modern

Stone at the Library

2012-01-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

Hicks Stone will be talking about his father and his new book, Edward Durell Stone: A Son’s Untold Story of a Legendary Architect, at the New Canaan Library on February 12. Details here.

The talk is sponsored by the library and the Philip Johnson Glass House.

Modern Architecture fun and games in NYC: Feb 11 2012

2012-01-23T10:30:00.000-05:00

From the Docomomo US website:

Join Docomomo US and openhousenewyork for a scavenger hunt across Manhattan and beyond. Spend a day exploring the city and taking photographs in front of examples of modern architecture and design for a chance to win great prizes! Hunt alone or as a team and learn about the historical buildings, spaces and the architects and designers that made major contributions to the cityscape. The hunt starting point and event opening will take place at Room & Board in SoHo at 11am. The hunt will conclude at the Spring Natural Kitchen, a new restaurant on the Upper West Side, where hunters can rest and enjoy a complimentary drink and munchies from 5 – 6:30pm.

Modern Architecture & Design Scavenger Hunt – Saturday, February 11, 201211am – evening
Sounds like fun! – GF

Edward Durell Stone's Houses in the Suburbs

2012-01-23T07:59:00.000-05:00

We’re interested enough in Edward Durell Stone to borrow the new book about him, by his son, Hicks Stone, from the library and to flip through it, which I started to do last evening, although speaking for myself I’m probably not interested enough to read it all. Stone was a big architect who designed major buildings all over the world, and I’m much more parochial. I’m interested in his houses and, in particular, those that are near where we live.

Stone was a celebrity. His picture was on the cover of Time magazine in 1958, and his divorce from his second wife was on the cover of the Daily News in 1966 (“BEAUTY SETTLES FOR A MILLION. Mexican Divorce Splits Stones”). His major works, like the Museum of Modern Art, made him a presence in New York City but he’s also a presence here in the northern suburbs as well.

The Celanese House, from 1959, is easily visible to anyone driving along Oenoke Ridge Road in New Canaan. He designed a similar house in North Salem, New York, for the grandfather of a friend of Gina’s and which, coincidentally I happened to visit 15 years ago when a subsequent owner was auctioning off all his possessions.

His Mandel House, up the road from the train station in Bedford Hills, New York, is on the National Register of Historic Places. It’s at the end of a long driveway and not visible from the road; about five years ago, when it was empty and on the market, I drove up and snapped the picture above.

It seems as if Stone designed seven houses in Westchester County (and at least one that he designed but was not built). Here’s what Hicks Stone wrote (page 55):

Stone’s work on the Mandel House led to another residential commission in Mount Kisco, for Ulrich and Elizabeth Kowalski. This house was more in keeping with the tenets of the International Style curvilinear element of the Mandel House was replaced by a more subdued curvilinear volume containing a spiral stairway that was faced with glass block. There relationship of the rooms and common area suggests an emphasis on functionality and the spare use of interior space. The influence of Mies van der Rohe’s Tugendhat House, which Stone may have seen when he visited Brno, Czechoslovakia, on his Rotch scholarship, was evident in the volumetric massing, fenestration, and detailing of the home, particularly that of the rear facade. Apparently the town was upset by the work, and Stone remarked that local zoning regulations were instituted as a result of the house to prevent architecture of the sort from reoccurring.

Both the Mandel House and the Kowalski House are listed as being in Mount Kisco, but neither actually is. They are in parts of adjacent towns that are (or were) served by the Mount Kisco post office and therefore have a Mount Kisco address. The Mandel House is in the Town of Bedford; the Kowalski House is in the Town of New Castle (the same town as Bill and Hilary, and Andrew Cuomo). So it must have been New Castle that changed its zoning rules to prevent modern architecture from reoccurring (although that story sounds apocryphal to me).

Here are his other Westchester houses:

1947. Seymour Kimmel House, Larchmont (although this Triangle Modernist Houses website says it might be in New Rochelle, under the same post office principle that the Mandel and Kowalski houses are in Mount Kisco).

1948. Robert L. Popper House, White Plains (razed and replaced by five houses).

William S. Rayburn House, White Plains

1949. David Stech House, Armonk.

1959. Carlo Paterno House, North Salem

Stone also had a hand in the Verrazzano Narrows Bridge, which I didn’t know, and, in 1946, designed the Rhinebeck Central School in partnership with Moore and Hutchins, the architects who designed our house, but I don’t think it ever got built.

Hicks Stone’s book, by the way, is called Edward Durell Stone: A son’s untold story of a legendary architect. It’s published by Rizzoli and is well worth spending a couple of hours with. Hicks Stone was on the Leonard Lopate radio show in December; you can find a recording of the interview here. -- TA

Fallingwater on fast-forward

2012-01-19T10:11:00.000-05:00

Fallingwater from Cristóbal Vila on Vimeo.
I have not visited – yet – and wonder what it's like for those who have, to see this video on Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater. When I saw the article on Open Culture, I clicked on the video expecting to see still photos from 1935 interspersed with more recent 'moving images' and a voice-over, either gushing or droning on about the construction . . . but it's not. It's only 4 minutes long, and the music is that beautiful, haunting piece I love but never have caught the name of. Luckily, it's in the credits. – GF

A Noyes House in Stamford Finds a Spot on the National Register of Historic Places

2012-01-04T08:18:00.003-05:00

A house in Stamford, Connecticut, designed by Eliot Noyes has been listed on the National Register of Historic Places, a significant honor for a modern house. Called the Graham House, it represents the evolution of an idea Noyes first tried out on his own house in New Canaan, known as Noyes II.

We learned about it yesterday while poking around on the website of the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation (scroll down). That's where we found this photo, which was taken by H. McGrath. Here's what the CTHP says about the Graham House:

The Graham house, built in 1968-1969 on the crest of a rocky outcropping in the Stamford woods, is one of the most dramatic and sculptural houses designed by Eliot Noyes (1910-1977), a master Modernist architect and industrial designer and a highly influential member of New Canaan’s famed Harvard Five. Although the house is less than fifty years old, the usual age requirement for the National Register, it was listed because of its exceptional importance as a work by Noyes and particularly as the culmination of a series of related designs by Noyes.
The series began with Noyes’ own house, built in 1954 with living spaces and a courtyard sandwiched between two massive stone walls (see CPN, November/December 2008). In the following years, the architect created several other variations on the wall-house idea, but they were not built. Finally, Robin Graham, owner of a Manhattan art gallery, provided an opportunity to construct the fully-developed version of the idea, a house with two walls close together forming a wide hallway, and the rooms hung outside the walls.
With its rugged fieldstone-and-concrete walls, stone pavement, and numerous skylights, the central space is more like a street than a hallway--in fact, Noyes sometimes referred to the space as a street. In contrast, the living spaces are lightly framed and cantilevered out from the stone walls so that they float over the landscape, with views defined by carefully placed windows.

There's lots more about the house, including plenty of photos, at the blog formerly known as EmbraceModern, now called Modisabi, here. -- TA

Wall Street Journal notes some nice architectural efforts

2011-12-30T09:51:00.000-05:00

Read the story and see the photos here. – GF

House on the north shore of Lake Superior, designed by Minneapolis-based architect Julie Snow. Photo Peter Kerze

House in Shelter Island, NY designed by Deborah Berke. Photo: Catherine Tighe

House in the San Juan Islands in Washington, designed by Tom Kundig, of firm Olson Kundig photo: Dwight Eschliman

The Modern Childhood of Steve Jobs

2011-12-27T19:17:00.000-05:00

Something I didn't know but that isn't at all surprising: Steve Jobs grew up in a modern house, specifically an Eichler House. Here's an excerpt from the Jobs biography I started reading as soon as I gave it to Gina for Christmas:

"The Jobs’s house and the others in their neighborhood were built by the real estate developer Joseph Eichler., whose company spawned more than eleven thousand homes in various California subdivisions between 1950 and 1974. Inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright’s vision of simple modern homes for the American “everyman,” Eichler built inexpensive houses that featured floor-to-ceiling glass walls, open floor plans, exposed post-and-beam construction, concrete slab floors, and lots of sliding glass doors. “Eichler did a great thing,” Jobs said on one of our walks around the neighborhood. “His houses were smart and cheap and good. They brought clean design and simple taste to lower-income people. They had awesome little features, like radiant heating in the floors. You put carpet on them, and we had nice toasty floors when we were kids."

If I had ever heard of Eichler, I had forgotten about him; Gina of course knew of him. Here's a Wikipedia entry about him.

I Googled "joseph eichler + steve jobs" and got lots of hits, but none of the photos seem to be of Jobs's childhood home, so I'm not including a picture. But click here to see for yourself. -- TA

More new work in old spaces

2011-12-27T11:01:00.000-05:00

I say "Yes!" to @Gessato, who asks, "Can you imagine starting this new day of work out of this converted barn?" And would add these others I saw this morning – from Côté Maison, a châlet, and this one on The House Vote. – GF

Top 2 – Atelier S by Coast Office in Germany
Middle 2 – Hmmm – Not sure about credits here...better see for yourself (text in French)
Bottom 2 – Converted Stable by Àbaton in Spain

Modern bed for Modern cats

2011-12-22T11:40:00.000-05:00

This beautifully simple and sculptural "pod" created by Lithuanian graphic and textile designer Vaiva Nat would look stunning in any Modern home. Read more at Shoebox Dwelling . . . what cat could resist it?

I just checked on Etsy, and it is sold out, but check back or write the artist to see when there may be more coming. In the meantime, how about one of her other terrific products, like this 100%wool felt hat? – GF

Whole lotta rock

2011-12-16T11:35:00.003-05:00

This compound of buildings, using the same stone for the exteriors as for the surface of the ground on which they sit, creates an island on the landscape which it seems to grow out of instead of sit atop. I love the use of materials that way, as in some of the walled villages in Italy that seem spread like a blanket on a hilltop. It is beautiful when done in wood, too – the same material used for a large surrounding deck turning into the exterior walls of the house and continuing inside as floorboards.

This one is in Bijaca, Zapadna Hercegovina Canton in Bosnia, designed by DVA Arhitekta. I do wish there were photos of the interiors as I'd like to see if the stonework continues inside as it is on the exterior – and if so, is it too much? – GF

via – Architizer

A musher goes Modern

2011-12-14T13:08:00.001-05:00

Here's a house, home to a 4-time Iditerod winner and his family, in what must be one of the more spectacular places – a high spot affording a vast view of the sky and the wild Alaskan landscape. I love the charred wood siding of the exterior and the fresh, and the sweet-smelling Alaskan yellow cedar lining the interior walls must be a delight to be surrounded by.

