USModernist and NCModernist are part of Modernist Archive Inc, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational archive providing donors, volunteers and advocates the information and organization they require to passionately engage in the documentation, preservation and promotion of residential Modernist architecture.
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Newsletter Editor: Ron Gallagher
Newsletter Staff: Virginia Faust, George Smart
Got Modernist News?
Share news about Modernist houses and buildings with the USModernist community! Send a link and a quick note to Ron Gallagher at [email protected].
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Join: 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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Connect your company to USModernist's unrivaled archive of 15,000 houses, 400 architects, 250 podcasts, 30,000 photos, and over 4 million pages of architecture magazines. Contact USModernist Director of Development Rebekah Laney. |
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Make a Bitcoin donation to support USModernist's ongoing mission of documentation, preservation and promotion. You can also donate property or securities.
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Need more room in your home, attic, basement, office, or oh-so-expensive storage unit? NCModernist's Rebekah Laney is on the road throughout central North Carolina to pick up donations of Modernist furniture, art, architecture magazines, and architecture books. What could be easier? Rebekah comes to you, and you get a super nice tax deduction! Plus, your wonderful patient spouse – who's been bugging you for years (perhaps decades) to clean things out – will be thrilled! Email Rebekah Laney or call 865.414.5800 to schedule a pickup.
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Saturday, June 11, 9am-1pm. Sholtz House Tour, 3550 Hamstead, Durham. In 1946, Donald J. Scholz founded Scholz Homes in Toledo OH for the burgeoning demand created by the legions of returning soldiers from WWII. Although not a formally trained architect or even an engineer, Scholz was influenced by Modernist architects like Mies van der Rohe and Frank Lloyd Wright.
His California Contemporary ranch homes featured strong horizontal lines and were offered in several styles to appeal to a broad array of tastes. Scholz even incorporated home decorating into the services he offered, and home buyers had the option ofh aving the company decorate and furnish the house and provide it in move-in condition.
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Endangered Modernist Houses |
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The 1958 Connell House, Pebble Beach CA, designed by Richard Neutra. For over 10 years, the owner has wanted to destroy it for a new house. Strong public opposition delayed formal demolition, but the house is vacant and left open for vandals.
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The Breuer Family Cottage in Wellfleet MA on Cape Cod (also where architect Marcel Breuer is buried), has been deteriorating for years and is vacant. |
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The 1953 Elliott House, Walton Hills OH, designed by Richard Neutra. Sold last in 2009, it's been unoccupied for many years.
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The 1970 Deane House in Great Neck NY, designed by Paul Rudolph, is vacant, has been fenced off, and portions of it have collapsed. |
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The 1961 Burke House, Centre Island NY. Project architect, Benjamin Thompson for Walter Gropius' firm, TAC. Vacant, seriously deteriorated, and for sale.
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The 1951 Hanson House in Huntington NY, designed by Marcel Breuer, is not in good condition. |
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USModernist has a really small staff - we can't do it all without the help of our passionate wonderful dedicated volunteers! You can be part of out team documenting, preserving, and celebrating and Modernist residential design across the country.
Field Research Agents: From the comfort of your laptop, car, or both, research Modernist houses in Los Angeles, New Canaan CT, Palm Springs CA, Asheville NC. Contact Carie Chesarino at [email protected].
Event Volunteers: Greet people and process tickets for registration at our events.
Share The Story: Introduce us to family or public foundations who want to save Modernist architecture. Contact George Smart at [email protected].
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The Yale Center for British Art, in association with Yale University Press, and in collaboration with the publisher Designers & Books, released a facsimile edition of The Notebooks and Drawings of Louis I. Kahn. Created by Richard Saul Wurman, along with printer Eugene Feldman, and first issued by Falcon Press in 1962, the book is one of the earliest published acknowledgments of the genius of modern architect Louis Kahn, who died in 1974.
With the original edition long out of print, the 2022 facsimile is accompanied by an all-new Reader’s Guide that provides rich context for understanding Kahn’s art and his thinking, Kahn’s personal recollections and unpublished speeches, and sketches from Kahn’s travels and drawings related to selected projects, many of them previously unpublished.
