Monday, January 20, 2025

Welcome Modernist architecture fans to the USModernist newsletter, sharing the best news and events since 2008! USModernist is a nonprofit 501C3 educational archive for the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist architecture.

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News Editor: Ron Gallagher Newsletter Staff: Virginia Faust, George Smart

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Got Modernist News? Contact Ron Gallagher at rpg.modernist@gmail.com


Sponsorship: Connect your product, service, or organization to USModernist's 64,000 weekly subscribers! Reach out to George Smart, 919.740.8407.

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Join our national community of architecture fans supporting and preserving the Modernist architecture you love. Photo by Ezra Stoller/ESTO. Information.

Featured Events

Tuesday, February 4, 7pm. The NCModernist Architecture Film Series is back – and at the cherished Rialto Theatre in Raleigh NC. The next film is New England Modernism, a documentary by acclaimed architecture filmmaker Jake Gorst - plus a special short film feature, In place!


We'll have a remote Q&A afterwards with Jake Gorst, plus our usual great giveaways. The NCModernist Architecture Movie Series is sponsored by insitustudio.us, Matt Griffith and Zach Hoffman.


Buy tickets when the doors open at 6:30pm, or get them in advance. (and yes, the ticket portal is working).

NEW: Saturday, April 26: Join us for the next wildly popular NCModernist Modapalooza tour of new and renovated Modernist houses, featuring homes by architects Erin Sterling LewisKatherine HoganEllen CassillyJeannine McAuliffeSophie PiesseMegan Toma, Brian Shawcroft, and Tina Govan. Details and tickets.

Los Angeles Update

Los Angeles continues to face apocalyptic destruction from wildfires with dozens dead, tens of thousands acres burned, and thousands of homes destroyed. Worse, fires still remain largely uncontained and winds are picking up. Our hearts go out to all the Los Angeles residents affected by the fires.

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How to Help: World Central Kitchen is on the ground, delivering fresh, hot meals to families and first responders impacted by this disaster. Make a tax-deductible donation. Another highly-rated disaster relief group helping displaced families is Direct Relief.


How Architects Can Help: Architects talk all the time about changing the world. Here's an opportunity to change the world for one family in Altadena, one of the hardest hit areas.


USModernist has 8 North Carolina firms lined up to each design one house pro-bono to residents of color who have lost homes in Altadena. These communities are unlikely to rebuild without assistance.  If you're interested as an architect, or as an Altadena homeowner, please reach out to george@usmodernist.org. In California, the LA Conservancy is also soliciting architects, builders, and materials suppliers.

These are the architecturally significant Modernist houses lost that we know of so far. If you know of other Modernist houses that were destroyed, please be in touch.

The 1949 Freedman House, designed by Richard Neutra.

The 1950 Hees House, designed by Richard Neutra.

The 1953 Kesler House, designed by Richard Neutra.

The 2000 Kevin Frankel House, designed by Ed Niles in Malibu.

The 1957 Rowen House designed by Josef Van Der Kar.

The 1969 Ned Brown House, Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, designed by Buff and Hensman.

The 1969 Endless Summer house, another Buff and Hensman in Malibu.

The 1934 Pauline Lowe House, Altadena, designed by Harwell Hamilton Harris.

The 1951 Straub House, Altadena, residence of architect Calvin Straub.

The 708 House, designed by Eric Owen Moss, Pacific Palisades.

The 1952 Hendrickson House, Altadena, designed by Kemper Nomland.

The 1941 Holmes House, Altadena, designed by Whitney Smith.

Previously reported: The Robert Bridges House, Pacific Palisades, designed by Robert Bridges; the Keeler House, Pacific Palisades, designed by Ray Kappe; the Park Planned Homes development in Altadena, designed by Gregory Ain. Twenty-one of the 28 houses were destroyed.

From Curbed: Kevin Keim of the Charles Moore Foundation fights to preserve houses from the fires in Pacific Palisades.

The Los Angeles Times posted drone video.

Modernist News

Tulsa NE TV station KOKI reported that the new owners of the Frank Lloyd Wright-designed Price Tower in Bartlesville OK, under fire for removing Wright fixtures from the historic building, have agreed in papers filed in court to sell the vacant building for $1.4M to a company that bid when it was last for sale.

Last week was the LA premiere of the play Listing, written by Russell Brown, directed by Tom Lazarus, about the sale of a classic Modernist house designed by an Austrian emigre architect (think Schindler and Neutra) and the drama that ensues when the realtor, a fanatical preservationist, tries to steer the house to a buyer he thinks will make no changes to it. The play digs into the clash between preserving what we love about our homes and neighborhoods and the pressures of the real estate market. Runs to February 16, with shows on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm, and Sunday at 2pm. Several performances will include post-show discussions featuring experts in architecture and design. On January 26, Crosby Doe, the first real estate agent to specialize in selling architect-designed properties; February 9, Jake Lazere, a real estate professional with a background in architecture. Tickets. 10% of ticket sales will go to the California Community Foundation Wildfire Relief Fund.

