Алден Б. Доу: Мичигандық Модернизмнің шебері

American architect

Alden B. Dow (April 10, 1904 – August 20, 1983), an architect based in Midland, Michigan, was renowned for his contributions to the Michigan Modern style. Beginning in the 1930s, he designed more than 70 residences and dozens of churches, schools, civic and art centers, and commercial buildings during his 30+ year career. The Midland Center for the Arts, the 1950s Grace A. Dow Memorial Library (named in honor of his mother), his many contributions to Dow Gardens and his former residence, the Alden Dow House and Studio, are among the numerous examples of his work located in his hometown of Midland, Michigan. He is the son of industrialist Herbert Dow, the founder of the Dow Chemical Company, and his wife, philanthropist Grace A. Dow who in 1936 founded The Herbert H. and Grace A. Dow Foundation in memory of her husband. Dow is known for his prolific and striking Modernist architectural designs.

Alden B. Dow attended Midland Public Schools through high school. He attended the University of Michigan to study engineering in preparation to join his father's chemical manufacturing company. After three years, Dow transferred as a student of architecture at Columbia University, where he graduated in 1931. That year, he married Vada Bennett, also of Midland. Her father Earl Bennett worked at the Dow Chemical Company, a major employer in the city. The couple had three children together: Michael Lloyd Dow, Mary Lloyd Dow, and Barbara Alden Dow. After working for a year and a half with the architectural firm of Frantz and Spence in nearby Saginaw, he and Vada studied with architect Frank Lloyd Wright at his Taliesin studio in Spring Green, Wisconsin, for the summer in 1933.

Following his brief ("a few months" ) apprenticeship with Frank Lloyd Wright, Dow opened his own studio in 1934 in Midland. Dow described his own philosophy of design as "Architecture is more than the front face of the building. It is the location of the building. It is the plan of the building. It is the construction of the building. It is the heating and cooling of the building. It is the furnishing of the building. It is the landscaping of the building. It is, in its entirety, the manifestation of wholesome living." He received the Diplome de Grand Prix at that 1937 Paris International Exposition for best residential design in the world, based on the design of his residence and also for his work on the John Whitman residence. In 1941, Dow officially incorporated his business as Alden B. Dow, Inc. The following year, Dow was tasked with designing a company town in Texas for workers at his father's Dow Chemical Company's site near Freeport, Texas. With his brother Willard and Dow Chemical Company executive A. P. Beutel, Dow chose a site west of Freeport that was formerly the site of the Abner Jackson Plantation. Dow designed the town, which they named Lake Jackson, to hold 5,000 people. The residential layout was notable for its lack of straight streets; Dow felt that winding roads would provide "something of a surprise around each turn." The streets were given whimsical names, including the intersecting "This Way" and "That Way" as well as "Circle Way," "Winding Way," and "Any Way." Dow also provided the six designs used to build different models of houses within the newly created town. The first residents moved in at the end of 1943. As time passed, Dow began to delve into other types of architecture, designing many commercial and community buildings, especially in and around his hometown of Midland.