Westport Historical Society

Diane Smith, TV Journalist

Thursday, April 8, 7pm   $5 Donaton
The Ralph and Betty Sheffer Gallery

Historical Society Screens PBS Film
In line with with our current exhibit on Modern Architecture in Westport, the Westport Historical Society will show the film, “Living Modern in Connecticut,” originally created for public TV by Diane Smith, an Emmy award-winning TV journalist. Smith produces programs for Connecticut Public TV based on her popular series “Positively Connecticut” as well as a weekly magazine series for Connecticut Public TV called “All Things Connecticut”. 

We see them all around us—the iconic buildings of modern architecture in Connecticut—but what if they disappeared? 

Built in the middle of the twentieth century these “mid-century moderns” were startling additions to the landscape. They range from the Glass House in New Canaan, to the Phoenix Companies’ “boat building” in Hartford, to a hockey rink shaped like a whale in New Haven, and a “floating tower” on Long Wharf. 

The world-renowned architects who designed these buildings took advantage of new technologies and materials to reshape our cities and the suburbs. Just 50 years later, many of these landmarks are threatened.

Smith explains, “Taxpayers, corporations and universities across Connecticut are making decisions about which of these modernist buildings will survive and which must go. The CIGNA Wilde Building has been rescued, but the New Haven Coliseum is gone, and the Kent Memorial Library in Suffield is endangered. Why should we care? As architect Jared Edwards says, ‘Connecticut’s importance during the end of the 20th century is recorded in its architecture.  If we don’t have the architecture, there’s no way to tell the story’.”

The documentary film is slated for April 8 at 7 p.m.,  A contiribution of $5 is requested.

A Question & Answer period with Smith and a reception will follow the film.

For more information, please contact the Westport Historical Society at 203- 222-1424.