For a moment in 2015, Lawrence Modern gamely attempted to examine modern architecture through film—the modernist medium par excellence—with movies curated by KU School of Architecture faculty. Our Modernism in Cinema series only lasted a couple of shows, but it left an afterimage that hasn’t worn off, and we are eager to delve into the enthralling synergy of movies and architecture once again. This time around, though, we plan to screen a slate of mostly classic films chosen by film scholars, filmmakers, and film aficionados. On April 19, we will screen the first film in our reboot, Vertigo, Alfred Hitchcock’s 1958 noir thriller at 7 p.m. at the Lawrence Arts Center’s 10th and Mass. Studios. Local Kellee Pratt, a film scholar and longtime Turner Classic Movies social media influencer, will discuss the film with Lawrence Modern’s Bill Steele.
A self-professed old movie cheerleader, Kellee’s love of cinema began after early brushes with fame—her mother was friends with Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell—and the influence of her grandmother, who made her watch “Witness for the Prosecution” on TV when she was a teenager. She was hooked. After graduating from KU with a degree in Communication Studies, Pratt had an early career in sales and marketing, but has lived a parallel life as a film nut—the kind who will jet to see a rare 35mm-only pre-Code Bette Davis film. In addition to TCM, she writes about film on her blog, Outspoken & Freckled, serves on the board of the Classic Movie Blog Association, and has been teaching classic film courses for many years through the City of Lawrence’s Lifelong Learning program.
Pratt will present many of the films in our series, with the goal of sparking a conversation about classic films through the lens of architecture and music.
“What is interesting about film is how many pioneering, innovative movies were influential not only unto themselves but in the style they projected,” Pratt says. Case in point: Vertigo, a film about a man remaking a woman into the image of his dead lover, which Pratt chose to kick off the series because it continues to be highly influential in terms of how architectural elements and music can tap into the audience’s subconscious. “I get excited when I can convert someone who has never seen this film before, and then enlighten them about it.” She adds, “The whole point of this is, I want people to look at old films, and look at them in a different light.”
Please join us for Vertigo April 19th. Tickets are on sale at the Lawrence Arts Center and can be purchased here. Runtime is 2 hrs. 8 min. A brief discussion will follow the screening. (The next film in the series will be announced at the event.) This will likely sell out! Don’t miss this chance to see Hitchcock’s masterpiece with fresh insight, meet new people, and have fun!
We wish to thank the Lawrence Arts Center for collaborating with us on this exciting film series and Lawrence Modern’s Tom Harper for generously sponsoring the event.
All films in the series are $10 and open to the public.
Of the approximately 800 students who joined Frank Lloyd Wright’s Taliesin Fellowship program (1932-1959), W. Kelly Oliver, 97, is one of its last surviving apprentices. Last month Lawrence Modern’s Dennis Domer interviewed Oliver at the Pioneer Ridge assisted living facility, where Oliver recalled his decade working in the program and later efforts with Taliesin Associated Architects, the firm established after Wright’s death to maintain and further his legacy. One of the many interesting parts of the interview is Oliver’s recollection of Curtis Besinger, KU professor emeritus and architect who left Taliesin penniless after 15 years serving as the Fellowship’s de facto music director. Domer’s interview followed a documentary screening of an extended conversation between Oliver and Frank Baron, a fellow Pioneer Ridge resident and retired KU German professor. You can watch that video here. Fascinating stuff from a bygone era in architectural history that, thanks to Kelly Oliver, still captures our imagination. Special thanks to Tim Phillips for his videography.
Design by Tim Hossler. Photo at top: Kelly Oliver and Frank Lloyd Wright having dinner, 1957.
On a Frank Lloyd Wright binge? We’ve got you covered. Lawrence Modern is excited to offer you a rare opportunity to hear architect W. Kelly Oliver, one of a handful of Taliesin fellows still alive who studied and worked directly under Wright, talk about his residency.
Born in 1926, Oliver studied architecture at the University of Wyoming and Washington State College and began his fellowship at Wright’s Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin in 1949. Over a ten year period until Wright died in 1959, Oliver supervised construction of numerous Wright-designed projects, including the Usonian model house exhibition in New York (1953) that took place on the grounds that would eventually become the Guggenheim Museum.
