Matta-Clark inflicted on the end wall.

• Pier In/Out: an almost unnoticeable cut in the capital letter ‘P’ reflects the small section taken from a much larger structure.  The caption for the image depicting the building from which the section was extracted remains uncut.

• Conical Intersect: The slice through the capital letter ‘C’ suggests the creation of a hole through the center of a curved surface which reflects the geometrical relationship of the building fabric and the conical void cut into it.

Appropriately, the “Other Works on View” follow the graphic color scheme and fonts used in the rest of the Matta-Clark brochure, but without inversions or cuts in the typography.

The folded structure of the brochure in half creating a stiff handout that opens with a central split.  As the reader further opens the piece, the overall structure becomes more flexible and malleable.  To use it while perusing the gallery the visitor is subconsciously folding and refolding the panels to offer the proper panel in relation to the architectural space in which they’re located.

The idea of the parallel presentation of comments from the artist / anarchitect Matta-Clark with a quotation from the building’s architect Tadao Ando reveals a fascination with creating particular sorts of openings in buildings, but the concept doesn’t appear to inform the gallery presentation in an clear and deliberate manner that is immediately obvious to the exhibition viewer (or the brochure reader).

An exchange on maps and Matta-Clark (made public)

Sanborn Map from Urban Review STL blog

Following is a brief exchange of comments between Andrew Raimist (author) and Steve Patterson (Urban Review STL blogger) regarding the beauty and efficacy of Sanborn maps.

Andrew Raimist
I love these old Sanborn maps.

Steve Patterson

I have to watch myself when I go into the site with the maps because it may turn into a 3-4 hour trip.

AR

yes, i know exactly what you mean.

have you seen the Fake Estatescreated by Gordon Matta-Clark he researched such boundary maps to find left-over slivers of unclaimed property and purchased and documented them.

SP
Is that part of the current exhibit [at The Pulitzer Foundation for the Arts]?

AR

yes, absolutely. he bought spaces that are 8" x 100' and photographed them, as well as inaccessible spaces trapped between lots.

SP

I've thought about doing that before. I was thinking more the rant against our city govt than an artistic statement.

AR

in my opinion, his work was grounded in social and political criticism presented in the context of art. not so much as objects of aesthetic appreciation as critical tools for unveiling the stupidity and blindness of our institutions.

Odd Lots: Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark's Fake Estates

Mid-Century Modern Design . . . for Kids !

Kid Made Modern  
By Todd Oldham
Published by Ammo.
Length: 192 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-934429-36-5.
Intended audience: Age 8 & up (& up!).

This activity / craft / art book is inspired by the great Mid-Century modern designers — including Isamu Noguchi, Alexander Girard, and Charles & Ray Eames — as the basis for dozens of creative activity.  Tutorials introduce particular techniques including full-color photos of kids engaged in these creative activities.

Designer Todd Oldham shares his love of mid-century design ideas and transforms them into creative, colorful, and thought-provoking projects for kids.  Oldham was originally a couture fashion designer with boutiques in New York and a commentator on MTV's House of Style.  Oldham has designed dorm room furnishings for Target.  He's presently developing a television program based on his earlier book Handmade Modern.

This book features the use of inexpensive, recycled, and easily accessible materials for the projects.  Easy step-by-step instructions illustrated with photographs makes this a great source for creative inspiration during the cold, blustery days of winter.  The book is ostensibly a craft project book encouraging children to produce their own handmade art, it simultaneously introduces them to the greats of modern American design of the last century.

If you click on this sentence, you can download the pattern pages for creating a Noguchi-esque paper cut-out sculpture.

Kid Made Modern includes projects inspired by Alexander Calder, Jack Lenor Larsen, George Nelson, Paul Rand, and Mary & Russel Wright (in addition to the iconic designers noted above).

This inspirational do-it-yourself book could be a great gift for aspiring young artists.

re: Arch Grounds Design Competition

Following is a letter to the editor published in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch from architect Laurent Jean Torno, Jr. of Laurent Jean Torno, Jr. & Associates.

Open vigorous — not limited — competition for Arch grounds

That St. Louis and the National Park Service would contemplate a semi-closed competition based on a review of resumes and brain-picking is astonishing in its timidity and lack of confidence. This is an opportunity to unleash a vigorous and intense competition of ideas, open to all comers.

Eero Saarinen probably could not have submitted a compelling resume at the onset of the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial competition, though his father, Ellel, might have. And Eliel Saarinen almost certainly would not have made a preselected list of finalists based on his resume for the Chicago Tribune Tower competition. His extraordinary second-place finish launched his very distinguished career in America.

Harris Armstrong was a fine St. Louis architect, but his resume would not have earned him a chance at the Jefferson Memorial competition. He was one of five prize winners, none renowned firms or individuals. Many major firms failed with their attempts.

Maya Lin won the Vietnam Veterans Memorial competition as an architectural student. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial and the Arch are two of the most elegant and profound monuments of the 20th century. Both resulted from competitions open to all, as was the Tribune Tower competition. The Flight 93 National Memorial and the Oklahoma City National Memorial pale in comparison.

No individual or elite group can divine which individual or firm embodies the most imaginative and creative talent.

Walter Metcalfe Jr., former Sen. John Danforth and other leaders of the effort to make the Gateway Arch grounds more exciting and accessible deserve our thanks for that vision and very considerable effort. It is time to raise that vision to another level: Prepare a succinct competition program, appoint a distinguished jury, sweep away the middle-men and unleash an intense and open competition of ideas. St. Louis and the National Park Service deserve nothing less.

Laurent Jean Torno Jr., University City

Laurent Jean Torno Jr. & Associates

I concur with many of Mr. Torno's comments.  A two stage competition with open submissions from a relatively widely defined group would be a much more inclusive an desirable beginning point.  For example, the pool of qualified applicants could include all registered architects, landscape architects and urban design professionals.  Submissions could be limited to designers in the United States or could be extended internationally.  Prizes could be offered for the best designs with the guarantee only that they be included in the final round of submissions along with other preselected candidates.

An exhibition, conference and publication of the results of such a competition could have many benefits to the design community in general, Saint Louis in particular, and the Arch Grounds most importantly!