Tour the Garden of Planes during Modern Richmond Week. (Photo courtesy Modern Richmond)
Modern Richmond Week returns Sept. 16-22 with a look at Richmond star architect Frederick “Bud” Hyland, a prolific practitioner of modern design in the 1950s and ’60s. “Bud Hyland is probably our most famous Midcentury architect,” says Modern Richmond Vice Chairman David Bass. “Hyland set the gold standard for modern architecture in Richmond with almost 30 important homes and commercial buildings in and around the city, several of which have been featured on past Modern Richmond tours.”
Hyland served an apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright at the Taliesin estate in the 1930s before coming to Richmond, opening his eponymous firm in the early ’50s. Wright’s influence on his work is apparent in its materials, lines and landscapes.
The 2019 celebration of all things modern kicks off with “Bringing Modernism to Midcentury Richmond” at The Highpoint on Monday, Sept. 16, a lecture on Hyland’s work by Joseph Dye Lahendro, FAIA, a historic preservation architect at the University of Virginia who is writing a book about Hyland, and Ed Slipek, architecture critic for Style Weekly. Other tours and discussions include the first public showing of 3North principal Kristi Lane’s Hyland-designed home, and a Hyland office building on Monument Avenue. On Friday evening, Sept. 20, the final tour and discussion features the Garden of Planes, a Tuscan garden with a modernist aesthetic designed by Gregg Bleam, a landscape architect based in Charlottesville, for the McDowell residence in the University of Richmond area.
“We’re taking a more holistic approach to the topic of modernism by presenting a diversity of offerings,” Bass says. On Thursday evening, Sept. 19, Modern Richmond moves to Need Supply Co. on Cary Street to explore “The Effects of Modern Architecture and Product Design on Our Collective Lifestyles,” with panelists Bass, Jonathan Boschetto of Need, Lane and Janet Morris of Mid Century Morris, joining moderator Kelly O’Keefe, a VCU Brandcenter professor, for a discussion.
Modern Richmond Week concludes with the Modern Richmond Market at Mobelux on West Broad Street, a two-day opportunity (Saturday and Sunday, Sept. 21 and 22) to shop thousands of Midcentury objets d’art and furnishings from a variety of Midcentury dealers, view the Art 180 Pop Up Mod Shop, and purchase the “Modern Richmond Book.” A portion of the proceeds benefit Art 180. For more information, visit modernrichmond.org.