The house, designed by Mayer Sattler-Smith, is in Big Lake, Alaska.

As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the most important aspects of the Modern sensibility (to me) is a healthy sense of place. With a close to the ground profile that respects Big Nature, and each room having a view of Mt. Mckinley, I'd say they nailed it with this one. – GF

via: Architectural Record

Brewing new from the old in Zürich

2011-12-13T18:57:00.000-05:00

I saw this story on Architizer, and my heart fell through the floor. It's still unbelievable to me that we will not be going to Switzerland this winter and spending at least one night in Zürich before pushing on to the village we have gone to for the past 7 years to ski. And now I'm doubly despondent because the new Thermal Bad & Spa has opened in the former Hürlimann brewery, a 100-year-old building with vaulted spaces and exposed stone and brick walls and ceilings.

I'll quote from Architizer's blog post here because it tells an interesting story:

"Zürich is commonly thought to be the work of the Romans, who laid the town’s first foundations sometime around 800AD. In fact, Zürich was first settled by the Celts, who came south from Gaul to develop a trade network throughout most of modern-day continental Europe. Some historians even go so far as to say that the city’s name is derived from the Celtic word for water, dur, referential to lake and the hot springs that lie below the urban fabric."

Certainly, this building has nothing really to do with Modern architecture. But I'm writing about it because it's about re-purposing a space instead of tearing it down, a concept of great importance to me that isn't too distant from one of the qualities I prize in original Modernism: being true to the environment a building is to exist in.

Besides, I needed an excuse to post something about that rooftop pool . . . pretty fantastic!

Whenever I'm so lucky to be back in Zürich, I will definitely spend a few hours here. – GF

via Knstrct and Architizer

Ice Cube is Down with Charles and Ray Eames

2011-12-08T07:44:00.001-05:00

My first exposure to Ice Cube was about 20 years ago, when he rapped a verse of a Public Enemy song called “Burn Hollywood Burn.” Before that, apparently, he was part of an LA gangsta rap group called NWA.But the rapper-actor also had a modernist side. Ice Cube, growing up in South Central LA, appreciated the work of Charles and Ray Eames. He made a video celebrating their work (and a few other of his favorite LA monuments) and the Times interviewed him about it:In the video, you seem right at home in the Eames House. Ice Cube: If you were an artist, which I am, this seems like the house that you want to be in. It reminded me of something that defined the style. In Los Angeles, you see a lot of McMansions, where the house takes all the land. Here, it seemed they built this thing inside of a park. It kept the serene, quaint feel. Anybody could go there and collect their thoughts.The video is here. It’s fun, fast and worth watching. And here’s the Times interview. Word on the street now is that Jay-Z is looking to buy a modern house in New Canaan (not! – GF). – TA

Mini-Mods on the radio – NOW!

2011-11-17T11:08:00.001-05:00

There's an interview taking place right now on WPKN out of Bridgeport, CT, and streaming at wpkn.org – Binnie Klein talking with blogger Christine Ferrara, who creates miniature rooms in the Modernist style... Listen in (this is the entire archived show from Nov. 17) – GF

New documentary on the Eameses

2011-11-16T17:30:00.001-05:00

Eames: the architect and the painter, a new documentary on DVD by Jason Cohn and Bill Jersey from First Run Features, sounds like something anyone with an interest in things Modern – whether it be architecture, furniture design, film and other visual communications – must be sure to see.

“Eames: The Architect and the Painter draws extensively from a virgin cache of archival material, visually stunning films, love letters, photographs and artifacts produced in mind-boggling volume by Charles and Ray with their talented staff during the hyper-creative forty-year epoch of the Eames Office. Interviews with family members, including Charles’ insightful grandson Eames Demetrios, and design historians guide the viewer on an intimate tour of the Eames era, while junior designers who were swept into the 24-7 world of “The Eamery,” as they called it, flesh out a fascinatingly complex blueprint of this husband-and-wife powerhouse. The film shares a candid view of the emotional inner lives of two great American artists as they apply their genius to practical problems and innovation, not out of a sense of ego, but out of sheer creative necessity.”

I love that: ...“apply(ing) their genius to practical problems and innovation, not out of a sense of ego, but out of sheer creative necessity.”!

You can pre-order the DVD at a 35% or wait 'til the release on December 13. Here is a list of screening dates and locations. I plan to ask my library to get a copy as my Christmas gift : ) – GF

Modern Playhouses have lots of room for imagniative play

2011-11-10T11:14:00.000-05:00

Play Modern's snap together plywood playhouses look great and "... aren’t just modern and modular, but eco-friendly. The panels are made out of environmentally friendly FSC certified plywood and have a low-VOC finish made from a whey protein — a by-product of cheese making. In addition, the handrails are made from fully recyclable aluminum." See Design Milk for more.

The Cuba and 2Cuba playhouses are baby steps on the path leading to the fabulous adult versions at baumraum.de (see this one... with plumbing!) or one of your own ingenuity and design, such as Alexandra Meyn's that I read about in today's NY Times. – GF

Dreaming on – Stone, glass and water in perfect balance

2011-11-02T11:04:00.001-04:00

I'm not complaining – far from it – but . . . what I wouldn't give for a studio like this (oh, and the house it is part of as well). Villa Rotonda is in Goirle, the Netherlands, and was designed by Dutch architects Bedaux de Brouwer.

The reason I'm not complaining, but rather feeling grateful, is that our house, and indeed our entire town, lost power 5 days ago due to a freak snowstorm that dumped almost 20 inches of heavy snow on still-leafy trees, causing an amazing amount of damage to limbs and trees that crashed down on the power lines. I am grateful to be working – warm, with light and running water – from the studio of my sister's house a few hours north of our home. Our power is estimated to finally be restored in the middle of tomorrow night. This is the second time in 3 months that we have been without power for 6 days!

So although I'm not gazing out on the serene, glass-like reflecting pool through the glass wall of my dream studio, a temporary cluttered basement office deep in the woods is pretty dreamy. – GF

Seen on Dezeen

Palm Springs couch surfing (not)

2011-10-24T17:11:00.000-04:00

I'm one of those people who can't stand Frank Sinatra, (yes, we do exist), but that wouldn't stop me from staying the night in the house designed by E. Stewart Williams in 1947 for Frank and his first wife, Nancy Barbato.

The house, Twin Palms Estate in Palm Springs, (of course), accommodates up to 8 people, and is being offered for nightly rental for $2,600, (3 night minimum), through Airbnb.com. Read about the house and its amenities here, and in this post that Tom wrote after reading a recent Sinatra biography.

So the fact that is was Frank's house definitely wouldn't stop me from enjoying its pleasures and vistas, but the steep rental fee sure would! – GF

Not ready to be inside for the winter

2011-10-03T09:02:00.000-04:00

Where we live, the season has changed enough that you can't get a load of laundry dry in a day out on the line, and although we can use the gas grill all year round, eating dinner outside ended weeks ago as dark – and swarms of mosquitoes – descended faster than during the true summer months.

I've always wanted an outdoor kitchen, and this one seems like it could nicely extend outdoor summer living deep into Autumn. Seen on Dezeen. Visit there to see many more photos. – GF

More woodpile design

2011-05-20T10:14:00.000-04:00

I've posted a few times about wood pile building façades, wood tromp l'oeil sofas and kindling walls, and no doubt will continue to. Here's the latest installment: Mark Moskovitz's Facecord Cabinet, and the i-Log, a wooden charging station for an iPad, supposedly hand-crafted by Suzi Warren from reclaimed London wood... and offered on her supremely goofy shop Twisted Twee.

Not Modern, but please indulge me! – GF

i-Log via swissmiss

It's a Modern Summer on Cape Cod

2011-05-17T11:50:00.000-04:00

The Cape Cod Modern House Trust has a lot of events lined up for this summer, including a bike tour of Modern Houses on the National Seashore on September 10th. – GF

Via: @ModernismMag
Photo: John 'Rudd' Falconer's Hidden Village Cottage, Eastham, MA, built 1960

Modern House Day & The Five Best Houses

2011-05-16T07:15:00.006-04:00

The consensus favorite on my bus, on Saturday's New Canaan Historical Society Modern House tour, was the house on Chichester Road designed originally by John Black Lee and updated by Toshiko Mori and then Kengo Kuma.

I'm partial to the modest ambitions of true mid-century modern rather than the grandiosity of 21st century takes on or adaptations of modern, and so I prefer the original section of that house, which I visited five or six years ago, after Mori's work but before Kuma's. But that's a quibble.

While my group on Saturday was wandering about the house, I thought of the 2007 MHD tour, during which John Black Lee talked about what he considered to be the five great houses in the United States. This is the order in which I wrote them down, so I think this is how he ranked them:

1. Fallingwater

2. The Glass House.

3. The house on Chichester Road (he called it Lee House number 2).

4. Philip Johnson’s Boissonnas house.

5. The Kaufman house, which Richard Neutra designed, in Palm Springs.

As for the Lee House on Chichester, Architectural Record's Joanne Gonchar, who was the tour guide at the house on Saturday, wrote about it here and there's a video as well. Chichester Road is itself worthy of a tour, largely because of Lee's vision 50 or so years ago – he bought 20 acres, subdivided it and sold lots with one major restriction: only modern houses were allowed. We wrote about that here. As usual, Lee was a constant presence at this year's MHD – both at the cocktail parties and volunteering to welcome tour visitors at one of the houses on the tour (Hugh Smallen's house, on Chichester), comfortably dressed in Bermuda shorts, black knee socks and black clogs, which, as one of the last original modern architects around, he can get away with.

The 2011 Modern House Day was a great success, by the way. Congratulations to the New Canaan Historical Society for doing another terrific job. – TA

Photos: Top – Lee House 2 c. 1957. Bottom – Lee House 2 with Kengo Kuma Glass/Wood House Addition c. 2010.

Saturday is Modern House Day 2011 : Seeing Modern in New Canaan

2011-05-12T09:17:00.000-04:00

The New Canaan Historical Society still has some tickets left for the Modern House Day Tour and Symposium. The full-day event is this Saturday, the 14th. Here is a description of the program and some info on the houses on the tour.

