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William Krisel-designed home in San Diego. Photo ©Darren Bradley Modernism was initially meant to be a popular movement. It is not just a design or an aesthetic but a way of life. Its early promise was to improve living conditions for the average person and make houses and objects more affordable through efficiencies gained in streamlined and simplified production techniques. Alas, it has never quite lived up to this promise. The work of William Krisel is a rare exception to this rule.  William Krisel, AIA, is one of the most important figures in modern architecture since the 1950s. His influence has been far-reaching; he is one of the few architects to have succeeded in the challenge of bringing modernism to the general public. His designs have fundamentally re-defined how we live today. William Krisel-designed home in San Diego. Photo ©Darren Bradley Interior of Krisel-designed home in San Diego. Photo ©Darren Bradley Most architects - including the modernists - have eschewed t...

Watching the fog and clouds overtake the museum at the end of the day. Photo ©Darren Bradley I've been to the de Young museum many times, but it always seems to be a quick visit - just to spend an hour or two. I've never really been able to spend the time I'd like to seriously photograph it. And this trip was not that time, either. But I did at least have a camera with me this time, so was able to get a few quick shots in (hand held, no tripod), while following my wife around the museum. Photo ©Darren Bradley We first visited this museum shortly after it opened. The California Academy of Sciences across the plaza wasn't built yet. My daughter is quite a bit taller these days, too. Photo ©Darren Bradley At the risk of having my official Modern Architecture Fan Club card revoked (or ever working for Herzog + de Meuron - I'd love to shoot for you, guys, really! - call me!), I have to confess that I've always had mixed feelings about this place. It's not so mu...

Photo ©Darren Bradley San Francisco's Embarcadero Center , at the foot of Market Street in the heart of the city was meant to be a sort of Modernist version of New York City's Rockefeller Center. There was even a Rockefeller involved in the project.  Photo ©Darren Bradley This mixed-use project consists of seven concrete towers along an three-level concrete esplanade, and the whole thing is a vision in Late Modern concrete brutalist architecture.  Photo ©Darren Bradley It's mostly office space - being in the Financial District - and shops and restaurants along the esplanade's three levels.  Photo ©Darren Bradley At its center, instead of a sunken plaza watched over by Prometheus, there's a raised plaza with a giant tulip.  Photo ©Darren Bradley To be honest, I'm not wild about the cold, sober designs of the office towers. It's probably just the sort of project that caused most people to turn away from Modernism in the 70s and 80s. It largely turns its back o...

Humphrey's on Shelter Island in San Diego. Photo ©Darren Bradley Tiki is a sub-culture of the Modernist era (1930s through the 70s) which really exploded in popularity with the return of many GIs who'd experienced Polynesian and Asian culture for the first time while fighting WWII in the Pacific theater, and fueled by popular novels and movies like South Pacific .  An example of authentic Polynesian culture, the Pu'uhonua o Honaunau refuge on the island of Hawaii. Photo ©Darren Bradley Of course, Tiki culture has very little to do with authentic Polynesian culture. It's a pop culture and a hodge-podge of iconic symbols borrowed from different regions and peoples, and also largely invented by the imagination of many people who'd never set foot there and didn't understand it.  The Tiki Ti has been Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles since 1961. Photo ©Darren Bradley Interior of Don the Beachcomber in Huntington Beach, CA. Photo ©Darren Bradley At one time, it seemed ...