THE HOUSE WAS DEMOLISHED: AN ARGUMENT FOR PRAGMATIC AND PROACTIVE PRESERVATION OF MODERN RESIDENTIAL

A THESIS SUBMITTED ON THE NINTH DAY OF APRIL 2018 TO THE DEPARTMENT OF PRESERVATION STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS OF THE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE OF TULANE UNIVERSITY FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF PRESERVATION STUDIES BY

______ANNA JACQUELINE MARCUM

______John H. Stubbs, Director

______Laura Ewen Blokker, Advisor

Copyright 2018 Anna Jacqueline Marcum

Acknowledgements

My love of began with visits to my grandparents’ organic, Usonian-inspired ranch home and evolved into this thesis, The House was Demolished: An Argument for Pragmatic and Proactive Preservation of Modern Residential Architecture. I would be remiss not to begin this letter by acknowledging my grandparents’ role in fostering my love of modern residential architecture. Thank you, Jack and Millie Wagner. I love and appreciate you for the impact you have had on my character and academic career.

The core of this thesis was developed under the guidance of Carissa Demore and Sally Zimmerman of Historic . Thank you both for your commitment to education and supporting my work on the Modern Survey. I am so grateful for your direction, commitment to diversifying the history of residential architecture, and impeccable preservation ethos. This thesis truly would not exist without the work I did at under your leadership. Thank you.

The Master of Preservation Studies Faculty at the Tulane School of Architecture has been indispensable in this process. Thank you, Laura Ewen Blokker, for your thoughtful notes and counsel. You continue to inspire me to strive to be a better student, researcher, and writer. I am so grateful that I had the opportunity to work with you as my advisor on this project. Thank you, John H. Stubbs, for your steadfast support and encouragement. You have always made me feel as though I could accomplish any task I set my mind to. I sincerely appreciate your guidance throughout the program and in beginning my career.

To my family, friends, and acquaintances: thank you all for listening to me ramble on about demolition, high modernism, ranch houses, , and Eleanor Raymond. I could not have completed this thesis without the unwavering love and support of my parents, Katherine and David Marcum, and my sister, Mariel Marcum. To Rachel Mazur, Ann Elizabeth Allison, and Claire Crawford: I love you three dearly. Thank you for providing an outside perspective and giving love, kindness, and empowerment when I needed it the most. To Emily Butler and Brittany Foley: thank you for being the best modern preservation cohort EVER. I will be forever grateful to call you my friends.

Table of Contents

Introduction…………………………………………………………………….I

•••

Chapter 1: The History of Modern Residential Architecture………………...... 1

Chapter 2: The History and Cultural Perception of Demolition……………...17

Chapter 3: Factors Increasing Demolition Risk……………………………....35

Chapter 4: Female Architects and Architects of Color……………………….63

Chapter 5: New Ethics and Methodology for the Preservation of Modern Residential Architecture……………………………....95

•••

Case Study #1: Northeast – City Suburbs: New Canaan and Darien ……………………….125

Case Study #2: Southeast – Hammond, …………………………..143

Case Study #3: Midwest – Midland, Michigan……………………………...161

Case Study #4: West Coast – Palm Springs, California……………………..181

••• Bibliography…………………………………………………………………197

Introduction

In the summer of 2017, I undertook a survey of architecturally significant modern homes in Massachusetts and the surrounding area for the Preservation Services Team at Historic New

England. The Massachusetts Modern Survey was conceived with the objective of selecting, locating, and documenting modern residential properties that are significant to the history of modern architecture and possess a high level of architectural integrity with the hope of advocating for the preservation of these homes.

The properties were to be evaluated in relation to the modern residences managed by

Historic New England’s house museum and preservation easement program. An array of residences built between 1930 and 1975 were evaluated in accordance with the following criteria:

1) residential property designed by an architect whose work is represented in Historic New

England collections, either in its archives or as part of the preservation easement program

and that:

2) retains integrity of location, design, setting, materials, workmanship, feeling, and

association;

3) has no protective preservation designation (local historic district, other easement

protection) currently in place; and

4) is or appears to be threatened with demolition, subdivision, or insensitive alteration.