We will be working as bus docents during the tour, and our daughter, Elie, will be on duty as a house docent at the Smallen House, with our old friend John Black Lee as house architect. John will be there to answer questions not just about the Smallen house and his own house, Lee House 2 which is also on the tour, but to spontaneously regale attendees with great stories and inside tidbits from his long and deep experiences as one of the original Modern architects of New Canaan.

Join us! Call 203 966 1776 for tickets – you have to register and buy a ticket as walk-ins are not allowed. – GF

More on the upcoming New Canaan Modern tours

2011-04-29T12:54:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to a post on Ashlea Ebeling's blog, The Best Revenge, over at Forbes.com that expands quite a bit on the Sotheby International Realty's self-guided May is for Moderns house tour, and the New Canaan Historical Society's Modern House Day.

For the 8-house, self guided tour, call William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in New Canaan at 203-966-2633 to register. For the full-day Modern House Day Tour + Symposium, benefiting the New Canaan Historical society, (includes breakfast, lunch, 4-speaker symposium, guided house tours of 5 houses, and cocktail reception), call the Historical Society at 203 966-1776 for tickets. – GF

New Canaan Historical Society Modern House Day Tour + Symposium

2011-04-28T23:37:00.001-04:00

Whew! That's a long title . . . Here's a short page to explain the 2011 MHD Tour + Symposium, "Seeing Modern".

The all day tour is Saturday, May 14. Call 203 966-1776 for tickets. – GF

(I haven't figured out how to link to a PDF – you may have to cut and paste the link)

Two Modern House Tours

2011-04-26T07:40:00.006-04:00

Two tours in May will provide a chance to visit a dozen of New Canaan’s modern houses.

One tour, on May 1, is free, self-guided and is being offered by real estate agents looking to sell the seven houses on the tour.

The other, on May 14, costs $295, includes five houses, tour transportation and guides, lunch, a symposium and a cocktail party, and is being offered by the New Canaan Historical Society as a fundraiser for its programs.

We’re volunteering for the Historical Society tour, which is called "Seeing Modern,” and Gina Federico Graphic Design is a sponsor, so we’re biased towards it. Call 203 966-1776 for reservations, and click here for more information.

But we’re probably going the real estate tour, as well, and one way of looking at it is that for $295 you can see 12 fascinating houses over a two-week period. Information. Reservations for the May 1 can be made with William Pitt Sotheby’s International Realty in New Canaan at 203 966-2633. It’s probably on their website somewhere but I couldn’t find it easily, so here’s a news story about the event. – TA

Johansen's Pyramid House

2011-04-14T07:24:00.005-04:00

John Johansen, the last of the Harvard Five architects, and his wife, Ati Gropius Johansen, sold their truly idiosyncratic Plastic Tent house in New York's Dutchess County and moved, about a year and a half ago, to Cape Cod.

I learned this this morning when I opened my New York Times and saw, on the bottom of page 1, "A Modernist Find: A search turned up a striking pyramid-shaped weekend retreat. Page D1" (When I started in the newspaper business, the short notice on page 1 that told you about a story on another page was called a "reefer," which always got a laugh from the pot smokers on the staff.) The Times writes:

The Plastic Tent, one of the so-called Symbolic Houses Mr. Johansen designed between the late 1950s and the 1970s, represented a departure from the modernism practiced by his colleagues. Drawing on the work of the psychoanalyst Carl Jung, he incorporated elements symbolizing the various stages of life – cave-like rooms, bridges, towers, trees – into these houses, taking his work in a new direction.

The Johansens, in their dotage, found that they were too isolated in rural Dutchess and sold it to two guys from Manhattan (it was listed at $365,000). The Times story and a slide show are here. – ta

Photos: Randy Harris for The New York Times

Wait! Don't sit down!!

2011-04-01T14:11:00.002-04:00

I literally just walked back into the studio from baking a birthday cake for our daughter's 18th birthday, and I see this April Fools tweet from Fresh Home. Wish I'd gotten the recipe for the Barcelona Birthday Cake from them!

Now THIS is what @PJGlassHouse should be serving at their Dine in Design dinner! – GF

Many thanks to old friend Paul Rotello for finding a link to explain the origins of the confectionary couch. Here it is.

The Modern Farmer

2011-03-31T13:38:00.004-04:00

The local food movement is so "in" right now that even the Glass House is trying to capitalize on it. I just saw this, via Twitter:

Dine With Design. An outdoor celebration of farm-to-table cuisine inspired by the Philip Johnson Glass House.

Friday, June 10, 2011, 5:30 - 9:00 pm Dine in Design. The evening begins with a private tour of the Glass House property and art collections, followed by cocktails and an exclusive donor dinner for 10 at Philip Johnson’s table inside the Glass House. A five-course tasting menu, created by internationally renowned Chef Michel Richard of Central Michel Richard in Washington, DC, and Chef Brian Lewis, formerly of the Bedford Post Inn, will be paired with fine wines. Guests will be provided chauffeur service to and from the Glass House. Includes two tickets to Dine with Design on June 11.

* $10,000 per plate, limited to 10 participants.

Of, if $10,000 is too much, you can pay $300 for a less exclusive afternoon event the next day.

Don't take this as criticism, by the way. I wish them well. And for full disclosure, I should mention that the organization I work for has tried to make hay from the local food movement as well. - ta

Add to wishlist:

2011-03-28T12:55:00.000-04:00

. . . This fun sofa, designed by the (all-woman) Swedish design studio, Front.

Appearing to be a nice, sturdy, rustic bench, it is called the Soft Wood Sofa perhaps for two reasons: judging by the pattern and grain, it seems to be made from white pine, which is categorized as a 'soft wood'. Or maybe because it's actually soft and cushy – it's an upholstered piece, the fabric printed with totally convincing photorealistic image of the wood. – GF

Sustainable, and Much Less Expensive Than It Used to Be

2011-03-28T07:28:00.002-04:00

Prices are still coming down. A sustainable, built-into-a-hillside, sort-of-modern house in New Canaan that went on the market two years ago for $2,395,000, was reduced to $1,795,000 six months later, is now down to $1,199,000.

It's on Huckleberry Hill Road, was designed by Donald Watson and built in 1987.

There's interesting information about the house in this post, which I wrote on 2009. And the broker's listing is here. - ta

A little (very little) retreat

2011-03-24T13:25:00.000-04:00

Modern House Notes reader Gregg Bateman pointed us to these cute little nuggets of real estate, noting that they seem to fall in with the Modernist fish bowls and chicken coops that sometimes catch my eye.

This reminded me to check in with Baumraum, the German treehouse designers/builders. Now that's how I'd spend my play money! – GF

via Fast Co. and thanks to Gregg Bateman

Homes for Hip Fish

2011-03-12T09:32:00.000-05:00

I've written about homes for Modern chicks – chicken coops, that is – and kitty crash pads, so it makes sense to extend to the next category of Modern home residents: pet fish.

Seen on Swissmiss and elsewhere, here is the perfect (at least aesthetically) home for an Ichthyoid companion. Here's where you can get one. – GF

Elemental Rental in Catalonia

2011-03-10T10:58:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it comes from growing up in an area where the muscles of the Earth – stone and rock ledge – are covered by only a thin skin of soil and growing things, and stone walls are a big part of the landscape, but I am just crazy about exposed stone, especially in interior spaces.

Spanish Architect Anna Noguera renovated Alemany 5, in the medieval quarter of the Catalan city Girona, and designed two simply beautiful holiday rental apartments. The original building dates from the Sixteenth Century. The tall stone walls and airy ceiling heights make it seem like these apartments would be cool havens in the Mediterranean summer heat. As always, I admire the restrained palette of elemental materials in this kind of design – stone, steel, wood, and air (yes, air) – in well-balanced proportion.

The apartments can be rented separately or as a whole unit, with 5 bedrooms sleeping 10 – 12 people. Sign me up! – GF

Via Architizer

Underfoot – not the usual straight and narrow

2011-03-08T11:15:00.000-05:00

Renovation is nowhere on the horizon for me, and new construction is light years away, if ever, but if I had a project to do that involved flooring, I would definitely consider a Bolefloor.

The high-tech, milling method they employ uses more of the tree than conventional milling, thus being a bit more of an environmentally sound choice for wood flooring. For the time being, oak is the only choice, but other species will be available in a few months. Here's how they do it:

“Bolefloor technology combines wood scanning systems, tailor-made CAD/CAM developments and innovative optimization algorithms for placement software developed by a Finnish engineering automation company and three software companies in cooperation with the Institute of Cybernetics at Tallinn University of Technology.

Bolefloor scanners’ natural-edge visual identification technology evaluates “imperfections” such as knots and sapwood near the edges or ends so that floors are both beautiful and durable.
Our process manages and tracks each board from its raw-lumber stage through final installation. And every board is cut using the finest in Homag woodworking machinery.”

Well, whatever . . . it looks great, and would be a terrific subtle counterpoint to a right-angled Modern house. – GF

via Fast Company's Co.Design

Modern Discount in New Canaan

2011-03-07T11:59:00.004-05:00

One of New Canaan's notable modern houses sold for $1,850,000 recently, after being listed two years ago for $3.5 million and then reduced a year later, to $2,199,000. It was designed by Victor Christ-Janer in 1949 for himself and his family.

Patch.com reported the sale today. Here's a link to previous posts about Christ-Janer on our blog.

If only the Alice Ball House were so lucky. -- ta

Snow on the Flat Roof

2011-01-30T14:55:00.006-05:00

We've gotten well over four feet of snow in the last month. It's deep and beautiful, and very little has melted. Which made me worry when I read this from the National Weather Service:

A GENERAL 10 TO 30 INCHES OF SNOW DEPTH REMAINS ON THE GROUND...WITH THE DEEPEST SNOW DEPTH VALUES ACROSS CONNECTICUT.

3 TO 5 INCHES OF SNOW WATER EQUIVALENT IS IN THE CURRENT SNOWPACK ACROSS THE AREA. THIS RESULTS IN A TREMENDOUS AMOUNT OF WEIGHT PER SQUARE FOOT.

THERE HAVE ALREADY BEEN REPORTS OF COLLAPSED ROOFS DUE TO THE WEIGHT OF THE SNOW...AND WITH THE THREAT OF YET ANOTHER SIGNIFICANT STORM SYSTEM EXPECTED DURING THE MIDDLE OF THIS WEEK...NOW IS THE TIME FOR RESIDENTS AND BUILDING OWNERS TO TAKE PREVENTATIVE ACTION TO SAFELY REMOVE SNOW FROM FLAT ROOF TOPS AND DECKS.