Know of an endangered Modernist house in your neighborhood, city, or state? Through our preservation alert program, Modernism In Danger, USModernist calls attention to the Modernist buildings around the country at risk for deterioration, demolition, or inappropriate renovation (like turning your Modernist house into an Italianate villa). Tell us.

Doomed: Hodder+Partners' Centenary Building at the University of Salford, England, won the first Stirling Prize awarded by the Royal Institute of British Architects in 1996. City officials have approved demolition after national authorities rejected it for landmark status.

The Village of Southampton Architectural Review Board (ARB), continues to relentlessly pursue forced landmarking of five Modernist houses, three by Norman Jaffe (like the Bliss house), and one each by Myron Goldfinger and Ward Bennett. At the epic six-hour meeting, preservation experts representing the town and owners gave reports about whether the houses qualified for landmarking, then the owner attorneys tore into the ARB's aggressive lack of transparency, violation of town and national policies, disregard for homeowner rights, and absence of a public ARB vote to pursue this landmarking effort to begin with. We're all in favor of Modernist preservation, but this is absolutely not the right way to go about it. The next meeting is Monday, January 27, 6pm ET. Watch it over Zoom.

A. Quincy Jones's 1976 Hixon Guest House in Pasadena CA is on the market for $7M.

Know a Modernist website from the 2000's that's long gone? Know an architecture podcast no longer producing new shows? In addition to our extensive house archives and massive magazine library, we are looking for abandoned midcentury modern websites and architecture podcasts. Please be in touch!

In Biloxi MS, the Ohr-O'Keefe Museum of Art will soon to be able to bill itself as a Frank Gehry-designed location when it finishes the last stages of the design he did after Hurricane Katrina wrecked the previous structure.


As Los Angeles begins think about rebuilding, the National Association of Realtors notes that in Pacific Palisades and Altadena, land is about 78 percent of property values.


The story of the only Frank Lloyd Wright house built in New York City – a prefab on Staten Island from Wright and Marshall Erdman.

Upcoming Events

Want to bring 50-100 design-oriented people to your client site or studio? Host a Thirst4Architecture design networking event! We have openings for 2025 anywhere in the Raleigh/Durham area. Contact Devra Dubroff, devra@usmodernist.org. 

January 21: Jake Gorst lecture titled "Chasing Modernism" about his 20 years of documenting modern architecture through film. Oliver Wolcott Library, Litchfield CT. Details.


January 24-25: Humanity In Architecture Film Festival, Grace Farms, New Canaan CT. The weekend has a series of films beginning with Strange & Familiar: Architecture on Fogo Island, followed by an insightful conversation with Fogo's Zita Cobb, Grace Farms CEO and Founder Sharon Prince, and Kyle Bergman, ADFF Festival Director & Founder. Details and tickets.


January 29, 6-8pm: Pre-Auction Modernist Party at Leland Little Auctions, Hillsborough NC. Free.


January 30-July 12: Making Place for the Art at Home: Performance and Midcentury Modern Architecture, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign IL.


February 4, 7pm. The NCModernist Architecture Film Series is back – and at the cherished Rialto Theatre in Raleigh NC. The next film is New England Modernism, a documentary by acclaimed architecture filmmaker Jake Gorst. We'll have a remote Q&A afterwards with Jake, plus a short film and our usual great giveaways. The NCModernist Architecture Movie Series is sponsored by insitustudio.us, Matt Griffith and Zach Hoffman. Doors open at 6:30pm. Advance tickets.


Feburary 6 + 17: Pearlman Cabin Tour, Idyllwild CA. Explore a rare visit to one of John Lautner's smallest designs, led by the daughter of the original clients. $50 per person which goes to a nonprofit. Contact Nancy Pearlman, nancysuepearlman@aol.com


Through February 17: National Building Museum in Washington DC: Frank Lloyd Wright's Southwestern Pennsylvania and Capital Brutalism.


NEW: March 4, 7pm. The NCModernist Architecture Film Series is back – and at the cherished Rialto Theatre in Raleigh NC. The March film is Schindler Space Architect, a documentary on Rudolph Schindler by Valentina Ganeva. We'll have a remote Q&A afterwards with Valentina, plus usual great giveaways. The NCModernist Architecture Movie Series is sponsored by insitustudio.us, Matt Griffith and Zach Hoffman. Doors open at 6:30pm.


March 16: Smithsonian, Washington DC. Two Glass Houses: An Entangled History. A talk by the directors of the Glass House and the Farnsworth House. Details.