Properties not meeting Criterion 1) above, but that are secondarily associated with architects whose work is represented in Historic New England’s collections and otherwise meet Criteria 2)-4) were also considered for outreach, advocacy, and further documentation. Properties that fall outside of the aforementioned criteria but are designed by women, people of color, members of the LGBTQ+ community, are examples of vernacular modern architecture, or rare examples of mid-century

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mass produced homes should also be considered to add diversity and varied perspective to the archive at Historic New England.

My research revealed a series of characteristics that enabled modern residences to retain their architectural integrity. This pattern also revealed characteristics of modern homes that contributed to their insensitive alteration and demolition, regardless of their present condition or significance in architectural history. The majority of the homes destroyed or altered beyond recognition possessed at least two of the following characteristics:

1) High land value

2) Parcel size over two acres

3) Residence less than 2,500 square feet

4) Female architect or architect of color

5) Failure of modern materials

6) Bias against the aesthetic of modernism

This thesis will analyze each of the characteristics that render modern residential architecture ripe for demolition. I will perform regional case studies of areas with high concentrations of modern residences and evaluate the successes and failures of modern preservation in those areas. The thesis will layout a more pragmatic approach to the preservation of modern residences taking into account the requirements of preservationists, homeowners, and the real estate market.

Modern residences are more likely to be demolished because of the inherent features of modernism. The importance of efficient living spaces constructed in harmony with nature and the use of experimental materials in modern homes are in direct opposition to the desired characteristics of homes hitting the real estate market today. Pragmatic preservation methods should be employed through proactive advocacy and education in areas with a densely populated

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with modern homes. One of the primary ways the preservation of modern residences could be rendered more feasible is through a more practical approach to the preservation of modern architecture. Many prospective homeowners are drawn to the aesthetics of modern residential architecture and want to preserve these homes but are overwhelmed with the financial burden of rehabilitating rare experimental modern materials prone to failure as opposed to replacing them with materials that are more practical to contemporary living standards. Several preservation- minded modern homeowners have had difficulty obtaining affordable homeowner’s insurance due to expense of replacing rare modern materials in kind. While standard preservation ethos urges us to retain the material at all costs, I believe that in the preservation of modern homes a certain flexibility is necessary to maintain the aesthetic and functionality of the structure in accordance with the tenants of modernism:

1) an interest in exploring new materials.

2) a rejection of historical precedents.

3) simplification of forms by a reduction of

ornament.i

Preservationists frequently attempt to apply the methods and ethics of preservation used on colonial barns and federal homes to modern buildings. This is a dead end. Modern materials were experimental and often used out of their accessibility and affordability. The aesthetics and functionality of modern structures take precedence over the materials and craftsmanship of the building. Modernism is completely unlike any preceding form of architecture; preservation of modernism must be as revolutionary as modern architecture itself to be effective.

The first part of the thesis will examine historical factors that make modern residences less desirable for contemporary homeowners and put them at greater risk for demolition. The history

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of modernism will be discussed from its birth at the to its arrival in the and eventual ubiquity in the residential architecture of post-war America. Modernism’s abhorrence of historical precedents, disregard for the preservation of historic buildings, and tendency to eschew architectural history have contributed to the public’s distaste for modern architecture. The indifference of many modernists to the demolition of historic buildings to clear land for their projects has been burned into the public memory and will be difficult to overcome in arguments to save icons of modernism.

In addition to modern architecture’s poor relationship with preservation, the cultural perception of demolition and new construction as a sign of “progress,” “economic development,” and “growth” is a challenge to preservation in general, especially modern preservation. Along with progress, demolition signifies power. New construction often represents the triumph of the present over the failures of the past. Unfortunately, reuse and rehabilitation are often viewed as signifiers of scarcity and economic turmoil. The influence of demolition as a sign of progress and power is nearly impossible to overcome. Intense advocacy is necessary to counteract this deeply ingrained impulse. Demolition will forever be the arch enemy of preservation. Aspects of demolition’s meaning, perception, negative impacts, and rampant use should be analyzed to mitigate demolition plans for historic buildings.

