A Tale of Two Utopias

Tour day | october 28, 2020 | the ‘70s turn 50

As part of Docomomo US’s national 2020 Tour Day event, Docomomo US/PHL explored two disparate sites that responded in different, yet sometimes similar, ways to the many powerful external forces of the 1970s. Architectural designs were responding to the cultural zeitgeist of political and social upheaval, the looming energy crisis, new advances in material and building technology, and sought to elevate egalitarian values much like in earlier designs. Selecting sites not easily accessible by the public, the virtual event offered glimpses at the George Wharton Pepper Middle School (1973), one of Philadelphia’s strongest examples of Brutalist architecture that today sits vacant and derelict in the city’s Eastwick neighborhood, with its demolition looming on the horizon, and Mira Nakashima’s House and Reception House (1975) in New Hope, the last building to be constructed by George Nakashima, Mira’s father.