Kent Kleinman

Perhaps more than any 20th-century figure, Muschenheim (1902-1990) embodies the transformation of European modernism to the
American context.
A star student of Peter Behrens Muschenheim led a distinguished career in New York City (including the first Museum for Non-Objective Art, later the Guggenheim Museum) and designed over 190 projects.
His work represents the American tension between two competing approaches: the Henry Ford model of incremental perfection (the Model T paradigm) and General Motors Harley Earl model of styling (the industrial design paradigm).
This lecture will discuss the "architect as researcher in the laboratory" vs. the "architect as designer in the studio" using Muschenheim and his early-to-mid-century context as a case study.

Kent Kleinman
since 1999 Chair of the Department and Professor of Architecture, State University of New York, Buffalo
1997-99 Associate Professor of Architecture, Ann Arbor
1992 Visiting Professor, Institut für Wohnbau, TU Wien
1986-89 Associate Designer, Peter Wilson Associates, Berkeley, CA
Numerous publications, e.g. Van Duzer, L. and Kleinman, K. The Villa Müller: A Work of Adolf Loos. NY: Princeton Architectural Press,1994.