Doug White, “The Famous Merle’s Drive-in (Visalia),” ca. 1950. Southern California Edison Photographs and Negatives. Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

In a reaction against the outdated revivalist architectural style of previous decades, young American architects during the early to mid-20th century sought a new aesthetic—one that would embody progressivism and forward-thinking. That movement: modernism. Its testing ground: sunny California, particularly the Los Angeles Basin, which became the laboratory locale of choice.

With the help of new companies, like Edison Electric, the city of Los Angeles had the infrastructure to rapidly expand while enlisting the modern movement as its defining style. As LA became America’s modern city, photography played a crucial role in disseminating new examples of the architecture and design aesthetic to the masses. Edison Electric enlisted photographers in the field to document every step of the way. These photogs took pictures of everything from restaurants and office interiors to the telephone poles on the street, amassing a large collection that exhaustively depicts LA’s maturation. Eventually, the collection grew into an archive called the Southern California Edison Archive of The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens.

Now, for the first time ever, the nearly 70,000 photographs in the collection will become the basis for a new online exhibit entitled “Form and Landscape: Southern California Edison and the Los Angeles Basin, 1940–1990.” The exhibition is part of a series of Getty initiatives celebrating California’s revered modern architectural heritage. Click through to read more!

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For years now, television’s spring premiere has become the new fall premiere, but the long-awaited return of AMC’s Mad Men sparks a whole new level of anticipation. Season six of the popular drama comes back this Sunday night, and whether you’re a die-hard fan eager to find out what’s happening in the mad world of Don Draper or you’ve never actually seen the show (we won’t tell your friends), you know this is a big event. In celebration, we’ve rounded up an impressive collection of modern, Mad Men-esque homes. Bring out the martinis, cigarettes, and psychoanalysis—and enjoy the show!

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Photo: Steven Klein

Mid-Century is back! (Though many of us in architecture weren’t aware it ever left). From thick-rim glasses and skinny ties to troubling instability on the Korean Peninsula, it seems the ’50s have returned for a muddled encore. The above house was completed in the past 5 years, though it wouldn’t look out of place in our recent Palm Springs Modernism Roundup. Think you know the building? Discuss below!

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Photo: Rifat Chadirji, via Artinfo

“Baghdad is at end of the world,” wrote Le Corbusier, “My responsibility as an architect is to be careful and not to be embark the client on adventures or misadventures.” But that’s exactly the fate that met the architect’s design for the Baghdad Gymnasium. A series of (mostly) misadventures would delay the realization of Le Corbusier’s sports complex nearly 25 years, from 1957 when the first plans were submitted to the Iraqi authorities to 1982 after Saddam Hussein had assumed power and completed the concrete structure as a monument to his rule. In that time, the original project underwent several iterations precipitated by the 1958 revolution and Le Corbusier’s death in 1965, among a series of other factors. Now, the building will enter into a new phase of life, as Iraq seeks aid from France to restore the obscure modernist work. Continue.

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With the return of Mad Men looming near (and maybe some explanations for those subway ads), we turn our attention to a mid-century modern masterpiece, once home to a steady flow of taupe fedoras and trench coats: the 1954 Manufacturers Hanover Trust Building by Skidmore Owings and Merrill. The former bank has been the subject of a prickly architectural preservation battle. While SOM is currently overseeing the renovation of the building, in October 2011, JP Morgan, a former owner of the building, had two sculptures removed from the site, including a multi-paneled bronze screen by artist Harry Bertoia, which had served as the textural contrast to Gordon Bunshaft’s clean glass box. Architecture critics responded with outrage, with Wall Street Journal critic Ada Louise Huxtable lamenting the “profound misunderstanding of the sculptures’ function as an essential architectural element.”

We learned that the sculptures have recently been restored after an agreement was reached between the Landmarks Preservation Committee and Chase in late February. But the question of what deserves to be landmarked, or in other words, what constitutes the architecture of this famously modular building, continues to stir controversy. More after the jump.

[All photos © Ezra Stoller]

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Sound the alarms! Design Within Reach - that venerable purveyor of accessible Modernism – is putting their Knoll Classics line on sale until March 4. The Knoll Classics line is made up of the most famed pieces of Modern design, from Barcelona loungers to Tulips Chairs, and it’s rarely been offered on sale.