W. Kelly OliverFLW and Kelly Oliver at Taliesin, 1954
After Wright’s death, Oliver continued working on unfinished Wright buildings as part of the Taliesin Associated Architects group and established his own firm in Dallas, Texas in the early 1960s. A notable example of Wright’s influence on his work is the Mitchell House in Irving, Texas, where Oliver melded Wrightian organics with a Polynesian vibe. In 1966, Oliver moved to Denver, Colorado and formed Oliver and Hellgren Architects, where he practiced architecture until he retired in 2011. He and his wife relocated to Lawrence to be near family in 2019.
Mr. Oliver, who turned 97 in July, still refers to his teacher as “Mr. Wright” and can vividly recall what daily life was like at Taliesin, Wisconsin and Taliesin West in Scottsdale, Arizona. Fellow Pioneer Ridge resident and retired KU linguist Frank Baron took interest in Oliver’s association with Wright and interviewed him for a documentary film that will be shown in the retirement community’s movie theater, followed by a Q&A with our own Dennis Domer and Mr. Oliver. We are grateful to Mr. Oliver, his family, Frank Baron and Pioneer Ridge for this special film and conversation. Consider yourselves the architectural one-percenters for the opportunity to attend.
This is a free event, but seating is LIMITED. RSVP is required. Email tomharper@stephensre.com. Please RSVP only if you are 100% sure you can attend.
Please arrive at 3:45 p.m. The program will start promptly 4:00 p.m. and conclude at 6:00 p.m. There will be signs directing you to the theater upon entering Pioneer Ridge.
Last year Lawrence Modern learned that KU had placed Smith Hall on a list of university buildings—among a dozen deemed obsolete and “demolition ready”—that were likely to be razed in Fiscal Year 2023. Like the superheroes in The Avengers, we sprung into action with the Lawrence Preservation Alliance and assembled a multitalented team to save Smith Hall. The University’s plans have now changed.
The State Historic Preservation Office of the Kansas Historical Society informed KU last month that Irma I. Smith Hall, a building located within the University of Kansas’ East Historic District, is now a “contributing” property within the district. This action significantly strengthens the possibility of saving Smith Hall from the wrecking ball. I recently wrote an OpEd about this in the Lawrence Times, which you can read here, but for the Lawrence Modern preservation group, a key stakeholder in the effort to save the building, I’d like to provide a bit more detail about how we got here and what lies ahead.
The road to preservation began last December, when Lawrence Modern, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance, and the Historic Mount Oread Friends group hosted an open house at Smith Hall to raise awareness of the building’s plight. More than 125 people attended. The event featured family members and friends of building namesake Irma I. Smith, and of Elden Tefft, the late KU professor and renowned bronze sculptor who created the statue of Moses that rests in Smith Hall’s front courtyard. Since then, community members have banded together and written letters to key decision makers, penned newspaper articles, engaged in online outreach, and taken political action.
The community response has been remarkable. Students, faculty, Lawrence residents, and beyond have demonstrated deep and long-lasting ties to Smith Hall. The messages sent to the Chancellor, Provost, and the 12-member Kansas Board of Regents (KBOR) have made a significant impact.
Parallel to the letter writing campaign, a coalition of individuals met with Lawrence legislators, which led to discussions about Smith Hall at the statehouse level. At a House Higher Education Budget Committee meeting in February, Lawrence Rep. Mike Amyx asked KU Chancellor Doug Girod about KU’s demolition planning process, as well as specific plans for Smith Hall. You can watch that illuminating exchange here.
At the meeting Girod indicated that a final decision about Smith Hall would be put on hold until the new Campus Master Plan is completed later this year. The Campus Master Plan is a blueprint for the development of the KU campus over the next 10 years. Girod noted that KU has had town halls to invite everyone in the community into the master planning process before final decisions are made. The larger Lawrence community was not invited to discuss Smith Hall, however.
When asked about Smith Hall, Girod said: “Smith Hall has been an area of focus obviously for us, it is largely a vacant building that needs significant repair, and would need massive upgrades.”
