(Roughly) Daily

Suburban housing developments, simultaneously loathed and loved, began in the mid-20th century. Two of the major figures who built these developments were William Levitt (1907-1994) and Joseph Eichler (1900-1974), both sons of New York Jewish immigrant families. Yet the communities they created differed in one very important respect—one whose legacy endures to this day: While Levitt & Sons built “whites only” communities and refused to integrate their developments, Eichler and his son Ned fought just as hard to oppose discrimination in housing, even helping to write California’s fair-housing law…

William Levitt and Joseph Eichler both pioneered suburban development. But one fought for fair housing, while the other refused to integrate his communities: “The Kings of Suburbia.”

* Laura Ingalls Wilder

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As we focus on fairness, we might send stark birthday greetings to Denys Louis Lasdun; he was born in this date in 1914. An eminent British architect, he is probably that countries leading practitioner of the Brutalist style. He is probably best known for his designs of The Royal National Theatre on South Bank in London, and for his work at the University of East Anglia (where, as it happens, your correspondent did time during his juior year abroad).

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