We have roofs on two levels -- a flat roof with a deck on the one-story section of the house, and a slightly pitched roof on the two-story section. Getting to the flat roof is easy: there's an outdoor staircase as well as a door from the second floor of the house. I just came in from shoveling most of the snow off it.

To get to the pitched roof, you need a ladder from the deck, which is a pain but not terribly hazardous. Being on the roof itself though can sometimes make my knees ache from a slight vertigo. I have to think seriously about whether I want to tackle that job.

Are owners of other modern houses in the northeast worried about the weight of the snow on their roofs? -- ta

Pretty points of light for a Modern house

2011-01-27T16:35:00.000-05:00

I love candles at the dinner table all year round and usually burn through 3 or 4 100-piece bags of votive size candles from Ikea, as those are the ones that fit my old iittala glass holders.

After Christmas, while hunting for post-holiday bargains, these 1/8" thin, elegant candles in their minimalist holders caught my eye. They are unscented and made of palm wax (a renewable plant material) by Austrian Atelier, which offers them in different shapes, all 1/8" thick, to fit in the universal holders. They even make them with custom designs, like logos or typography, to use as promotions or special gifts. By far, my favorite shape is the slender 1.25" straight candle. The dark grey/black is terrific.

And, seen on Below the Clouds, Canadian designer Francis Cayouette has designed this hansome series of cast iron candlesticks and holders for Danish Normann-Copenhagen. –GF

Two Pound Ridge Modernists

2011-01-15T08:12:00.005-05:00

We have almost 60 modern houses here in our small town and one of the more interesting of those was sold not long ago, for a little over a million dollars (which I learned because Todd Goddard, a broker who specializes in modern houses, sent us a postcard about it).

The house is on my inventory of modern houses in Pound Ridge but until now I didn’t know it was called the Hertzberg House and I didn’t know the names of the architects, Blake & Neski. They turn out to be a very interesting pair, significant in their day, unknown to us, but undoubtedly deserving of more renown now.

Peter Blake died in 2006 at age 86 and Julian Neski died in 2004 at age 76. If their obituaries are to be believed, both are more notable for work they did alone (or, in Neski’s case, with his wife, Barbara) but they seem to have known each other when they lived on eastern Long Island and, for whatever reason, collaborated on this house in Pound Ridge.

Todd Goddard’s webpage for the Hertzberg House notes, in upper case letters, that Blake designed the kitchen cabinets and counters for Philip Johnson’s Glass House. That may be so but in its effort to link Blake with Johnson it seriously underplays his achievements. In Blake’s obit, the Washington Post wrote:

"This is a guy who needs to be better known," said Alastair Gordon, a writer and architecture critic. "He was the voice of a whole generation of designers and architects."

Of Neski, the Times wrote:

With colleagues like Peter Blake, Richard Meier and Charles Gwathmey, Mr. Neski helped to define a new direction in domestic architecture in the 1960's and 70's.

Blake (who was born Peter Jost Blach and whose family fled the Nazis in Berlin) was a prolific architect, prolific author, and significant professor of architecture. Here’s what the Washington Post said in his obituary:

A lifelong adherent of the modernist movement in architecture, he believed in the beauty of clean lines and the elegance of simple, functional forms -- in both his architecture and his writing. With Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe and other modernist icons he knew and admired, he also believed that architecture had a social function, that its purpose was to make life better for those who lived and worked in the structures that architects create.

The "modern movement" -- the label he preferred to "modernist movement" -- was much more than a style, he insisted. "It was a commitment to help change the world, nothing less," he wrote in his memoir, "No Place Like Utopia: Modern Architecture and the Company We Kept" (1993).

The author of 17 books and numerous columns and articles, he was a man of many opinions, strongly held and expressed in lively, engaging prose. …

As a practicing architect, he designed more than 50 buildings, including a house he built for himself in 1954 in the middle of a potato field on eastern Long Island. He called it the Pin Wheel House, because of its shape and the way the four walls could be slid open on steel tracks. Only 24 feet square, the two-bedroom house was raised four feet off the ground to provide a distant view of the ocean. During hurricane season, it could be closed up like a box.

With the Pin Wheel House and other designs, he deferred to the natural landscape. ...

He lived among and hung out with Pollack, Motherwell and DeKooning, on eastern Long Island, was the head of the architecture and design department at the Museum of Modern Art, and helped design the house (with Buckminster Fuller) that the United States built in Moscow to show off our cultural achievements and in which Nixon and Khrushchev held their famous Kitchen Debate.

Neski (who also changed his name, from Julian Joseph Skrzynecki) was a Brooklyn boy who spent some time working in Marcel Breuer’s office and then specialized in simple weekend houses near the beach, particularly on eastern Long Island. From the Times:

All of his houses were relatively inexpensive to build and, unlike the high-maintenance trophy mansions of recent years, easy to maintain. Functionalist simplicity was combined with sculpturally expressive form.

The Neskis designed more than 35 distinctive escape houses, rarely repeating themselves. Some were built on Cape Cod and Fire Island and at the Jersey Shore, but most were built on eastern Long Island. The Chalif house in East Hampton (1964) put the Neskis on the map as an innovative design team. Its fin-shaped roofs cut sharply against the sky, opening and closing like scissor blades as one approached.

Here’s Blake’s obituary and here’s Neski’s. Todd Goddard’s page about their house in Pound Ridge is here. And our post about Pound Ridge’s modern houses is here. -- ta

A blog of note

2011-01-07T12:34:00.000-05:00

Wanken, the blog of Shelby White, (ummm, a different Shelby White...), celebrated Mid-Century Modernism in its various expressions this week. January 3, day one, was The Chairs, Day 2: The Interiors, Day 3: The Architecture, Day 4: The Illustration, Day 5: The Graphic Design.

Scroll down on Wanken and check out the work of Gottchalk and Ash, Swiss / Canadian graphic designer friends from way back, and a post on this great treehouse. Lots to enjoy at Wanken! – GF

Sinatra Ordered a Georgian But Got a Modern

2010-12-16T18:35:00.007-05:00

I've been reading Frank: The Voice, the terrific new biography of Sinatra, by James Kaplan (who lives somewhere here in Westchester), and about halfway through there's a description of Sinatra's house, in Palm Springs. Sinatra had gone to the architect and ordered a Georgian mansion. He went to visit the architect to see the drawings:

E. Stewart Williams had shown Frank Sinatra two very different sets of drawings: one was of the Georgian mansion Frank had requested, and the other depicted Williams's far more modern concept, a low-lying concrete structure with tall picture windows and a shed roof. The young architect had literally held his breath as the singer scanned the drawings, a serious look on his tanned features. Sinatra's domineering reputation had preceded him, yet Williams, trying to forge a career, knew that building Georgian in the desert -- impractical as well as retrograde -- would make him a laughingstock in the field. He wold be seen as a servant rather than as an artist. Frank nodded, frowning, as he inspected the modern design, then, suddenly looking interested, nodded some more.

Williams exhaled.

The house wasn't quite a mansion -- at forty-five hundred square feet, it was large but not gigantic, and there were only four bedrooms -- but the rooms and the windows were big, and every window, as well as a sliding glass wall, looked out onto the swimming pool, which was shaped (Williams couldn't help smiling at this inspired touch) like a grand piano. A breezeway over one end of the pool was designed to shed shadows that would resemble piano keys. Bright sun and sparkling light off the pool filled the living room: if shade was needed, the flick of a switch closed a $7,000 motorized curtain. In the distance stony Mount San Jacinto shimmered white in the fierce sun; in the foregound, two palm trees waved in the desert wind. ... Frank would call the place Twin Palms.

Here's the Twin Palms website. -- ta

Walls of stone

2010-12-14T10:02:00.000-05:00

I love stone walls – not just the kind that define every property line and delineate each road in my town, but also the ones inside houses. Far from being cold, the color and texture of native stone has always seemed inviting, friendly, and somehow warm. Renovating old purpose-built structures to give them new life as people-dwellings often uncovers the beauty of those utilitarian walls of stone – where cows formerly rubbed their sides and farm tools hung now is a focal point of a high-ceilinged room. I'm particularly taken when a wall of stone is both the external and internal surface of a house, which act to even more closely connect it to its environment.

Here are some nice examples of that look by the French architect Thomas Vidalenc. Talk about old structures, the Maison Ferriers, (the 4 photos at the bottom), is mentioned as early as the year 1168. Those are some old walls! – GF

The Orgasmatron is Really an Elevator

2010-12-12T12:36:00.007-05:00

The house that Woody Allen used as a futuristic setting in Sleeper -- the one that featured the Orgasmatron -- is the subject of some controversy, and is about to be sold.

It's known as the Sculptured House. Designed in the early 1960s by architect Charles Deaton, it is perched on a mountaintop in Golden, Colorado.

In the movie, Woody's character, Miles Monroe, thought he was walking into a closet and ended up getting lucky. In real life, the Orgasmatron, though, is an elevator. We saw it this morning in the Times, here.

-- ta

Small is beautiful and full of big potential

2010-11-19T11:55:00.000-05:00

I really never post anything about the unbuilt, (oh . . . that sounds a bit like "the undead". . .), but I came across these cabin models on the D'Arcy Jones website which look so enticing and full of promise. – GF

Nothing to dislike about it

2010-11-12T09:56:00.000-05:00

For this great-looking renovation of a former factory, seen on Dezeen this morning, I can use the exclamation that has been in my family for at least 2 generations, "There is nothing to dislike about it!".

The firm Three Fold Architects reinvented The Apprentice Store, which was an ancillary building to the adjacent DeMontalt Mill near Bath, England, which had been added to over 200 years evolving into 4 conjoined buildings, into a home.

There really nothing I don't like about this. The materials are so well mixed and considered, there's really nothing harsh or brutal that belies its former incarnation. Jump over to Dezeen and read it there. – GF

(the bottom photo doesn't really explain anything about the building, but I just love it!)

It seems I'm off on a tangent . . .

2010-10-28T18:58:00.000-04:00

. . . But I just had to post pix of this truly delightful chicken coop which couldn't look more dissimilar from the one I posted last. Both are great-looking, yet totally different.

Matthew Hayward (a furniture designer and engineer) and Nadia Turan (a creative director) developed nogg, a modern chicken coop in the shape of an egg. Their website is still under construction: Nogg. via Blue Ant Studio. – GF

Suitable for Modern chicks

2010-10-22T22:24:00.000-04:00

Dwell Magazine posted this story on a chicken coop that will go nicely with your modern, or not, home.