The idea of individual liberty – extending to private property – is a crucial part of the

American identity, making it a challenge to advocate for the preservation of modern residential architecture. Despite the unfavorable odds, preservationists have been able to organize support to save public modern buildings such as office buildings, museums, libraries, etc. However, when the public does not have a collective stake in the building, it becomes much more difficult to inspire passion for preservation. Lack of personal connection coupled with American cultural reverence

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for individual liberty can make residential preservation exceedingly difficult. While there are many people that might think a developer’s demolition plans are insensitive, they also hold the belief that it is the developer’s property and that he or she can do with it what they like. In order to preserve modern residential architecture, preservationists must create a new strategy to garner community support for these structures.

Architectural history is a capricious, yet essential, factor in the preservation of historic buildings. While architectural history adequately chronicles many buildings that have been significant to the development of American architecture, it tends to omit the achievements of women, people of color, and LGBTQ+ individuals, as they weren’t properly represented as architects or architectural historians until the latter half of the 20th century. History is not an objective field. It is susceptible to trends and cultural bias, just like any other field of academic study. Due to lack of awareness, significant architectural works designed by female architects or architects of color are frequently lost to the wrecking ball with little to no public outcry. The primary reason that this occurs is because very few people know the history and significance of these buildings. As preservationists, it is our responsibility to pinpoint these architects who have been erased from architectural history and make sure that their accomplishments, are preserved and taught for generations to come.

The documentation and preservation of Eleanor Raymond’s body of work will be analyzed in the thesis. Raymond greatly contributed to the field of modern residential architecture. Eleanor

Raymond was a prominent architect specializing in innovative residential architecture and

“adaptive reuse.” Unfortunately, many of Raymond’s signature modern works have been demolished in the last two decades. One of the earliest examples of modern residential architecture in Massachusetts was Eleanor Raymond’s 1931 Rachel Raymond House. Raymond beautifully

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incorporates the tenants of modernism with adaptation to the New England landscape and considered the home one of the best she ever did. Of the home she said:

“What we did was to keep the style, but to do it in local, New England, materials. Over

there it was all concrete or stucco, never wood. Over here wood was what we used so much.

I used rough-sawn matched wood boards for the outside finish of the walls.”ii

The 1938 is usually credited with the innovation of using traditional New England building materials in modernism. The Rachel Raymond House predates the Gropius House by 7 years. Unfortunately, the Rachel Raymond House was demolished in 2006 before proper documentation could be completed.

In addition to being an early practitioner of modernism, Raymond also employed cutting edge technology in her designs. In 1948, Eleanor Raymond partnered with Dr. Maria Telkes, an

M.I.T professor in physical chemistry, to build a house heated entirely with solar power. The experimental house was heated with solar energy for six years before the experiment was deemed complete. Raymond received international attention from the project when it was featured in the

1949 Pan American Architectural Exhibition in Cuba organized by the American Institute of

Architects. The house was listed as one of Raymond's greatest achievements when the architect was honored as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects in 1961.iii While this project was groundbreaking and viewed as such at the time of its construction, the Dover Sun House is not taught in the canon of architectural history. The most recent owners demolished the house in the early 2000s claiming that it was impossible to preserve, despite full knowledge of its architectural significance. Preservationists must question what makes something impossible to preserve. The owners of this home cited the materials and deterioration of the home, not to mention that it was a small residence on a large lot, as the reason for the demolition. The loss of the Dover Sun House

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and so many other significant modern homes calls for an evaluation of the practicality of many preservation standards and an adaptation of those standards to the idiosyncrasies of modern architecture.

Paul Revere Williams, known by his friends and clients as PRW, is a significant architect of color who has been underrepresented in the narrative of architectural history. Williams was a prolific based architect who transcended the arbitrary racial barriers placed on him to become one of the West Coast’s most prominent architects, earning him the moniker “the architect to the stars.” iv He was the first certified African American architect west of the Mississippi and the first African American architect admitted to the American Institute of Architects.v vi Some of

Williams’ most notable projects include the Arrowhead Springs , the Palm Springs Tennis

Club, the Beverly Hills Hotel renovation, the Los Angeles County Courthouse, the Desi Arnaz and

Lucille Ball Residence, the Frank Sinatra Residence, and his own home, the Paul R. Williams