USModernist readers can get 20% off a beautiful new two-volume set of drawings by Louis Kahn. Here's how: call 800-405-1619; dial 1; say you want the "two-book Louis Kahn book set” discount; give discount code NDLIK; say you heard about this through USModernist.
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A group of intrepid architectural adventurers (like you, perhaps?) went with USModernist to Fallingwater, Frank Lloyd Wright's masterpiece in Pennsylvania. They also visited the Andy Warhol Museum, Polymath Park, and Kentuck Knob (photo above). Want to go with us next time in May 2023? Get on the early notice list.
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From Britain, a website asks, "Is this the best modern house in the world?" What do you think?
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Officials in North Vancouver, Canada, fined a developer and an architecture firm a total of CAD 200,000 for wiping out all of a 1950 home, designed by architect Fred Hollingsworth, that had been given designated heritage status. |
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Away from Richard Neutra and back again. A 1941 home (upper left) in Portland, one of two Neutra designed in Oregon (upper left), was badly remodeled in 1980 (upper right) and now has been restored (bottom) to recapture its Modernist vibe before being put on the market for $3.75M. |
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In Perth, Australia, Jimmy Thompson, design director of MJA, designed his own house. He had a difficult client, but he likes the result! |
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• Trying to save mid-century Modernist buildings along US 1 in Maryland.
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Saturday, June 4, a self-guided tour of homes in Tulsa OK's 1954 Modernist neighborhood, Lortondale. Details and tickets. |
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Thursday, June 9: New York is on the move again—and there is no better place to celebrate the power of place than Moynihan Train Hall. This year, in commemoration of Open House New York's expanded mission and twentieth anniversary, the Open City Benefit will bring together hundreds of high-profile New Yorkers for a festive evening of community, dinner, and entertainment. Details.
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Thirst4Architecture Parties are Back!
Thursday, July 28, 6-8pm. Leland Little Auctions, 620 Cornerstone Court, Hillsborough NC. Visit their new showroom, designed by Richard Gurlitz! Also featuring the 2022 Matsumoto Prize Awards. Free!
NCModernist connects hundreds of people within the Modernist-architecture-loving public through monthly social events called Thirst4Architecture (T4A). These exciting, informal events are free to participants. We welcome Modernist homeowners, architects, artists, designers, realtors, engineers, contractors, property investors, building managers, materials and furniture dealers — anyone with a huge crush on great architecture. T4A events focus on building relationships, sharing passion about good design, creating strategic alliances, and connecting people. There are no presentations - just come join the fun and make new design friends.
The 2022 Matsumoto Prize Awards are sponsored by:
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#249: Architect Myron Goldfinger + Musical Guest Victoria Vox
Auric Goldfinger was one of most memorable evil villains in the James Bond 007 series. Played by Gert Fröbe in the 1964 movie named for him, Goldfinger, this criminal mastermind created a scheme to corner the gold market by exploding a radioactive bomb inside Fort Knox KY, which houses much of the US gold supply. That was back when the nation’s debt was a mere $311B and was backed by this gold, kinda like putting up your house as collateral for a loan. Goldfinger’s plan to make the gold radioactive, and therefore inaccessible, would make his own gold ten times more valuable. Bond foils this brilliant plan and lives to have some of his well-loved martinis by the time the movie ends. Goldfinger remains one of the most famous names in film, and joining us today is, like James Bond, the suave and sophisticated architect Myron Goldfinger, a classic name in mid-century Modernism, who’s experiencing a new following in his 80s. Later on, special music with Victoria Vox.
US Modernist Radio is underwritten by Diane Bald and The Bdman Family, restoring significant architecture in Toronto, Los Angeles, Malibu and Palm Springs – and by Modernist Realtor Angela Roehl. New to podcasts? You can listen to USModernist Radio on any major podcast platform or through any computer.
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Wednesday, May 25, Architects of the Sandhills, presented by the Pines Preservation Guild, Southern Pines NC. Details and tickets. |
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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. The architect for each house, if known, is in brackets.
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