Design

An Ultimate Architectural Road Trip of East Coast Mid-Century Modernism

Architecture writer Sam Lubell and photographer Darren Bradley reveal the hidden gems and greatest hits of postwar design along the Eastern Seaboard.
Sam Lubell's architecture road trips with photographer Darran Bradely took them to plenty of canonical Modernist buildings in big cities. But they also found many underrated places like Horgan Academy of Irish Dance (designed by Alexander and Nichols in 1964) in Naugatuck, Connecticut.Darren Bradley

In this increasingly strange and troubled world, one might want to salve their soul with a road trip to see the artifacts of a more thoughtful and optimistic time.

Such a therapeutic adventure may not be too far away: Writer and curator Sam Lubell along with photographer Darren Bradley released their latest architectural travel guide, Mid-Century Modern Architecture Travel Guide: East Coast USA (Phaidon, $35) last month. A follow-up to their recent West Coast guide, it includes over 250 houses, offices, schools, museums, civic and religious buildings that tell the story of the industrial and cultural prosperity that occurred up and down the Eastern Seaboard after World War II.