Mitchell Snyder, architect & chicken owner says: “The living roof helps keep the coop cool, but mostly it was a chance to experiment and design something fun,” The only thing Snyder would change, in retrospect, is the human  access: “We have to crouch down a little to go through the run and into the coop to clean it.” Hmmm. From the looks of it, I thought that might be the case...

Love the green roof! Air circulation and accessibility are so important – combine all that into a Mod Coop 2.0 pre-fab and maybe I'll just get my chickens after all! – GF

18 modern New Canaan homes named to the National Register of Historic Places

2010-10-14T08:48:00.000-04:00

So – at last! The National Trust for Historic Preservation announced today that for the first time a statewide thematic listing of Modern residential architecture has been accepted onto the National Register of Historic Places. 18 Modern residences in New Canaan – the home of Philip Johnson's Glass House, a National Trust Historic Site – have successfully been recognized as historically relevant and added to the State and/or National Register of Historic Places, the nation’s official list of places worthy of preservation.

Read about it here (national) and here (local). – GF

If you should find yourself in LA this weekend...

2010-10-06T09:51:00.000-04:00

Photographer friend Chris Mottalini sent us information on an event happening this weekend at Woodbury University's Julius Shulman Institute. Several of his photos of the now-demolished Paul Rudolph Micheels House are included along with work by 9 other artists.

Woodbury University will honor the legacy of renowned photographer Julius Shulman with two events that coincide with 100th anniversary of his birth. A Saturday, October 9 symposium and exhibition includes panels moderated by Neil Denari and Kazys Varnelis featuring architects in conversation with photographers; the afternoon will be emceed by Frances Anderton, host of DnA on KCRW. The exhibition highlights the work of noted photographers of the built environment. A celebration evening will be held on Sunday, October 10. Actress Diane Keaton will receive the 10th annual Julius Shulman Communication Award and photographer Iwan Baan will be presented the 1st annual Julius Shulman Photography Award during the fundraising dinner. Woodbury is home to the Julius Shulman Institute, which focuses on Shulman’s enduring involvement in the issues of modernism. (From the Woodbury University website.)
Sounds great – I wish I were traveling there this weekend . . . – GF

Let's play!

2010-10-05T12:27:00.000-04:00

Brinca Dada makes dollhouses, and the furniture and dolls that live in them. Modern house dollhouses, that is. And very cool modern furniture. And, no doubt, the dolls who reside in these houses are very happy hipsters. (via Blue Ant Studio) – GF

Nothing to do today? Go visit some Moderns

2010-10-05T09:32:00.000-04:00

What better way to cheer up a cool, damp and gloomy day than to go on a house tour?

We received an email this morning from a local realtor about a small tour her agency, Houlihan Lawrence, is hosting. 9 Pound Ridge and Bedford, NY, Moderns and contemporaries can be visited today from 11AM - 2PM.

The "tour" seems to really be a collective open-house for prospective Modern house buyers and their brokers, but Houlihan Lawrence invites the interested public, as well.

There's no meeting point or cost that I can see, so if you're curious or in the market to buy, my guess is that you just show up at the addresses below and see what you will see. Have fun! – GF

15 Colonel Sheldon Lane, Pound Ridge, NY
26 Colonel Sheldon Lane, Pound Ridge, NY
55 Major Lockwood Road, Pound Ridge, NY
21 Fox Run Road, Pound Ridge, NY
28 Baylis Lane, Bedford, NY
161 Hickory Kingdom Road, Bedford, NY
2 Twin Ponds Drive, Bedford Hills, NY
20 Deer Knoll, Bedford Corners, NY
330 Pine Brook Road, Bedford, NY

More melding of modern and ancient

2010-09-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

This cute little glass box – a sunroom, I guess some might call it – breathes life into this rather dark, ancient outbuilding in Belgium. The architects shot steel sheets through the existing structure to create a mezzanine floor, and extended them outdoors to create the glass box addition.

The renovation/transformation of the rest of the building is beautifully handled as well. Best part: it can be yours, for a short while, as "Roly" is now a bed and breakfast.

The architects, AABE, are based in Belgium and seem to do a lot of luxurious homes in Spain as well as commercial work. –GF

Photos: Jean-Luc Laloux

One room modern cabin

2010-08-06T09:45:00.000-04:00

Designed by Olson Kundig Architects as a bachelor's retreat on Salt Spring Island, this perfect one-room cabin is elemental yet refined. It has all the qualities I love in any house, but on a minimalist scale. Well, ok, I guess I could do without the open toilet tucked in next to the kitchen, but for what it is, this little cabin is as good as it gets. – GF

via FreshHome and others

Fallingwater Photos

2010-08-05T17:00:00.002-04:00

Forty-nine photos of Fallingwater, by our friend Tod Bryant, here.

Another summertime, simple house

2010-07-29T22:16:00.000-04:00

A bit more luxurious than the previous ones I've ~~longed for~~ posted, but still with that air of simplicity. I think part of it is due to the open construction and visible studs: looks like the house isn't quite finished, but good enough to spend some warm summer nights in, and live as much outside as in, if not more. This house is in Aculeo, Chile, with an outstanding view of a massive lake. It was designed by Mathias Klotz with Magdalena Bernstein. – GF

via Plataforma Arquitectura

It's a Minihus!

2010-07-29T10:29:00.000-04:00

Continuing my daydreams and fantasies of simple summer dwellings, (and by extension, how to incorporate that sensibility into life and living the rest of the year), here is a modular design by Lars Frank Nielsen of One N Design in Denmark for Add A Room.

One 15 sq. meter shed-roofed box with the option to add on a sort of 'connector' room, which in one delightful photo shows its use as a summer kitchen. . . (sigh). They call it "Compact Smart Living simply" and they are as cute as can be. See more here: Add-A-Room. Website is only in Danish or Swedish. Good luck. – GF

More on saunas

2010-07-26T09:30:00.000-04:00

I love to take a sauna in the cold months. My north-facing studio is exposed on 3 sides, and is at the end of the forced hot air heat system so it doesn't get more than a whisper of tepid air. And, since I work from home alone, I keep the heat off all day in the rest of the house to save a few bucks, closing myself in the one room with a space heater and a warm cat on my lap. Therefore, I SO look forward to our 1 week ski vacation where there are 3 different saunas for me to defrost in. And that always starts me dreaming about having one right here on our own property. . . Here are some examples I'd consider, from Nordic Design, and the link to more. – GF

A perfect Summer house

2010-07-18T23:13:00.001-04:00

Blending in with the smooth grey rocks of the Finnish shoreline, Villa Mecklin by Huttunen-Lipasti-Pakkanen Architects has its priorities straight: a huge, open deck to lie on and watch the stars by night and which draws in an expansive sea view by day, and a sauna building with guest cottage attached – what on Earth more does one need? I guess the lovely-looking and (I imagine) sweet-smelling wood interiors and the disappearing fire pit rate pretty high.

When I saw the rather contrived, exaggerated profile, I almost clicked right by, but then I saw that the odd, huge, angular shape had a very real purpose I was totally won over – while letting in the view, the tapering walls provide bit of shelter from the wind and holds one in just enough to feel 'safe' in such an exposed environment. The design simply and beautifully addresses things that are, at least to me, exactly what one's physical and spiritual comfort might require on vacation – no more no less. Just right. – GF

via Modern Residential Design

If you're escaping to The Cape . . .

2010-07-16T23:29:00.000-04:00

Speaking of Summer, many people equate summer with at least a some time spent at the shore, and if they are lucky, or family tradition dictates it, that shore might belong to Cape Cod in Massachusetts. There are quite a few Moderns on the Cape, and they seem to take preservation seriously there. Here are a couple of websites that are well worth the time poking around on to learn about what's there, what what's being done to prevent demolition or descent into decrepitude – earlier this Spring, there was an auction to benefit restoration projects where you could bid on and win a week in one of three restored houses (the Lechay House, which is pictured here at the top, is still available for October 3 – 10 for a current bid of only $800).

Cape Cod Modern House Trust is Here and Modern Cape Cod is Here. Don't forget your bathing suit! – GF

Summer simplicity

2010-07-16T10:52:00.000-04:00

Growing up, I always assumed I'd have a Summer house – weekend house, second house, whatever you want call it. It would be small, simple, clear and clean, airy and welcoming, easy to maintain and to come to and go from. All the miscellaneous accouterments of daily living would be pared down and simplified, clutter-free. Situated high with its back to the woods, it would face deep views from a wide deck where I could watch every part of the day and night roll by. . .

Sadly, it doesn't look like my little refuge is ever going to happen, but, luckily, a few of those qualities are present in my one and only home.

I believe that in Scandinavia, or Sweden at least, a "Summer house" is not necessarily one's weekend hideaway on a tiny isle in an archipelago, but it can also be a small structure right on one's primary property – like a gazebo – a place to be at home outside, for meals or a teatime chat. I'd settle for something like that if building one wouldn't make our property taxes double!

Here are some small houses that have caught my eye and rekindled my Summer house fantasy. There are so many more, but this is enough to set me daydreaming.

Top is the View House in Argentina, via Blue Ant Studio

Second is the Stribrna Skalice House in the Czech Republic by Prodesi | Domesi, via ArchDaily

Third is looking through a house on Corsica by Philippe Steubi

Fourth is a renovation by Franklin Azzi via Designboom

Bottom 2 are from an article in Home + Entertainment magazine from '06; Architect is Richard Mora, the house is near Aukland, NZ

Jens, yet again

2010-07-01T17:30:00.000-04:00

So nice to read that our friend and neighbor, the estimable furniture designer Jens Risom, is being celebrated yet again. Rachel Day over at The Mid-Century Modernist wrote about Risom and the story behind the collaboration that resulted in nine pieces of Risom's furniture from the '50s and '60s being reissued, faithfully adhering to the designers strict manufacturing requirements. This nice little website was created just for the reissued pieces; it has lots of photos of the furniture, and tells you more about the collaborators.

I love reading about how the great mid-century designers [architects, graphic designers, etc.], in their bright, I-can-do-anything youth, somehow met others who were similarly idealistic and talented, and through seemingly magical connections, then met the right people to support and facilitate their ideas and yet others who were willing to manufacture these crazy new things. . . All that fell into place for Jens 7 decades ago, and it's just great that it still seems to be happening for him today. – GF

2010-06-12T13:52:00.000-04:00

The University of Vermont Historic Preservation Program is running a day-long symposium exploring the preservation of historic modernist buildings and how to rehabilitate them to be sustainable and functional in the 21st century.

