The legendary 'House Beautiful' editor had a complicated relationship with Frank Lloyd Wright?and global design Today?s shelter magazines are mainly distinguished by their aesthetic sensibility. If there are political differences between the leadership at Architectural Digest and Dwell, they don?t trickle down to the average reader. But this wasn?t always the case. In 1953, House Beautiful editor Elizabeth Gordon divided the architecture world with an editorial titled ?The Threat to the Next America,? accusing International Style architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe of moving America toward totalitarianism and communism by way of visual austerity.

Gordon wrote, ?Two ways of life stretch before us. One leads to the richness of variety, to comfort and beauty. The other, the one we want fully to expose to you, retreats to poverty and unlivability. Worst of all, it contains the threat of cultural dictatorship.? Her hero Frank Lloyd Wright telegraphed his approval upon reading: ?Surprised and delighted. Did not know you had it in you. From now on at your service.? He signed his note ?Godfather.? ?That telegram,? Gordon wrote years later, ?was the beginning of our real friendship.?
To revisit this editorial in an era when shelter magazines differentiate themselves by being willing or unwilling to profile the Kardashians is shocking. To read it in the age of Trump, even more so. Simply put, ?The Threat to the Next America? was a design editor?s vision of ?American carn...