Mister Model

 

There are several pages, like this right-hand one, with just one paragraph.

Teresa Fankhanel based her book on newly discovered Conrad archives which revealed how he made around three thousand architectural models over five decades and a significant number were of what would now be considered masterpieces of mid-century commercial architecture, especially in New York.

The five chapters (Architectural model making as a profession; Modeling materials; Model drawing; model photography; Model display) explore Conrad's professional life and the broader aspects of making model buildings. Various materials were used in the profession to represent the future real structure, plaster imitated concrete, aluminum represented steel, wood was not regularly used because the grain would be visible. The big development for model makers was the availability of Plexiglas in the thirties, a product that could easily be bent and cut, the ideal material to replace the hard-to-use glass. Conrad's business, in Jersey City, NJ, built up an impressive architectural client base including Louis Kahn, Marcel Breuer, Gregory Ain, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Philip Johnson, Edward Durell Stone and Gordon Bunshaft.

A fascinating chapter on photography explains how model buildings didn't just exist as a structure on a base for a client to look at. Frequently they were photographed against backgrounds of the natural environment and used in exhibitions. Conrad worked consistently with three photographers, Louis Checkman, Ezra Stoller and the photo agency Hedrich Blessing. After WW2 popular magazines created models of houses set in an artificial landscape that looked surprisingly realistic. 'The McCall's book of modern houses', published in 1951 was a reprint of the monthly color editorial feature with twenty-nine houses, several of the models set in a landscape which was entirely man-made and convincing. I was surprised that this chapter didn't mention the photos of remarkable model streamline buildings created by Robert Smith, in the mid-thirties,  for the Austin Company, a commercial and industrial builder in Cleveland. Several dozen were made and were photographed to be used in the companies trade ads (they can be seen in the February 2012 pages of the Past Print blog).

The last chapter: 'Model displays' considers the work of Conrad and others in creating architecture to be seen by the public. The 1939 New York World's Fair was a magnet for model makers with about three hundred dioramas in the various pavilions, the most flamboyant was Norman Bel Geddes 'Futurama' diorama in the General Motors pavilion. It was laid out over 30,000 square feet and included 500,000 buildings, 50,000 cars, 10,000 of them moving along highways. Architectural exhibitions were popular in the US from the thirties onwards, with MoMA sponsoring several promoting the International Style. 

I thought the book was an interesting look at architectural model making though because Conrad was an American it really only considers the theme in that country. Rolf Janke's 1978 book 'Architectural models' is a European view and the heavily illustrated title is more concerned with town planning rather than individual buildings like skyscrapers. Frankhanel's book is rather academic and aimed at the creative side of the building industry. There are very long paragraphs, frequently more than a page long, the 140 images are from archives and smaller than they need be. I was very disappointed that there isn't a portfolio of Conrad's models, considering that he worked with some of the greatest mid-century architects I would have expected to see full-page photos. The photo of the Lever House on the book's cover is the only one in color (also shown inside much smaller). The lack of these photos is a major omission.