Keynote Speaker:

Christine Madrid French
Director, Modernism + Recent Past Program
National Trust for Historic Preservation

Featured Speakers:
Professor Glenn Andres
History of Art and Architecture Department
Middlebury College

Barbara A. Campagna, FAIA, LEED AP
Graham Gund Architect of the National Trust, Stewardship of Historic Sites
National Trust for Historic Preservation

Mike Jackson, FAIA
Chief Architect, Preservation Services
Illinois Historic Preservation Agency

James A. Jacobs, Ph.D.
Historian, National Historic Landmarks Program
National Park Service

David N. Fixler, FAIA, LEED AP
Principal, Design and Preservation
Einhorn, Yaffee Prescott
Architecture & Engineering P.C.

Theodore H.M. Prudon, PhD, FAIA
Prudon & Partners LLP
Author of the book, Preservation of Modern Architecture

Registration Fee: $100

For more information click here for a PDF.

– GF

This little Modern needs help – fast!

2010-06-10T12:44:00.000-04:00

Though not in our neck of the woods, this house caught my attention because it embodies the unpretentious, modestly-scaled, honest, integral-to-the-landscape look and spirit that is – at least to me – part of the true nature of Modern homes.

The personal home of early modern architect Ray Roush, in Anderson Township, OH, was originally on the market in 2007. It failed to sell, slipped through hands, and later went into foreclosure where it became victim to vandalism. It is such a dear little house, it's tragic that this bad luck has befallen it. But read here what the former listing agent has to say, and maybe the word will spread and the house can be saved. Y'never know! – GF

via Becky at Hatch: The Design Public blog

A Few Days Visiting Philip Johnson Houses

2010-05-24T07:29:00.008-04:00

We've had Philip Johnson on our minds for the past few days, first because of a tour of the Glass House on Thursday and then because of an open house held by the Damoras, who have put the Johnson-designed house that they own in Bedford, New York, on the market.

The Damoras held an open house yesterday. It was a busy event that featured a talk by John Johansen, a chance to see the house, and an exhibition of some of the late Robert Damora's terrific architectural photos. You can see more details about the house here.

Our tour of the Glass House was fantastic. One of our guests, an architect from Munich, told the tour guide that it was the best architectural tour she had been on anywhere.

We were there on Thursday, a warm, sunny late afternoon, spring turning into summer. Our guide emphasized that Johnson was a landscape architect as much as an architect of buildings, and the land was as beautiful as the buildings. A small part of the property is maintained as lawn but most of it is meadows, copses, streams, stone walls in a near-natural state that present different textures, shadows and shades of color where ever you look.

It was a beautiful way to spend a late afternoon. We thank Christy MacLear and the staff of the Glass House for accommodating us.

The photos here are of the Glass House from above, showing the swimming pool; the living room; the painting gallery; two shots inside the sculpture gallery, with its incredible shadows; and the Glass House from slightly downhill. - ta

Visit Johnson's First House, May 23, in Bedford, New York

2010-05-11T07:15:00.008-04:00

Note that I corrected the date: It's Sunday, May 23

The Damora family, which owns and is trying to sell the first house that Philip Johnson designed on commission, in Bedford, New York, have put together an event to drum up interest: they're holding an open house on Sunday, May 23, from 1 to 5 p.m., and have lined up John Johansen to do a talk and take questions, at 2:30.

Johnson and Johansen, of course, knew each other when they were designing houses in New Canaan, after leaving Harvard. Johnson died in 2005, at age 98; Johansen has got to be nearing 140 by now (that's not actually true -- he'll be 94 next month, although he does sport a Methuselah-like appearance).

If you go, you'll also get a chance to see photos taken by the late Robert Damora, a renowned architectural photographer (that's his photo, above, and you can see more at robertdamora.com). Walter Gropius, in fact, called him "the best photographer of modern architecture in the country." (Johansen is married to Gropius's daughter, coincidentally.)

I called the event an open house but because space is limited, they'd like you to RSVP, to the William Raveis agent who is trying to sell the house: anthony.ardino@raveis.com.

The house, by the way, is next to the 36-acre Tobias Preserve, a nature preserve that the organization I work for, Westchester Land Trust, owns. There are no trails but if you go to the Damora house you might want to check out the preserve too. -- ta

Falling Prices

2010-05-11T07:06:00.002-04:00

What a difference a year makes: this house in New Canaan, designed by Victor Christ-Janer, was listed at a shade under $3.5 million a year ago (it was on the New Canaan Historical Society's Modern House Day tour last May). The property is beautiful, there's a cottage and a garage with an apartment (if I recall correctly), and the house itself is nice though not spectacular.

Now it's being offered at $2,199,000. That's a 37 percent discount, if I did the math right. Is that because of the recession or because of an inflated view of what the house was worth? Probably a bit of both. -- ta

Pop up gallery in New Canaan – posters and custom subway signs

2010-04-30T18:37:00.000-04:00

This weekend, when you come to town to attend New Canaan Preservation Alliance's presentation, “Preservation and Progress: A Sensitive Approach to Repurposing Modern Houses” at New Canaan Library, or any time for the next several weeks, stop by 34-36 Elm Street, the space most recently occupied by Plaza, Too shoes.

There you fill find an eye-full of (very large) Posters for on for sale by Samuel Owen Gallery. The posters are vintage, and some are by contemporary and near-contemporary artists. They are just the thing for large, bare, Modern walls.

Samuel Owen Gallery's permanent location is at the Antique and Artisan Center, 69 Jefferson Street
Stamford, CT.

An ancillary business, Poster Conservation, provides museum quality linen backing and advanced restoration services to art galleries, auction houses, poster dealers, and collectors from around the world.

Sharing the space is Underground Signs, which creates customized subway signs in the New York City subway transit system style. The look of the signs is exactly as originally designed in 1966 by Bob Noorda and Massimo Vignelli, using Helvetica, the same colors for the train lines, and they are produced on 8-guage aluminum base, same as the MTA uses.

Underground Signs doesn't seem to have a physical home, which is one reason this pop up is so great – you can meet their products in person.

Nice to see all that crisp color and fun design on Elm Street. – GF

At the Franzen House – a benefit event for DOCOMOMO NY/Tri-State

2010-04-29T09:30:00.001-04:00

The Franzen House
Rye, New York

Saturday, May 8, 2010
5:30 PM to 8:00 PM

Meet at the Franzen House to toast spring with a martini, watch the sunset, celebrate Modern architecture and its restoration, and at the same time support the ongoing activities of DOCOMOMO New/York Tri-State. Remarks by Christian Bjone, author of First House: The Grid, the Figure and the Void.

Tickets are $100 and include martinis and more, hearty hors d’oeuvres, van shuttle service from the Rye Metro-North Station and a tax-deductible contribution to DOCOMOMO New York/Tri-State. Space is limited.

In 1954, architect Ulrich Franzen spent several months thinking about a house that would complement the lifestyle of his young family. In 1955 he built that house. A year later it was named Architectural Record House of the Year. In 2002, the house was saved from demolition by the current owners who are undertaking a respectful restoration.

Franzen, a 1948 graduate of Harvard’s GSD under Gropius and Breuer, set his house on a podium amid the rock outcroppings of the site. Its structural skeleton—a three-hinged welded arch truss system supported by eight steel columns—was expressed as the defining feature. Load bearing walls were completely absent. The open plan living area was enclosed in glass and bisected by a ribbon of natural light from a narrow skylight extending the length of the roof’s center hinge. Modern art was displayed on lightweight, movable partitions.

Record editors thought the Franzen House held “the promise of adding enrichment and authenticity to our national architecture.” Others simply noted that the spacious covered terraces under the outermost angles of the “double diamonds” made great entertaining spaces.

Transportation details: Rye, NY is 44 minutes from Manhattan via Metro-North. A shuttle van will meet four incoming trains (5:21, 5:54, 6:21, 6:54) to make the short (1.3 mi) drive to the house and deliver to four departing trains (6:46, 7:19, 7:46, 8:19). The Metro-North fare is $15 RT. Those driving can park at the Rye Station and the shuttle will make pick ups as needed.
Note: there is no parking at the house. – GF

(Hard to imagine, but I couldn't find a better photo – or ANY OTHER photo – of this house to post!

Holiday home in Spain by Anton García-Abril

2010-04-28T23:03:00.000-04:00

I'm not even going to try to explain this little house – you just have to go see for yourself at Dezeen. All I can say is I'd moooo for joy to live in it for a summer. – GF

(Ensamble Studio)

Bringing in the light – timeless window design

2010-04-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

The E Haus by Hertl.Architekten in Austria employs the time-honored method of expanding the exterior opening of a window to pull in the most natural light through the smallest penetration in order to maximize interior light and minimize heat loss. Great ideas never die, and this one just looks so great! – GF

Symposium: Preservation meets sustainability

2010-04-28T09:30:00.007-04:00

Keynote Speaker:

Christine Madrid French
Director, Modernism + Recent Past Program
National Trust for Historic Preservation

Registration Fee: $100

For more information click here for a PDF.

– GF

From New Zealand, a nice sensibility

2010-04-27T12:14:00.000-04:00

Belinda George Architects' residential projects have the comfortable, non-grandiose proportions I love about old MCM homes, while wholeheartedly bringing the outside in and respecting today's demand for sustainability. That NZ climate must be close to perfect. . . – GF

(these pix are not all of the same house)

New Canaan Preservation Alliance lecture

2010-04-26T11:30:00.001-04:00

New Canaan Preservation Alliance's mission is "to establish as a community priority the preservation of New Canaan’s character-defining historic architectural and natural environments". So along with helping to protect viewsheds, stone walls and adorable little antique houses in town, they also do their part to raise awareness, and thus help protect from tear-down, the town's many Moderns. They have organized a Spring Lecture Series, and coming up on May 2 is “Preservation and Progress: A Sensitive Approach to Repurposing Modern Houses”, presented by Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows.

Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows, proprietors of the New York City design firm BassamFellows, own the Hodgson House in New Canaan, which was designed in phases by Philip Johnson with Landis Gores, (acting as associate), from 1950 to 1957. This National Registered property is protected by easements administered by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, guardians of the Glass House across the street. Bassam and Fellows will relate their adventures “gently” renovating their Modern residences, from New Canaan to Palm Springs to Lugano, Switzerland with an illustrated talk, followed by a questions and answer period and refreshments.