Technically speaking, Smith Hall was not vacant. Classes were held there in the fall 2022 and spring 2023 semesters and office space was still in use. The library continued to be utilized as a place of study, work, and contemplation. The building is currently in the process of being vacated. KU says the building will be heated and cooled in addition to staff checking on the building once that’s completed.
Perhaps most importantly, Girod’s comments about Smith Hall’s condition do not align with information contained in KBOR records. In January 2021, KBOR released a building condition study that assigned a facility condition index (“FCI”) score to buildings at Regents institutions across the state. That report gave Smith Hall a score of .25, which translates into a “B” on a scale ranging from A to F. This index is an industry standard metric that identifies the magnitude of needs and deficiencies for a building or college campus. According to that study, the cost to bring Smith Hall to a 90% renewal level, or “A / good” condition, is projected at $859,151. The funding KBOR allocated for Smith Hall’s demolition was $650,000.
The study also identifies a total replacement cost for the buildings, and Smith Hall’s replacement value is approximately $5.6 million. This means that it would take at least that much money to build back the same building with similar functionality.
On March 7, the House Higher Education Budget Committee met to make recommendations about KU’s budget. Rep. Amyx offered an amendment that was aimed at ensuring KBOR would have an opportunity to receive complete information about KU’s plans for Smith Hall before voting again on demolition, and that the public would also have an opportunity to offer testimony to KBOR on the topic. The amendment requires a majority vote from KBOR before the building can be demolished in Fiscal Years 2023 or 2024.
The House Higher Education Budget Committee voted to include this amendment in its funding recommendations. You can watch the committee’s deliberations here. The full text of the amendment can be found here.
Meanwhile, the Lawrence Preservation Alliance prepared a draft nomination and a request for the State Historic Preservation Office to reevaluate Smith Hall’s status within the KU East Historic District. The Office did and granted Smith Hall “contributing” property status in July. As I noted in my column, this change offers KU new opportunities and responsibilities in its stewardship of Smith Hall going forward.
For instance, the university is now able to apply for and use state historic tax credits for repairs or rehabilitation to Smith Hall. Any proposed changes to the building will require review under the Kansas state preservation law (K.S.A. 75-2724).
Furthermore, KU has an agreement with the preservation office allowing the Campus Historic Preservation Board to review any proposals for modifying buildings within the district. A finding by the board that a proposed project would “damage or destroy” the historic building would halt the project unless an appeal is made to Gov. Laura Kelly.
While these important steps taken offer hope that Smith Hall ultimately will be saved from demolition, the building is still endangered. We look forward to communications from the KU administration about their plans for Smith Hall given its new status.
Lawrence Modern held its first residential gathering in four years at the Countryside Lane home of Dan & Lori McMinn on May 21. (It was also the occasion of Lawrence Modern’s 20th anniversary.) More than 100 guests enjoyed warm spring weather and a fabulously cool house that has been remodeled period-correct, landscaped for living, and furnished appropriately but also daringly, with an off-kilter pro style that is both playful and unaffected. In other words, an inspiration for homeowners thinking about a remodel or redecoration of their midcentury home. During the presentation portion of the event the McMinns explained their philosophy on remodeling: 1) when you remodel, give a nod to the era; 2) before remodeling, live in the space to get a feel for how you use it; and 3) find a good building partner to work with. This led them to hire Daniel Hoyt of Hoyt House, a former KU architecture grad, who made significant enhancements to the kitchen, bathroom, deck, screened porch and other areas that were updated. In lesser hands the sum would have negated the parts but here everything comes together beautifully.
In his summary talk, Lawrence Modern’s Dennis Domer was inspired by the house’s form-follows-function architecture and elaborated on the philosophical ideas that underpinned it. He reminded attendees that the McMinn house was built during a heady time when modern-minded students were pouring out of the KU architecture department and new ideas for modern residential living were streaming in from the outside. “Lawrence was a great place to receive modern architecture,” Domer said. “And I think when you come into this building, doesn’t it just make you feel good? Doesn’t it make you feel young and new, and inspires you to enjoy life to the fullest, in a very modern and a very humanistic way? This is not a machine for living as much as it is a machine for a home to be built. For anyone living here it’s a great pleasure to come to this place. This kind of place makes it worthwhile to live in Lawrence.”
Lawrence Modern home 