Through March 16 at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Materialized Space: The Architecture of Paul Rudolph. From Rudolph's Sarasota houses to his controversial Brutalist buildings to his unpublished drawings, models, and furniture, this is the first architecture exhibit at the Met in 52 years. Tickets and details. Fast Company review. Review in The Guardian.

NEW: Thursday, March 20: 5-7pm. Thirst4Architecture Happy Hour! Wilkinson Supply, 3300 Bush Street, Raleigh NC. Join the NCModernist gang at Wilkinson's incredible showroom of kitchen, bath, appliances, hardware, and lighting ready for your next project. Free, registration required. Enter WILK on the form.


March 19-22: DOCOMOMO/HPEF Conference, aka PRP4, in Boston at the Boston Archiectural College.

Through March 22, Circle Square Triangle: Houses I Never Lived In, a Myron Goldfinger exhibition curated by his partner and wife June Goldfinger, left, at the Paul Rudolph Institute in New York City. Article in Architectural Record. Free. Details.


Saturday, April 26: Modapalooza NC: The next 8-house tour of new Modernist houses. Details and tickets.

Latest Podcast

#388/Kevin Keim on Charles Moore + Evan Dyer Rebuilds an Ellwood + Lou Grotta Preserves a Meier


Architect Charles Moore, the architect of California’s famous Sea Ranch, was one of the chief proponents of postmodernism. His work brought a return to more ornamental detail, steep roofs, and shingles, among other classical features, and we’ll learn more from Kevin Keim, director of the Charles Moore Foundation. Next, you’ve heard for a year about the destruction of Craig Ellwood’s Zimmerman house in Los Angeles. Now you’ll hear attorney Evan Dyer’s plans to bring it back - in New York state. Then we talk with Lou Grotta on preserving a New Jersey Richard Meier-designed house for the future.  

USModernist Radio is underwritten by June Goldfinger and Jeff Taylor, sponsors of Circle Square Triangle: A Traveling Exhibition on the Architecture of Myron Goldfinger, and 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.

During 2024, USModernist scanned over 450,000 pages of architecture magazines, making many publicly accessible (and text-searchable) for the first time; expanded to archive abandoned architecture websites and podcasts; took Modernist architecture fans on exciting trips to Palm Springs, London, Brussels, Antwerp, and Amsterdam; hosted amazing tours and parties in Los Angeles and Palm Springs; advocated for Modernist house preservation in California, New York, Kansas, North Carolina and Connecticut; hosted the Matsumoto Prize for new houses; added new archives for 10 mid-century architects, bringing documented houses to 23,000; produced 52 new episodes of USModernist Radio, with more fascinating Modernist guests from around the world. Yet, our work is far from over. Still-worthy mid-century Modernist houses still get bulldozed, stories remain untold, and the future of our shared design heritage hangs in the balance. Without your continued support, the Modernist legacy may fade into silence. Here's how you can be a part of USModernist:


  • The Annual Fund sustains yearly operations
  • The Endowment Fund creates future sustainability
  • The Optimism Circle is for legacy gifts, present and future, from your estate


You can make a tax-deductible donation. And every donor over $250 gets two years of Mod Squad membership. USModernist's documentation and preservation work consistently delivers national impact, but our future success is only possible through generous supporters like you. There are many new and creative options in addition to direct donation, including estate gifts and Bitcoin.

USModernist Art Donation Program: Do you have a basement/attic/storage unit full of contemporary or abstract art? Can't bear the thought of throwing them away, and your family doesn't want them? Through tax-deductible donations, USModernist puts that wonderful art into ideally suited for Modernist houses. Your donation supports USModernist's documentation and preservation programs. Contact: Sharon Glazener, Art Director, 919.787.3515.

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Submissions are now open for the 2025 George Matsumoto Prize, North Carolina's highest honor exclusively for Modernist residential architecture. The unique design competition features a blue-ribbon jury of internationally-known architects and experts plus online public voting. NCModernist created the Matsumoto Prize in 2012 honor of George Matsumoto, one of the founding faculty members of North Carolina State University's College of Design.


Matsumoto created some of North Carolina's most well-known and well-loved Modernist houses. The Matsumoto Prize encourages architects, designers, and prospective clients to continue the Modernist movement in houses so important to North Carolina's design heritage. Entries are open to any ground-up Modernist house completed since 1/1/2020.


Details. The 2025 prize is sponsored exclusively by Fitch Lumber and MARVIN.

Rusafova Markulis Architects of Asheville NC designed Cabin House for clients who had wooded land and wanted to downsize.

Piper Republic featured a full video about NCModernist's Modapalooza Tours, including an interview with founder George Smart and architect Arielle Schechter.

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.


Check out the NCModernist For Sale/Rent Database. Real estate agents and owners can list their NC Modernist houses for sale or rent for free. 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. Exclusively sponsored by:

Donate to USModernist's nonprofit mission of documenting, preserving, and promoting Modernist residential architecture.

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