Austrian-born Craig Bassam is an architect, an interior designer, a furniture designer and a product designer. In 1988, when he graduated from the University of Sydney, he “was inspired by the classical principles of early Modernism – beauty, proportion, material, craftsmanship, and detail.” In 2003, Bassam partnered with Scott Fellows with the mission – to return true craftsmanship and beauty to contemporary living. A graduate of Carnegie-Mellon, with an MBA from Harvard, Fellows has created strategic visions and led product development for some of the world’s best brands from Avon, Owens Corning, to Ferragamo, Bally, and Edward Fields.

I'm not sure what is meant in the lecture's title by the word "repurposing". I mean, the houses were built as houses, and renovated to honor the original design integrity – but they're still houses, right? I guess I'll have to go to the lecture to find out! – GF

Top: Mills house, bottom: Hodgson house, both owned by Craig Bassam and Scott Fellows

I'd like to link to bassamfellows.com because there are/were beautiful products and interiors that they've designed and photos of their houses, but it seems to be password-protected. So Google it and you'll get an idea of the fine projects they're involved in from other sources. Scott Fellows just emailed me to say that their website was having a problem earlier today but it has since been fixed, so do go to bassamfellows.com and enjoy.

Preservation and Progress: A Sensitive Approach to Repurposing Modern Houses
Sunday May 2, 2010 at 4 PM at the New Canaan Library

A Modhen House . . .

2010-04-19T19:26:00.000-04:00

Seen on The Coolist: Amazing Hen House by Frederik Roije ". . . truly an architectural wonder of the fowl world. It is a tiered, stilted and complex home for hens, a design so progressive that we wouldn’t mind the life of a hen if this was our resting place. While the hens themselves may not understand the beauty of this modern abode, sometimes the appreciation is more about the owner than the occupant."

Some of the comments on this post over at The Coolist point out that it doesn't appear to be particularly poultry-friendly – chickens need warmth in winter (the boxes have so many exposed sides), ventilation (~~I can't see any openings from these photos~~ – wait – there's one grid on top of one of the 'rooms', it seems), and a clean home (rather too many levels and small rooms to have to muck-out). But, what can you tell from photos? Maybe those considerations have been taken care of and tested out. What you can tell is that it looks like a pretty nifty get-away at a very small scale. – GF
(orig. via mocoloco)

A sweet transformation

2010-04-16T14:30:00.000-04:00

Kamil Mrva Architects Architectural studio in Czech Republic was commissioned to reconstruct a home / studio in Kojetín near Nového Jičína (why, of course!) from a former 1862 barn. While this is basically a one-room space for living and working, a family house nearby is planned for the future. The sleeping / WC area is behind the mod curtain divider.

I love the proportions of this little house, the materials, its situation overlooking a valley, and the way it reminds me of the cozy feeling I have for Philip Johnson's Glass House. – GF

Via CoolBoom

Don't want to grow up? Play with Modern dollhouses

2010-04-14T13:19:00.003-04:00

Design Observer pointed me to this collection of Modern dollhouses at ThisNext. Want to play? – GF

From the library

2010-04-12T18:55:00.001-04:00

I have been enjoying Terence Conran's Eco House Book not so much for the information on ecologically sustainable material choices, various solar strategies, low-E glass and high thermal mass (most of which I'm aware of and would certainly read up on diligently if I were about to renovate or build, which, sadly I am not). I just love the photos and case studies. Lots of fuel for dreaming and the "someday" list. Low-carbon emission fuel at that. – GF

Villa Vals, the house in the hillside

2010-03-31T14:24:00.000-04:00

I wrote about this Swiss house-in-the-hillside months ago, but what I didn't know at the time is that it can be rented as a vacation property.

On the website and in the PDF brochure there there are more photos of the inside which I'd not seen previously.
– GF

Usonia House: A Few Photos

2010-03-28T07:38:00.008-04:00

Stephie Podell,who grew up in the Usonia house, in Mount Pleasant, New York, that was destroyed in a fire a few weeks ago, was nice enough to share a few photos with us. Here they are.

A little break from Modern architecture . . .

2010-03-26T10:41:00.000-04:00

Love Letter is a project by tag artist Stephen Powers with the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. The messages – created as an homage to 'Cornbread' the Philadelphia graffiti artist whose messages to his girlfriend adorned many buildings in the late '60s – are in the West Philadelphia area, best seen from the Market-Frankford Elevated train line.

When completed, the project will encompass 50 painted walls between 63rd and 45th street on Market Street, a documentary film with scripted elements, a sign school and shop that will provide training for area youth and free signage for businesses on the market street corridor, and 2 books documenting the project. One of the books will be a small paperback that will be distributed to area businesses free of charge, for them to sell to visitors. The other book will be a larger hardcover book that will document not only the artwork, but the neighborhood and the inspirations of the Love Letter Project. –GF

Usonia Fire: "This Was My House -- My Childhood Home"

2010-03-25T14:48:00.003-04:00

Stephanie Podell, who grew up in the Usonia house that burned down a couple of weeks ago, wrote some heartfelt thoughts in the comments to one of our posts about the fire, here. She wrote:

This was my house - my childhood home - The Jerry and Charlotte Podell house built in 1959. The loss we feel is unimaginable. My father is no longer alive and obviously, though we miss him each and every day, we are thankful he is not alive to have witnessed this. We haven't told my mom as yet - not sure we will.

So sad.

She also points to the Greenhaus blog, from Modernism magazine, where Stuart Basseches writes about what it was like to grow up near there (and posts some terrific photos too).

Stephanie, we would love to put some of your photos on our blog, as a way to show people of what a beautiful house it must have been. -- ta

Andy Goldsworthy might feel right at home here

2010-03-25T11:15:00.000-04:00

I've seen photos of this house before, and immediately each time, the work of environmental sculptor Andy Goldworthy springs to mind.

Designed by the Architectural office Zecc in Utrecht, the Netherlands, this house has an exterior I want to feel. And stand next to on an early Spring day when it radiates the sun's heat back out. And smell the mineraliness of when it just begins to dampen in the rain.

Zecc says its designs are Clear and Sparkling (with those capitals), and explaining the name of their business, they say "Zecc is not an abbreviation, but it is a name. Zecc is inspired by the French word Sec: pure, simple, clear. Sec as a strong foundation, touched up with an extra ‘c’ and a spark of sensuality as expressed by the Z. Zecc equals clear & sparkling . . . SENSE would be a synonym for Zecc. We create sensible architecture with a sensual quality."

It's nice they've thought a lot about their philosophy (there's more explanation on their website about Grounded Architecture and other guiding principles), but I'm just interested it touching this house!

If you go to Zecc's website, check out the "Re-Use Cultural Heritage" tab under Projects. I always like to see how purpose built or industrial buildings are reborn as living spaces, and I love the hanging staircase in the Schoolloft renovation. – GF

Philip Johnson's First House is on the Market, in Bedford, New York

2010-03-19T07:37:00.005-04:00

The first house designed by Philip Johnson for a client just came on the market, for $2 million, in Bedford, New York, the next town over from us. Built in 1946, it's called the Booth house but most recently it was the longtime home of Robert and Sirkka Damora.

Mr. Damora, an architectural photographer of note (Walter Gropius said of him, "I consider him the best the best photographer of architecture in this country") passed away at age 97 a year ago, and his family is selling the house.

Here's a description of it:

Unlike the Glass House, where Johnson shaped the landscape with carefully created vistas, the Booth House was set within an existing topography. Sited on the graded crest of a wooded slope, it takes full advantage of the towering trees that enclose the house. Nature enters into the house as an almost physical presence. While the Glass House has a temple-like quality, the Booth House strives to be only a comforting shelter for daily family life—a fact valued by the late architect and pioneering architectural photographer Robert Damora and his widow, architect Sirkka Damora, who acquired the house in 1955 and lived there appreciatively for 55 years.

The 36 acres next to the house are permanently protected as a nature preserve by Westchester Land Trust, my employer, and in fact on my first visit to the preserve, in 1997, I met Mr. Damora and chatted with him for a couple of minutes, and I remember thinking that he was someone Gina and I should visit. We never did, but last June we were invited to have lunch there with Mrs. Damora and the Damoras' daughter and son, Jesa and Matthew. It was a surprisingly cool, rainy day but the house was warm, and it gave me that sense that modern houses often do of being part of the outside world even when I'm inside and comfortable.

Here's the website with the real estate listing. There's a lot of good information and photos. And here's a website the Damoras' created to showcase Robert Damora's photographs (the photo above is by Robert Gregson). It's well worth looking at.

I should note by the way that the Booth/Damora house is listed for about $850,000 less than the much smaller, right-next-to-the-road Alice Ball House that Johnson designed about a decade later. - ta

On the calendar: Victor Civkin – Westport Modernist

2010-03-18T09:00:00.017-04:00

With a backdrop of the photo exhibition of modern architecture in Westport and Weston, "When Cool Was Hot", a small-town sort of gathering will take place on Sunday, March 21 at 2pm in the Westport Historical Society Gallery. The panel discussion, Victor Civkin: Rediscovered will feature Rena and Carla Schine, Mr. Civkin’s daughter and granddaughter, and Civkin expert Mark R. Halstead AIA. Civkin, a Russian immigrant, was largely an unrecognized multi-talented artist and modernist architect living and working in Westport. There will be refreshments and owners of Civkin houses are encouraged to bring photos and share stories. – GF

Usonia Fire: A Few More Bits of Information

2010-03-17T06:50:00.002-04:00

The reporter who covered the fire in Usonia told me via email yesterday that he indeed got it wrong originally when he reported that the house was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He said the fire chief had told him that (a great example of bad sourcing). The story has been changed but the headline still says "Frank Lloyd Wright-designed house."

There's credible information about Usonia and the house that burned in the comments to the previous post. Thanks for keeping us informed!

The Usonia Fire: An Update

2010-03-16T07:32:00.003-04:00

I had a suspicion when I blogged yesterday afternoon about the fire in the Usonia community of Mount Pleasant, New York, that the house that had burned down was not designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, and today's newspaper account indeed seems to be backing down from its original reporting, although it's still not completely clear (the headline and caption say Wright-designed house but the story itself says a house burned down in the "neighborhood designed ... by Frank Lloyd Wright.")

Not that it makes the fire any less of a tragedy for the family that lost its home, or even for architecture aficionados, but the house that burned down seems to be one of the many designed by a Wright disciple rather than by Wright himself.

