#beth sholom synagogue

[gliklofhameln]

Beth Sholom Synagogue Philadelphia I

2007

Chromogenic colour print

Candida Höfer (German, b. 1944)

Beth Sholom Synagogue in suburban Philadelphia was designed by the architect Frank Lloyd Wright in 1959, the last project he completed before his death. It is one of four synagogues in the United States designated a National Historic Landmark.

[wouldyourathervisit]

Would you rather visit

Hechal Yehuda Synagogue, Tel Aviv, Israel 🇮🇱

Beth Sholom Synagogue, Elkins Park, Pennsylvania 🇺🇸

Sion Neolog Synagogue, Oradea, Romania 🇷🇴

Beth Yaakov Synagogue, Geneva, Switzerland 🇨🇭

Mikvé Israel-Emanuel Synagogue, Willemstad, Curaçao 🇨🇼

Neue Synagoge Mainz, Mainz, Germany 🇩🇪

Voting ended onMar 21

[electronicsquid]

Beth Sholom Synagogue designed by Frank Lloyd Wright

(Al Fenn. 1959?)

[contemporaryartdaily]

David Hartt at Beth Sholom Synagogue

[maggiemayhan]

“Dear Rabbi Cohen, I would like to talk with you concerning your project….“ wrote Frank Lloyd Wright in what was to become the only shul he ever designed. Recognising their collaborative effort which spanned six years, he shared co-designer status with Rabbi Cohen of Beth Sholom Synagogue in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania (1954)

[tselentis-arch-blog]

Metropolis, Fritz Lang 1927

One of the grand buildings of the city of Metropolis illuminated at night.

As the humanity of the twentieth-century slowly steps into the realm of the twenty-first-century, our concern is not only the future, but also our built environment designed by architects/designers throughout the history of our civilizations. The immortal film, Metropolis, was based on a book written by Thea von Harbou. She was the wife of the film version's director Fritz Lang. They collaborated on the film's screenplay and other films.

The film sets designed by Erich Kettelhut provide visual blue prints of the futuristic city of Metropolis and the subterranean workers' city. New York skyscrapers provided Lang with the inspiration for the futuristic vertical towers of Metropolis; however, within the details of Lang's futuristic city are discernible geometric patterns, mixtures of ancient and expressionist modern buildings, and new/found architectural vocabularies. These fragmented images of Metropolis can be found in many of today's cities.

One striking resemblance is between the opening animated sequence of dawn over the city and Pennzoil Plaza in Houston by Philip Johnson & John Burgee. The triangular stepped building of Pennzoil Place distorts the backdrop of downtown Houston with a sinister sky just as it does in the movie.

From Frank Lloyd Wright's Beth Sholom Synagogue, William Van Alen's Chrysler Building and César Pelli's Petronas Towers, one can easily identify traces of "The Tower of Babel." Massimo Scolari imagines machines as tetragonal enigmas of a real world that would best be suited to a mythical place. Perhaps because of this mythical reference, Scolari in his Oltre il Cielo project coincidentally matches the tower image in the legend of the Babel sequence. One has to wonder, in the realm of reality, if the visions of the cinematic allusions are defined by our built environment in which we live or if our built environment is inspired by these cinematic visions of the proposed future. Lang's cinematic visual allusions truly intertwine the past, the present and the future of our built environment.

M.T. Chang, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, School of Architecture, Urban Design and Landscape Architecture

via Cinematic Allusions to Literary Works

Metropolis

[tselentis-arch-blog]

Frank Lloyd Wright - Beth Sholom Synagogue - Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1954 The Chandelier. Photo: Floater Ya-Ya

[tselentis-arch-blog]

Frank Lloyd Wright - Beth Sholom Synagogue - Elkins Park, Pennsylvania, 1954 Photo: j.reed