News Editor: Ron Gallagher
Newsletter Staff: Virginia Faust, George Smart
Got Modernist News?
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• Need more room in your home, attic, basement, office, or oh-so-expensive storage unit? We accept donations of Modernist furniture, contemporary art, architecture and design magazines, and architecture coffee-table-style books. What could be easier? We come pick things up, and you likely get a tax deduction.
• Where There's a Will There's a Way: As USModernist heads into its third decade, we are fielding inquiries on gifts and bequests towards a permanent endowment. Make a declaration that endures beyond your lifetime to document and preserve Modernist houses - or honor a person that shares that same passion. Many creative options are available. Reach out confidentially to George Smart, 919.740.8407. |
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September 19, 7pm ET, on Zoom. Having your Modernist house on the National Register does nothing legally to protect it from demolition. Neither does having a famous architect, local or state historic designation, or getting it published. At best, you can get a delay, but the bulldozers can't be fended off for long. The only way to legally assure a house is not destroyed is through a preservation easement – essentially a homeowners association for one house.
Join Cathleen Turner of Preservation North Carolina and George Smart of NCModernist as they share how to get your mid-20th-century Modernist house makes it through the mid-21st-century. Not in North Carolina? No worries, preservation easements work in every state. Free, register here. You'll get a Zoom link upon registration.
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Louis Kahn's 1958 Shapiro House in Narberth PA, near Philadelphia, is on the market for $875,000. It's super rare that Kahn's houses come up for sale. |
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Buy an entire mid-century modern school (on 10 acres) for the price of a house!
The Paul Dunbar School in Lexington NC was constructed in 1951 before integration and was an important part of the education of the Black community. There were additions made in 1957 and 1962, and the 1973 octagonal addition added more classrooms and a media center. The building has been vacant since 2009.
This is the deal of the year at $200,000, including 10 acres! The site is on the Study List for the National Register of Historic Places but is not yet listed. If listed, it would become eligible for significant historic preservation tax credits for the new owner. Details.
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USModernist is thrilled to announce that Alison Martino has joined the USModernist Advisory Board. Alison is a television journalist with Spectrum in LA, she’s the daughter of singer Al Martino, and she’s an expert on old Hollywood (and the houses they lived and loved in). She’s been featured in Curbed LA, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, Huffington Post, The New York Times, NPR, The Insider, and Baggage Battles, among many publications and TV shows.
Alison is a successful producer, with multiple episodes of E! Entertainment Television's Mysteries and Scandals as well as the popular reality shows Trading Spaces and Celebrity Rehab. In 2010, she created the online community Vintage Los Angeles which documents the history of Los Angeles. She's a longtime supporter of USModernist and our Moon Over Modernism events.
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Know of an endangered Modernist house in your neighborhood, city, or state?
Through our new preservation alert program, Modernism In Danger, USModernist calls attention to the Modernist houses around the country that are at risk for deterioration, demolition, or inappropriate renovation (like turning your Modernist house into an Italianate villa).
Like the one below.
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The 1954 Bill and Marcia Weber Residence at 606 Transylvania Avenue in Raleigh NC is in imminent danger of demolition. Noted architect George Matsumoto designed this in collaboration with Bill Weber who was a partner in Holloway Weber and Reeves. Also on the property are the ruins of the Bloomsbury Park Pavilion, a 1920s amusement park destroyed in the 1950s. The house was featured in an 1954 issue of Architectural Record.
After a series of owners, Joanna Johnson bought the house in 1982 and added a master bedroom addition in 1988 designed by Meg McLaurin. Johnson applied for and the house was approved for a Raleigh Historical Landmark in 2009. Then in 2014, against unanimous denial by the Raleigh Historic Development Commission, the Raleigh City Council approved Johnson's request to un-designate her home as a Raleigh Historical Landmark. She got spooked that the designation would diminish the value of the property, which is an unfortunate real estate myth. And of course, this turned out not to be true. Johnson sold the house off-market earlier this year and the new owners plan to destroy it in the fall.
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Join us! Mod Squad membership gets you all kinds of benefits and provides financial support for the documentation, preservation, and promotion of residential Modernist architecture. Details.
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New England Modernist House Tours!
• Midcentury Modern in Wilton CT: A Bus Tour of Historic Homes. October 1st, 1pm .
• Midcentury Modern in Westchester NY: A Bus Tour of Historic Pound Ridge Homes. October 14th, 1pm.
• Midcentury Modern in Belmont/Lexington MA: A Bus Tour of Historic Homes. October 14th, 1pm.
Register at histoury.org. Use promo code USM10 for 10% off through September 4. Tours fill up quickly. Histoury is a sponsor of USModernist. |
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In East Hampton NY, the house called Blue Dream involved 22 architect interviews, a sudden stop before a design was to be built, a new design by the prominent New York firm of Diller Scofidio + Renfro. Sadly, it's owner, philanthropist Julia Reyes Taubman, died a year after it was built.
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NCModernist announced the 2024 Jury for the George Matsumoto Prize. The blue-ribbon panel includes architect Rick Joy, architect Katie Swenson, design writer Jerald Cooper, past Australian AIA President Shannon Battison, architect WG Clark, architect Melissa DelVecchio, architect and IIT professor Stewart Hicks, and Chicago architecture critic Blair Kamin. Details.