There were 47 houses built in Usonia, three designed by Wright and the others designed by other architects (here's what Wikipedia says). Wright also designed the layout of the community, which was conceived after World War II by a group of friends who believed in the principles of modernism espoused by Wright.

In the years since it has matured into a quiet, discreet, wooded neighborhood of houses whose value has risen significantly and which beautifully retains its original Wrightian (if I can use that word) qualities. I've never been in one of the Usonia houses and I haven't driven through the neighborhood in years, so I can't say I know it well at all. But my sense is that it has managed to retain its integrity without turning into a museum. It's a living neighborhood. I feel bad for the people who lost their house.

If you Google "Usonia + Pleasantville" and then click "images," you can see what some of the Usonia houses look like - ta

Wright House in Westchester Burns to the Ground

2010-03-15T16:53:00.002-04:00

Really sad: a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, in the Usonia neighborhood of Mount Pleasant, Westchester County, was destroyed by fire today. Here's a local news report.

Here's a map of the neighborhood.

Tipsy much?

2010-03-13T15:11:00.000-05:00

I wish I had a space big and bare enough for these book cases. They wouldn't do as well in a tight space, as the airspace around them is necessary to define their design. Created by Dzmitry Samal. Seen on Design Milk. – GF

I suppose I'll get over it eventually, but here's more for the stacked kindling file.

2010-03-04T21:34:00.000-05:00

The Norwegian Wood cabinet is designed by 2 young guys who make up GRIDY, a product and spacial design firm based in Oslo, Norway.

Norwegian Wood is a cabinet whose doors are covered with cut wood ends. The rough wood is a nice contrast to the strong lines on the frame. Norwegian Wood is the perfect storage solution for people who want a touch of nature in their home. Made from lacquered MDF, birch wood ends. Love it! – GF
(via hello tiger!)

Mimoa to have an iPhone app

2010-03-03T17:39:00.000-05:00

It's not available yet, but it's a great idea and worth following them on Twitter or subscribing to their newsletter to stay apprised of the rollout date.

For anyone not yet familiar with it, MIMOA is an online architecture guide. It's name is sort of an acronym of My Modern Architecture, and it is fantastic. When you are planning a trip, visit the MIMOA site and see what architectural gems you shouldn't miss in the cities or countryside you are going to. MIMOA shows Modern Architecture on a map with the address and all additional information you need to actually find and visit interiors, parks, public places, buildings and bridges.

MIMOA is intended for anyone interested in Modern Architecture, design, culture, photography, cities, traveling, visiting buildings, knowing how to get there, whether the project is public and what the opening hours are. You can make your own personal convenient architecture guide.

MIMOA is free and open for everyone to contribute: publish your projects, posts comments and ratings, define your personal favorites and keep track of the projects you’ve visited. All this personal information, reviews and opinions make it a terrific resource, and having it accessible on your phone is a great convenience. – GF

Modern in the Midway: J. Marion Gutnayer

2010-03-03T07:47:00.003-05:00

I'm always happy to be reminded that it was not only giants like Breuer, Johnson and Neutra who designed modern houses. Living near New Canaan it can be easy to forget that. I'm also always happy to hear that people have so much fun learning about their own houses.

A woman named Anne Stevens got in touch with us late yesterday to let us know that she's having a great time renovating and learning about her house near Chicago, designed by J. Marion Gutnayer. Nobody's ever heard of him, of course, but nobody's ever heard of Moore & Hutchins or a lot of other modern architects either, which is what makes it all fascinating: they weren't building precious museum pieces; they were building homes, for everyday people.

Anne is blogging about her project at gutnayer.blogspot.com. It's worth reading. That's her house above; I hope she doesn't mind that I borrowed the photo. -- ta

Eero Saarinen international exhibition final destination: Yale

2010-02-28T18:48:00.000-05:00

Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future, the critically acclaimed exhibition that explores the career of one of the most influential architects of the twentieth century, concludes its international tour with a presentation at Yale University Art Gallery and the Yale School of Architecture Gallery. Now through May 2.

Here's more information from the New Haven Register and Yale University Art Gallery

One of the things we love about the Yale University Art Gallery is that it's free!
1111 Chapel Street (at York Street), New Haven, CT
Hours: Tuesday–Saturday 10 am–5 pm, Thursday until 8 pm (Sept–June) and Sunday 1–6 pm
– GF

On the calendar: Westport, CT

2010-02-27T09:00:00.001-05:00

If you're in the area, don't forget to visit the Westport Historical Society to see "Westport Modern: When Cool was Hot!". The show opened in January and closes May 1, so you have a little time yet.

The Historical Society's website boasts, in a Little Engine that Could sort of way, "If you thought you had to go to New Canaan for your Modern fix come see what we’ve found right here in Westport and Weston. It might change your mind."

Even if it doesn't, it sound like the show rounds things out nicely with a 3-D virtual tour of Paul Rudolph’s Micheels House; a display of modern furniture with examples by Eames, Miller and others – as well as beautiful archival images of works by design great and former local resident, Edward Wormley; an exclusive film short: 1939: I Have Seen the Future by local film maker Lisa Seidenberg about the 1939 World’s Fair, an event that, for many Americans, was their first glimpse of Modernism; a close up look at the life and work of local Modernist architect Victor Civkin through historic documents, artwork, bluprints, photos and a miniature kitchen. – GF

In memory of 3 houses gone down

2010-02-26T16:20:00.001-05:00

21 prints from the photographic series After You Left, They Took It Apart (Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes) by Brooklyn-based Chris Mottalini will be exhibited at the Julie Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University (Rudolph's alma mater) in Alabama from February 6-April 17. These photographs are the final portraits/preservations of three now-demolished homes by Modernist Paul Rudolph: the Micheels house in Westport, CT, the Cerrito House in Watch Hill, RI, and the Twitchell House in Siesta Key, FL.

Chances are good that not many of our readers will get to see the show in person, so here's the link to Mottalini's website where you can view many more from his After You Left, They Took It Apart (Demolished Paul Rudolph Homes) series as well as other work in his portfolio (I liked the Leif Eriksson Day series, too).

When I wrote to Chris and asked where his interest in Rudolph's work came from he wrote back, ". . . Prior to photographing the Micheels house in Westport I knew next to nothing about Paul Rudolph. A friend of a friend worked at the Rudolph Foundation and she contacted me because they needed the place to be photographed in case they couldn’t save it. Basically, I walked into that beautiful, doomed house and was hooked. After that I told the Foundation to get me access to as many Rudolph homes as possible and this project is the result. All it took was a couple of hours with one Paul Rudolph house and I was converted." – GF

Into the mountains

2010-02-12T09:20:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, after 17 hours of traveling and no sleep on an overnight flight, (how do other people get on the plane and zonk out until landing?), we will reach our home for the following 9 days. That afternoon, we have been invited to the new office celebration of architect Marisa Feuerstein who does wonderful work of the sort I'm always trying to sneak into our Modern house blog. Since Marisa studied at Harvard for a semester, and worked in Toronto for a year, there will be no language barrier to contend with in our sleep-deprived state.

Another notable architect/renovator who we might meet is Duri Vital, whose beautiful work you can see here. The only problem is, neither Tom nor I speak German or the language of the region, Romansch. . .

I still have too much packing to do, so I won't go into the parallels and similar sensibilities I see in the two, seemingly vastly different genres. Suffice it to say that it's based on the feeling I get when I experience these houses and the places they inhabit. – GF

From the library

2010-02-06T09:56:00.000-05:00

I just finished enjoying the book Earth Architecture by Ronald Rael, (Princeton Architectural Press, 2009), which has wonderful photographs and tells you just about everything there is to know about rammed earth as a building material. I was completely surprised by the modern, sophisticated, clean-lined design that this ancient material lends itself so nicely to. Many images show walls that are as straight and smooth as concrete but have the beautiful sedimentary layered look of sandstone, or the wall of a canyon.

I'd love to keep the book, but it's due today at the library (which orders LOTS of terrific architecture books, and pretty much gets anything we ask it to!). – GF

A brick of another color makes all the difference

2010-02-05T23:06:00.001-05:00

I am not a fan of bricks at all, mostly – I think – because they're so, well . . . RED! Red with the white mortar? Nah, not for me. I am sure you could point me to dozens of examples of architectural innovation using bricks, and I would agree that the design might be terrific, but if it's traditional old red bricks, I might give it a nix.

This house in downtown Philadelphia, designed by Qb is clad with gray bricks that look like gunmetal, and I'm crazy about how the material looks. Slightly textured by the individual bricks, it's earthier than metal cladding – and no visible mortar! I really like the roof terrace and parapet. Altogether, a really nice small city house. – GF
(via Contemporist)

More from the Jens Risom fan club

2010-02-04T10:06:00.000-05:00

Our friend and neighbor, Jens Risom, is in the news again today for the roll-out of his newest line of furniture at the Ralph Pucci Gallery in NYC.

New York Times reporter Joyce Wadler accurately picks up on a facet of Risom's personality toward the end of the story when he asks her at the gallery opening to imagine his upholstered bench occupied by "a nice-looking girl and guy" because "you have to look at it from a nice, sexy point of view."

More on Jens from Dwell, Risom.org, Knoll. – GF

Love story : Architecture's partnerships

2010-02-03T11:28:00.000-05:00

An essay by Alexandra Lang called "Love and Architecture" caught my eye this morning. I missed it when it appeared on Design Observer last November, but was happy to catch reference to it on her blog, A Bit Late, which I like a lot. Do check it out.

Having grown up in a household with parent who were professionals in the advertising / graphic design / illustration field, and who sometimes collaborated on projects, I've always been interested in the dynamic (and also longed for that kind of partnership – this blog and a brochure here and there are as close to that life+work partnership as it seems we'll get).

Lang is is a journalist and architectural historian living in Brooklyn. A teacher of architecture criticism at the School of Visual Arts, she's also seems to be a (Eero) Saarinen scholar, having contributed essays to Eero Saarinen: Shaping the Future (Yale University Press, 2006), the catalog accompanying the MCNY exhibition, and her manuscript, "There's No Place Like Work," includes chapters on Saarinen's designs for CBS, Deere & Co. and IBM. – GF

Combination of old and new again in Switzerland

2010-02-02T12:21:00.000-05:00

Scheitlin&Syfrig Architekten and Stefan Zwicky Architekten collaborated on the conversion of a former riding arena, integrating it into the existing Credit Suisse Communications Center. Seen on Daily Tonic by wonderful Artchitonic – GF
photos by Walter Mair