Aalto and America

Aalto built three major works in America that counted among the most important in his career: the Finland Pavilion at the New York World's Fair, Baker House at MIT, and the Library at Mount Angel Abbey, Oregon. Beyond the works themselves, the interaction of Aalto and America proved to be significant for both Aalto and American architecture. Aalto's engagement reached far beyond that of a tourist or casual traveller, or even an astute observer. It involved, rather, virtually all facets of his life and work. From the outset, Aalto's encounter with America was mutually rewarding. Aalto's Finland Pavilion marked a turn and escalation in a still young career, fostering his generous reception in the most influential circles of New York, among them the Rockefellers and the Museum of Modern Art, and then more broadly the American architectural community. Aalto strengthened his ties when he served as a virtual ambassador to America during the troubled times of the Finnish-Soviet Winter War and the lead-up to the Second World War, with the objective of advancing Finnish war-time reconstruction. He investigated the U.S. housing industry as a 'research professor' at MIT's School of Architecture around 1940, then resumed his professorship at MIT after the war, receiving the commission for Baker House in 1946. Aalto and Dean William Wurster viewed the dormitory's design as a humanizing force within an institution of technology whose postwar ethos now emphasized such aims. But Baker House also served as yet another key turning point in Aalto's career, a bellwether of his 'mature years' and the 'red period' of some of his most admired buildings in Finland. Aalto made his final trip to America in 1967, to visit the site of Mount Angel Library, a masterwork of his late career and perfection of his previous experience with the library type. "Aalto and America" calls attention to the complex nature of Aalto's experience with America. It explores his key works in depth while examining larger themes in international politics, architectural culture, housing research, and modernist criticism and design. In doing so, it highlights the distinctive strain of modernism that Aalto and others practised around 1940 in Europe and the United States.