Numerous Chattanooga buildings and homes have recently or will soon reach their 50th anniversaries as structures representing a unique style of architecture – modernism.
Modernism could include buildings in which glass, steel or reinforced concrete was used more than traditional materials like wood or cut stones, or where irregular or flat roof lines were incorporated.
And the ornamentation and adornments could include more simplistic and linear – but often just as creative – shapes as the artistic detail found on neo-classical buildings constructed during the late 1800s and early 1900s.
Buildings that could fall under the classification of modernism as it was celebrated and praised around 1960 include the Longhorn restaurant on North Market Street and the former Shoney’s Big Boy restaurant on Hixson Pike near Highland Plaza, which was a hair salon for a number of years and is known for its metallic roofline that runs to the ground.
While those buildings seem to have appealing and fun looks and likely emit memories of happy childhoods for countless Chattanooga baby boomers, some modernist influenced buildings or other structures from that same time period have more formal looks. These include the first Provident (now Unum) building at Fountain Square and the former Interstate Life building on McCallie Avenue (now the State Office Building), although both of these marble-adorned structures also appear to have been influenced by older styles, including Art Deco.
And many other buildings also fit the circa 1960 look in generalities. These include Brainerd High School, Dalewood Middle School and Bright School’s original quad classroom layout. All have plenty of glass as well as brightly colored panes and other early 1960s’ ornamentation. Notre Dame High School’s original school plant in Glenwood, which was completed in 1965, also features plenty of glass windows.
The Valleybrook clubhouse designed by Selmon T. Franklin has lots of glass as well as a zig-zag roofline – just like the modernist Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
I know the former optometric office of my father, Dr. C. Wayne Shearer, at 306 Ashland Terrace in Red Bank – which was designed by MaryLou Droston and featured some glass and a flat roof before later remodeling and additions -- would have qualified as being inspired by modernism.
Among others, the Richard Neutra-designed home at 1718 Minnekahda Road in Riverview is a high example of modernism, and the famous Frank Lloyd’s Wright – who designed a home at 334 N. Crest Road on Missionary Ridge -- was also shaped by the early modernism movement and helped shape it, although many architectural scholars consider Mr. Wright’s work a style within itself.
Houses or buildings that feature thin brick, pink or light blue tiled bathrooms, and metallic window frames could also qualify as influences of modernism or of that time period in construction.
The circular Ooltewah, Central and Hixson high schools and Brown Middle School, as well as even the space house halfway up Signal Mountain, could be considered offshoots of modernism as well, although those structures were built slightly later and were perhaps influenced just as much by other factors, including the attention given space travel, flying saucers and “The Jetsons” TV cartoon in the 1960s.
But the most numerous and perhaps most highly praised examples of modernism in Chattanooga as it was presented in its purest form around 1960 were the buildings designed primarily by one man – Mario Bianculli.
Often working with George Palm Jr. during this time period, Mr. Bianculli designed such still standing structures as Chattanooga High School in North Chattanooga (now Center for Creative Arts), the old Pioneer Bank building downtown (now occupied on its lower floors by CapitalMark Bank), UTC’s Metropolitan Building on McCallie Avenue (originally the Tepper Clinic), and the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department on Third Street by Erlanger.
Other Chattanooga buildings he designed that are still standing include his irregular-roofed former home at the end of Island Avenue in Riverview (now the business office for Girls Preparatory School), Pilgrim Congregational Church next to Notre Dame High School off Glenwood Drive, and Moccasin Bend Mental Health Institute, among apparently others.
Real estate broker Jay Robinson said that Mr. Bianculli also designed a home at 1623 Hillcrest Road in Riverview, which is currently for sale for $529,000, as well as residences on Folts Circle and on Missionary Ridge.
The noted architect also designed the now-razed Fehn’s restaurant by the Tennessee River below Veterans Bridge, which was known for its great views across the water out its massive glass windows.
Another large structure he designed, although little apparently remains of it, is his early 1960s Lovell Field terminal, which was significantly remodeled and rebuilt about 20 years ago.
Mr. Bianculli’s terminal featured painted tiles of aircraft scenes, similar to the painted tile at the health department building. He also incorporated interesting pedestrian walkways, a cozy coffee shop at one end, and a neat viewing area atop the flat roof, where airport visitors could watch loved ones arrive or leave on jets in those romantic days of air travel before terrorism threats, delayed flights, checked bag charges, and the elimination of most airplane meals.
Mr. Bianculli’s contributions to Chattanooga architecture have come into the spotlight recently as a result of the publication by UTC art and architecture professor Dr. Gavin Townsend of a detailed article on Mr. Bianculli in the recent edition of ARRIS magazine, the journal of the Southeastern Chapter of the Society of Architectural Historians.
Dr. Townsend’s article grew out of his work trying to keep a database of important Chattanooga buildings and architects. After he came across Mr. Bianculli’s name several times, he eventually began conversing with longtime historic preservation advocate Andy Smith, who told him some interesting stories. As a result, further research for the article commenced.
From doing all the work, Dr. Townsend said that he now has a deeper appreciation for Mr. Bianculli.
“He was clearly such an important modernist for Chattanooga and the first one to use the modernism idiom for the city,” said Dr. Townsend.
Born in Italy in 1900, Mr. Bianculli was an Italian combat veteran of World War I before coming to New York. He later worked as an architect for the Tennessee Valley Authority and set up his own practice in Chattanooga when World War II ended.
It was about that time that he designed and moved into his Riverview home. Dr. Townsend considers that the first modernist building in Chattanooga, as it was constructed more than a decade before the heyday of modernism in Chattanooga.
Dr. Townsend said the bulk of Mr. Bianculli’s public commissions were while P.R. “Rudy” Olgiati was mayor, and the professor has speculated, at least loosely, that the two men of apparent Italian family ancestry had some kind of kindred bond.
They both definitely did share a belief that Chattanooga should become a more modern city. Just as Mayor Olgiati was helping Chattanooga change its appearance from a rail city to one with new Interstate highways, Mr. Bianculli wanted to change the looks of buildings in which people worked and lived.
Part of the modernism belief was that by being in structures with such features as large glass windows, people’s lives would be improved.
“They would have more light – literally and figuratively,” he said.
Dr. Townsend said Mr. Bianculli was more of a follower of the basic concepts of modernism and not necessarily a trendsetter. However, the UTC professor said the architect did come up with some creative effects.
He especially likes Mr. Bianculli’s use of I beams on the exterior of Dr. Townsend’s favorite Bianculli building, the old Pioneer Bank/CapitalMark building.
“I think that would be the purest expression of what Bianculli wanted to do,” he said, adding that the I beams help serve as rails for window washers.
And Mr. Bianculli was definitely a trendsetter in Chattanooga, as architects like Ted and Jim Franklin, and Derthick, Henley and Wilkerson later incorporated modernist concepts into some of their buildings they designed at the time, said Dr. Townsend.
But despite the visibility of Mr. Bianculli’s remaining buildings, aspects of him are not so clear, Dr. Townsend said, including examples of some of Mr. Bianculli’s early work and what happened to his architectural watercolors. His wife, Katherine “Kay,” was trying to find a repository for the latter after his death in 1990, but Dr. Townsend cannot find any local museum or library that has them.
“There’s so much about the man’s life that still is a question mark,” said Dr. Townsend.
What is clear, however, is that he changed the look of Chattanooga.
“He came off as a very talented, sophisticated architect who was responsible for spreading modernism to this part of the country,” said Dr. Townsend.
Jcshearer2@comcast.net