Publication

  • The Miller House and Gardens: A Biography of Modern Living
    John Comazzi
    Author
    Princeton Architectural Press, 2020
  • GRANTEE
    John Comazzi
    GRANT YEAR
    2016

Eero Saarinen and Associates (architecture) and Daniel Kiley (landscape), Miller House and Gardens (exterior view along the south terrace of the children's wing with flowering magnolias), 1953–57. Columbus, IN. Photo: Balthazar Korab, April 1982. Courtesy of Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs: Balthazar Korab Collection.

This book is the first definitive monograph on the Miller House and Gardens in Columbus, Indiana (1953–57), a project that exemplifies one of the most extraordinary collaborations ever assembled for a modern dwelling: Eero Saarinen and Kevin Roche (architecture); Alexander Girard (interiors); Daniel Kiley (landscape); Balthazar Korab and Ezra Stoller (photography); J. Irwin and Xenia Miller (clients/patrons). This publication builds upon previous research conducted for Comazzi’s book on Balthazar Korab, who photographed the Miller property extensively for over forty years. The investigation combines field analyses of the house and gardens along with archival research of the materials and documents produced by the respective collaborators. The book contributes new scholarship on the collaborative practices and cultural movements that influenced the design of the house and gardens, while providing a critical reflection on the project as an embodiment of mid-twentieth-century modern living.

John Comazzi is an associate professor of architecture at the University of Virginia where he teaches design studios and research seminars. From 2006 to 2017 he taught in the School of Architecture at the University of Minnesota, and from 1999 to 2006 he was lecturer in architecture at the University of Michigan. Through teaching, practice, and research he explores architecture photography, midcentury modern design, architecture criticism, and design pedagogy. In addition to his teaching, he has practiced architecture and design in Virginia, Maryland, Michigan, and Minnesota. He is the author of Balthazar Korab: Architect of Photography (Princeton Architectural Press, 2012), a biography on the life and career of Balthazar Korab, one of the most prolific and celebrated architecture photographers of the twentieth century. He holds an MArch and an MS in architectural history and theory from the University of Michigan, and a BS in architecture from the University of Virginia.