Inclusive Modernity: Chicago and East Coast Modern Architecture

The story of modernist architecture in the United States is one of absorption, adaptation, and reinvention. Beginning with the pioneering visions of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright, and continuing through the transformative work of European émigrés and masters such as Le Corbusier, Walter Gropius, Mies van der Rohe, Louis Kahn, and Saarinen, this architectural movement revealed the remarkable capacity of an immigrant nation to assimilate diverse influences and forge a distinct identity. Today, the legacy continues, with nearly every major global firm contributing landmark buildings to the North American landscape.

This architectural journey traces the development of American modernism across key cities and towns in the Midwest and East Coast—from Chicago to Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, as well as significant sites in New Canaan, New Haven, and Exeter. Through an in-depth examination of over 30 projects by seminal figures, the tour offers a comprehensive and critical immersion into the ideals, forms, and spaces that define modernist architecture in the United States.