The Cold War-Era US Embassy Program & Modern New Canaan

Talk with Anne Maxwell Foster
Join the Onera Foundation for a talk by preservation research fellow Anne Maxwell Foster examining the overlooked role of window awnings as a powerful tool for passive cooling. Drawing on architectural history, building science, and new energy performance research, Foster demonstrates how this simple exterior device can reduce indoor temperatures, improve thermal comfort, and meaningfully lower energy use and carbon emissions in historic buildings today.

Join David B. Peterson, Founder & President of the Onera Foundation, at the New Canaan Library Jim & Dede Bartlett Auditorium for his lecture The US Embassies of the Cold War: The Battle of the Curtain Wall vs. the Iron Curtain. During the Cold War, the US State Department used modern architecture as a powerful form of cultural diplomacy, designing embassies to express the ideals of a progressive, democratic society. Peterson’s talk is based on his book US Embassies of the Cold War: the Architecture of Democracy, Diplomacy and Defense, a large-format, photo-driven book featuring the fourteen most significant midcentury modern American embassies designed by leading architects, including: Walter Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Eero Saarinen, and Edward Durell Stone. Today, many of the Cold War embassies are being decommissioned and sold, and their future remains uncertain.

Cormac Murray Book Presentation & Panel Discussion

Join the Onera Foundation for a book presentation by Irish architect and scholar Cormac Murray, exploring the history of the US Embassy in Dublin. A panel discussion will follow, moderated by George Smart (Founder and CEO of US Modernist), with participation from architectural photographer Norman McGrath, and architect Christen Johansen,AIA, LEED AP.