If you’re like us, humming-and-hawing over that Wassily Chair as the seasons wax and wane, consider this a sign. Go check out the full line at 15% off (plus free shipping), and make good on that promise you made to yourself on investing in good design.

In the meantime, here’s a little quiz about Knoll’s most legendary designers. Who was a velocipede enthusiast? Who worked in on the pages of Playboy? Who wrote the best love letters? Find out, below.

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You’ve heard this logic before: “it looks like this building was designed specifically for this one photograph.”

The ability of new architecture to speak across digital platforms may be the single most important, and unspoken, driver of popular architectural practice today. Will this get re-blogged? How will it look on [popular design website]? The wide-angle shot, the lens flare, and the foggy pastel gradient all signal this photo-centric epoch.

Ironically, an architect who was known for his attention to the tactile and experiential – John Lautner – may have unwillingly been the first superstar of image-based architecture. The legendary architect would have been 100 this Saturday, and though he may not have ever imagined it, his work has taken on life as a location for the aspirational image — through fashion shoots, endless student tours, and movies. We took a look.

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There’s architecture porn, and then there’s… ex-porn stars in architecture. Artist Richard Phillips directed two short films for the Venice Biennale last week, and though we’ll spare you the vacant-eyed stare of fellow subject Lindsey Lohan, this one featuring Sasha Grey gets a pass. You see, it co-stars none other than famed LA architect John Lautner — in the form of his Chemosphere House (circa 1960).

Watch the clip above, and click through for images and details on the home.

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Great commentary from Aaron Betsky on the “mountain” meme emerging as a design trope, most recently via BIG’s new West Side project. [via Beyond Buildings]

The most pervasive emerging architectural meme, in our minds: The pyramid. Many of which grace the interior of Swedish jean brand Cheap Monday’s new office (a “modern day Giza.”). [via Fast.Co Design]

The U.S. Green Building Council says Chicago leads the country with the most LEED-certified structures, followed closely by New York and Washington D.C. [via Cityscapes]

The 2011 Palm Springs Modernism Week kicked off yesterday – organizers expect 20,000 mid-century oglers. [via MyDesert.com by way of A/N Blog]

The AIA has announced the winners of its 2011 Young Architects Award. [via Bustler]

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Foster + Partners, Bodegas Portia, image (c) Foster + Partners.

Foster + Partners have designed a winery for Faustino Group in the Ribera del Duero in Spain. More and more it seems like wineries are a benchmark typology for starchitects. This new offering from Foster + Partners looks brutal, even futuristic, from above – but its ground-level character benefits from the application of rich, warm materials and long horizontal proportions. Images after the jump. [via Architecture Lab]

Interesting developments out of LA regarding the legacy of Mid-century modernism: artists Justin Lowe and Jonah Freeman just closed a show at Country Club gallery that created a sequential stage set within Rudolph Schindler’s decaying 1939 Buck House, taking the house’s embedded narratives as the jumping off point for the environments. Meanwhile artist Sam Durrant’s foamcore models of Mid-century classics depicted as decaying, graffitti-ed ruins can be seen at the Museum of Contemporary Art’s new exhibit, “The Artist’s Museum.” [via LA Times Culture Blog]

We love Fast.Co & IDEO’s joint-venture Patterns series, and today they’ve got the latest installment, which is a real zinger: branded environments that bring the ‘fluidity’ of the web into the physical world. Which is basically the holy grail for branding strategists, right? Anyways, check out the piece. [via Fast.Co Design]

There’s an exposition of sauna design today from Build LLC, for all of you Scandophiles out there. [via Build LLC]

Italian furniture manufacturer Cassina has ‘painstakingly examined’ Le Corbusier’s late 50s/early 60s designs and introduced a set of four previously unproduced furniture pieces for their Cassina I Maestri Collection. Notable because the pieces are mainly made of wood – a material Le Corb only worked with late in life, as he reoriented himself in regards to nature and organicism. Click through for pictures. [via Abitare]

Perkins Eastman and Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects (EE&K) announced today that they have agreed to merge their practices, making their combined strength now 600 employees strong, with offices in New York, Washington D.C., and China.  [via Perkins Eastman]

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