Mt. Angel Abbey Library: Modernism and Place in the Pacific Northwest

An ideal place to visit and ponder the work of Alvar Aalto is Helsinki, and the whole of Finland is even better. Italy works too.

But if you live in America, and you're waiting the 6-8 weeks for your passport to be renewed, you have two options. One is the Baker House Dormitory at MIT. The other can be found at an other-worldly hilltop abbey set in the farmland of rural Oregon, about an hour south of Portland.

The Mount Angel Abbey is a small Benedictine acropolis in the farm plain, part monastic, part collegiate. The Abbey's wide green lawn is anchored by the church at the east end. The corners of the green are held by buildings that house classrooms and living quarters for the seminarians and retreaters. The south side of the green is screened by majestic hundred year old trees.

The small library sits on the north side of the green. Its presents a modest single story of cream and beige brick and wood-screened windows south to the Abbey green, while stepping down the hill to the north to 3 stories in height. Passing through a small porch and low lobby, you're drawn in by the light and progressively down through the many levels of the library's light filled reading room. The curving lower mezzanine is mirrored above by a wonderful skylight. The elements of this spatial composition are white surfaces, radiating bookshelves, and wood furniture, all bathed in a sensuous north light that you have to see to believe.

 

The library is not an awe-inspiring building. It is not glitzy or iconic. It delivers no wow-factor. It is, however, a very thoughtfully situated and composed building, filled with books and daylight and quietness. North facing windows and skylights deliver enough indirect light that interior lighting is not needed in the daytime, although the interior light fixtures are designed by Aalto and wonderful in their own right.

This library exemplifies the the warm, curvy, natural and light- inflected modernism that has forged a quiet but stubborn resistance to the brutalism, neo-modernism, and international style projects of the last 50 years. It is anchored to its site, a place-specific work of a mature master architect. A succinct manifesto in space, light, and appropriate restraint.

 

(Note: you can scroll through the slideshow below, on this website; or click below to see them bigger at Shutterfly.)

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Remembering the Day of Infamy

Since my semester abroad in Florence, I've preferred urban Europe to the tropics, so when I learned that I'd be spending a week in Hawaii, I was excited to see the cities and towns of this remote and diverse island chain. My must-see list soon became populated by historic sites and architectural landmarks in and around the capital city of Honolulu, like Iolani Palace, the State House, the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific (known locally as the Punchbowl), the Bishop Museum and the Honolulu Academy of Art. Plus the world-famous Waikiki, a bit of Miami Beach on the Pacific.

However, the only place that was a must must must see - and if you visit Oahu it should be at the top of your list too - was the USS Arizona Memorial, part of the World War II Valor in the Pacific National Memorial. The reimagined Pacific National Memorial has recently reopened as a generous harbor-side park with small buildings and extensively scripted grounds. Its easy to be put off by the gift shops and vendors, but the memorial site commands attention. It is Hawaii's most popular attraction, with 1.6 million annual visitors.

The Arizona Memorial is itself 50 years old this year. It was designed by Honolulu architect Alfred Preis who ironically had been detained at Sand Island at the start of the war as an enemy of the country because of his Austrian birth. Proof that our national immigration policies are, and have long been, a work in progress.

Below are two collages, or "memory theatres", that I made to help me remember the day of my visit, the place, the event, the war.

The Date of Infamy was December 7, 1941.

If you can, visit the Memorial with a Veteran, preferably your dad. As I was lucky enough and honored to do.