Since its dedication in 1940, the Great Smoky Mountains National Park has consistently ranked as the most visited national park in the US. Many visitors approach the park through its northern entrance at the resort town of Gatlinburg, Tennessee.

In 1950, as the park grew more popular and demand for food and accommodations increased dramatically, an architect from Illinois, Hubert Bebb, moved to Gatlinburg to build a career that spanned three decades. During that time Bebb, and associates of the firm he founded, Community Tectonics, left an indelible modernist touch on the look of the entire town.

Millions of travelers slept in motels, ate in restaurants, or simply admired buildings designed by Hubert Bebb. Yet most never knew about the man behind the vision or scope of his work. Since Bebb's death in 1984, many of his designs have been dramatically altered, demolished to make way for newer buildings, or destroyed by natural causes.

As a lifelong enthusiast for Modern architecture and admirer of Bebb's work, Greg Case decided to bring Bebb's designs back to life by expanding his collection of postcards and other advertising ephemera. Case recently compiled the collection into a visual book, Smoky Mountain Modern: The Architecture of Hubert Bebb in Postcards (Warren Publishing, 2024). From this book, Case creates a virtual road trip back in time to re-discover and savor the work of a Master of Modern Design inspired by the Great Smoky Mountains.

Greg Case studied communications at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville with a major in advertising and, during his undergraduate years, served as editorial cartoonist and illustrator for the university's daily newspaper The Daily Beacon. He then earned a master's degree in communications from Queens University in Charlotte, North Carolina with a focus on visual rhetoric and the influence of aesthetics, demonstrating how a graphic novel can advocate for preservation of Modernist architecture.

A book signing will follow the presentation.

www.gregcase.net