4 collections related to Art, Architecture, and Design

The Eduardo Catalano Papers contains articles, news clippings, magazines, and books on Catalano's architectural projects and professional accomplishments, as well as photographs, digital photographs, photographic slides, negatives, positive transparencies, design drawings, and one videocassette. This includes books, articles, and other writings authored by Catalano, and diplomas, certificates, and certifications he received during his professional and educational careers. The collection also contains metal printing plates of Catalano's designs used in various publications covering his work. Many of these publications can be found in the Printed Materials, Writings, and Correspondence series. There is also a small amount of correspondence. Eduardo Fernando Catalano (1917-2010) was a well-known modernist architect and Head of Architecture at the School of Design at North Carolina State College of Agriculture and Engineering (later North Carolina State University) from 1951 to 1956. Catalano was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on December 19, 1917. He attended the Universidad de Buenos Aires and graduated in 1940 with an Architect's Diploma and honors for his coursework. Having received scholarships to pursue studies in the United States, Catalano relocated to attend the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard University. He graduated in 1944 and 1945 respectively with a Master of Architecture degree. At Harvard, Catalano studied under two masters of modernist architecture, Walter Gropius and Marcel Breuer. Less

The Lee Porter Butler Papers, 1973-2019, contain 13.75 linear feet of art and architectural drawings, conceptual sketches, writings, poetry, letters, correspondence, photographs, news clippings, notebooks, design contracts and patent applications. Most of these materials document Butler's research on ekotecture, sustainable construction based on the environmental design science, and Ekose'a homes' designs. This collection also includes a vast array of writings and poems by Butler. A small number of drawings and writings belong to Butler's wife, Jill Karlin. The Lee Porter Butler Papers contain a few scrapbooks and photomontages that are only open to students and researchers above the age of 18. Lee Porter Butler (1940-2005) was a sustainability-minded architect and inventor from Tennessee who was concerned with the ecological and environmental aspects of architectural design. He attended the University of Tennessee at Knoxville, Georgia Institute of Technology, the University of Tennessee again, and lastly the North Carolina State University School of Design. In 1965, Butler started to research the concept of energy conservation in architectural design, and in late 1966, he began to build and sell homes in Knoxville, Tennessee. In 1975, Butler developed the concept of “the gravity geo-thermal envelope,” a passive solar design to heat and cool living spaces without fossil fuels. He eventually moved to California and founded the architectural company Ekose'a in San Francisco with William Randolph Pearson in 1978. Following his success in developing solar passive designs, he began teaching at the University of California Berkeley and was featured in numerous design and energy magazines and newspapers including Time, Popular Science, and Better Homes and Gardens. In the early 1980s, Butler relocated to south Florida and conceptualized "ekotecture," sustainable construction based on environmental design science with his wife Jill Karlin. During the 1990s, he expanded on the ekotecture concept and developed Ekopods, self-sustaining floating home infrastructures. Less

The Phil Freelon Papers consists of architectural drawings, extensive project files, and related architectural records. The projects documented include: Hillside High School; Diamond View Office Building; Durham Bulls Athletic Park; Durham Police Department; Durham Solid Waste Facility; Hope Valley Elementary; and The Hill Center in Durham, N.C.; and Lake Johnson Boat House and the North Carolina Old Revenue Building in Raleigh, N.C. Also included in the collection are some items from Freelon's personal archive documenting his career in architecture. Most of the records in the collection relate to Freelon's earlier projects in his career (during the 1990s). The collection also contains five architectural models and selected photographs of Freelon's work. Phil Freelon (1953-2019), was an African American architect who was founder and president of The Freelon Group, Inc., and then managing director and director of design of Perkins + Will, located in Durham, North Carolina. Freelon specialized in public architecture and was best known for his design of cultural museums and educational buildings in Washington, D.C.; Baltimore, Maryland; Chicago, Illinois; San Francisco, California; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Atlanta and Augusta, Georgia; and Durham, Greensboro and Charlotte, North Carolina. Freelon led the design team that gave shape to the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture. He was a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, won the 2012 Design Guild Award, and the same year was appointed to the United States Commission of Fine Arts by President Obama. Less