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The model above might – or might not – give an idea what a new beachfront restaurant to be designed by Frank Gehry will look like. It was made for a 2018 competition won by chef Wolfgang Puck to replace the well-known Gladstone's on land owned by Los Angeles County. |
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FLW's 1931 comment in a letter to architect Pietro Belluschi's was enough to rescue the younger man's functional and unadorned Portland (OR) Art Museum design from the powers that be who wanted a Georgian edifice. |
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When architecture libraries want to recover valuable shelf space but find it painful to see architecture and design magazines thrown away, even if they’ve not been accessed for decades, the USModernist Library can help. So far, libraries and collectors and design firms have shipped us over 4.2 million pages.
Let us help you free up shelf space and give these magazines new, text-searchable, online life – and world access. Here are the magazines and issues we need. We pay shipping - and you help the world get free, searchable, downloadable content for the first time. Contact George Smart, 919.740.8407.
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Architect and designer Thierry Despont died earlier this month at the age of 75. Born in France, he worked for Lewellyn-Davies in New York, then established his own firm. Among his work was designing the galleries for Richard Meier's Getty Center in Los Angeles.
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• The artist who created the Fallingwatermelon "house" in last week's newsletter is Steve Mutty. Hat tip to our own sleuth, Catherine Cramer.
• The School of Architecture (TSOA), Frank Lloyd Wright's institution long known as the School of Architecture at Taliesin, is moving from Acosanti AZ to the Cattle Track Arts Compound in Scottsdale. TSOA has been in Arcosanti since 2019. |
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Available September 19. Islamic Architecture: A World History, written by Eric Broug. An illustrated history and sourcebook spanning the world of Islamic architecture.
Islamic architecture is a broad topic, covering some 1,400 years up to the present day. The richness of building types, regional styles, and architectural details is reflected here, with a striking balance of familiar and unfamiliar, of world-renowned masterpieces and lesser-known gems. Eric Broug's eye for the use of geometry and pattern, noting architectural elements that attend to specific regional, environmental, and climatic concerns. Pre-order. |
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September 21: Chapel Hill Preservation presents NCModernist's George Smart speaking on Mayberry Modernism. Details TBA.
October 4-6: Preservation North Carolina 2023 Conference, Durham NC. NCModernist's George Smart will speak about Mayberry Modernism on Wednesday afternoon. Details and tickets.
October 10-21: Outside the Box: Modern and Contemporary Houses in Riverside, Riverside CA, tour, photo exhibition, panel discussion. Details
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October 14, 2pm: Circle Square Triangle: The Architecture of Myron Goldfinger, opens at the New Canaan Museum, New Canaan CT. Coordinated by Mitchell Algus, the exhibition on Myron Goldfinger, the celebrated architect who designed geometric Modernist houses around New York, includes models plus drawings and photographs. USModernist's George Smart will moderate a panel sharing the work and importance of Goldfinger's celebrated career. Details TBA. Listen to USModernist Radio's interview with Goldfinger.
October 14-22: Atlanta Design Festival Architecture Tour and the Creative Futures Conference, October 14 and 15. Details and tickets.
October 18: Preservation Mecklenburg 2023 Dinner, Charlotte NC. NCModernist's George Smart will speak that evening about Charlotte Modernism. Details TBA.
October 26: AIA East Tennessee, Knoxville TN, featuring a talk by USModernist's George Smart. Details TBA.
November 19: Galloway Ridge Retirement Community: NCModernist's George Smart speaking on Mayberry Modernism. Details TBA.
January 11-June 16, 2024: Albert Frey: Innovative Modernist. Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center. Curated by Brad Dunning. Details TBA.
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#315/Photography + Color: Ethan Wayne + Laurie Kratochvil + Amy Shepherd + Stephanie Gaines + Sara McClean + Musical Guest Ariel Pocock |
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As more and more midcentury buildings get destroyed, we have to rely on midcentury photography collections as a window into the past and as inspiration for the future. Today we’ll talk to Ethan Wayne, son of actor John Wayne, Laurie Kratochvil, Stephanie Gaines, and Amy Shepherd about the John Hamilton Collection, a priceless trove of photographs from Hollywood’s golden age. After that, paint company Dunn-Edwards’s head colorist, Sara McClean, talks about keeping the midcentury color vibe alive. And later, jazz with North Carolina’s own Ariel Pocock.
US Modernist Radio is underwritten by Diane Bald and The Budman Family, restoring significant architecture in Toronto, Los Angeles, Malibu, and Palm Springs. New to podcasts? You can listen to USModernist Radio on any major podcast platform or through any computer.
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The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Library has broken ground for a new building designed by the Norwegian firm Snøhetta. They are the same firm that did the Hunt Library at NC State in Raleigh.
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North Carolina Realtors and owners of NC Modernist houses can now list - for sale or for rent - on our new completely free NCModernist database. Listings limited to detached single family Modernist houses, old or new, but the house must be in North Carolina. Details.
Got a great Modernist house that's not selling? How would you like 60 people or more (up to 200) to come by and see it one Saturday? We can do that for you, free. Contact George Smart, george@ncmodernist.org.
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Vacancy, not development, is the enemy of mid-century Modernist houses. Preserve and protect the architecture you love by notifying us when North Carolina houses go vacant or on the market.
Realtors and owners can list their NC Modernist houses for sale or rent there for free, and you can browse there anytime you like! Submissions are subject to approval: single family Modernist houses only, they can be old or new, the architect or designer can be from anywhere, but the house must be in North Carolina.
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Donate to USModernist's mission of documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist residential architecture. |
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