Residence. In addition to his more prestigious commissions, Williams made a concerted effort to create buildings that would provide resources and affordable housing for African American communities. Williams designed the Pueblo del Rio Public Housing project, the Carver Manor subdivision, the Broadway Federal Savings & Loan Association, Golden State Mutual Life

Insurance, and several buildings on Howard University’s campus. Unfortunately, the Paul Revere

Williams archive, stored at the Broadway Federal Savings & Loan Association, was lost in a fire during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots. The building burned to the ground and took the archive with it. The Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building was also severely damaged.vii Thankfully, the

Golden State Mutual Life Insurance building was eventually restored by the Los Angeles

Conservancy in 2011.viii

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While many of Williams’ buildings in African American neighborhoods are well preserved, several of his buildings in affluent white areas have not fared as well. The bachelor pad he designed for Frank Sinatra in Los Angeles has been demolished. The Arnaz and Ball Residence and the Palm Springs Tennis Club have insensitively remodeled. Both Los Angeles and Palm

Springs have a strong modern preservation ethos, so it is surprising that several of Williams’ most significant commissions have been demolished without proper documentation or recognition.ix

Exclusion of female architects and architects of color in the canon of architectural history put their works at much greater risk for demolition. I will also propose ideas to aid in the documentation and recognition of works created by female architects and architects of color. One such method of creating a more diverse and thorough narrative of architectural history is by facilitating opportunities for community documentation of historic structures. Karen E. Hudson,

PRW’s granddaughter and author of Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style, after being disappointed in the material available in libraries, initiated a community documentation project of

Williams’ architecture in Los Angeles by giving interviews to the and the New

York Times.x The interviews resulted in hundreds of letters and lead to Hudson being a consultant on the restoration of the Beverly Hills Hotel, one of Paul R. Williams most well-known projects.

Overall, this section of the thesis will provide a greater contextual explanation to the loss of significant underrepresented architect’s buildings and outline methods to remedy the gendered and racial bias in assessing architectural significance, integrity, and value.

The second part of the thesis will consist of a number of regional case studies: Northeast,

Southeast, West Coast, and Midwest. These case studies will highlight the preservation reality of modern homes in vastly different geographic areas with varying levels of preservation friendly law, tax credits, and other incentives. The lessons learned from these case studies will further

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illuminate what is necessary to improve the survival rate of modern homes. Understanding the inalienable obstacles that stand in the way of the preservation of modern residences is essential to developing an effective methodology and code of ethics for modern residential preservation.

The Connecticut Suburbs, specifically New Canaan and Darien, will be the subject of the Northeast case study. Connecticut has the 3rd highest land value in the United

States.xi Since Connecticut is home to many meccas of modern architecture, I chose to study the impact of land values in this area on the demolition rate of modern residential architecture. I zeroed in on New Canaan and nearby Darien after reading William D. Earls 2006 book, The in New Canaan. As the book masterfully chronicles the creation of one of the most famous groupings of modern houses in the world, I was surprised to see the phrase “The house was demolished,” appear in the descriptions of 10 properties in this book.xii It is not as though these houses have been retroactively “discovered” from stylistic obscurity – modern homes in New

Canaan have been featured on extremely popular “Modern House Day Tours” since 1949. Of the

6 houses included on the first modern house tour, 2 have been demolished. In 1967 the New

Canaan Historical Society acknowledged the importance of New Canaan Modern by commissioning the essay “New Canaan Modern: The Beginning 1947-1952” for the New Canaan

Historical Society Annual. As of 2014 there were 91 remaining significant modern homes, 26 modern homes had been demolished in the 1990s and early 2000s, 11 of these were homes designed by the famous Harvard Five. The Kniffin House, designed by and Eliot

Noyes, was one of the original 6 modern homes demolished. As recently as 2014, the Alice Ball

House, designed by , was threatened with demolition.xiii

While demolition rates have leveled in New Canaan, they have been steadily increasing in nearby Darien. In 2013, Darien saw a 23% increase in demolition permits post- Hurricane Sandy

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when a record 57 residential teardowns were completed. In 2014 and 2015, there were 36 residential teardowns per year. In 2016, the most recent year with any statistics available, there were at least 30 demolition permits issued by March and officials estimated that the final teardown rate would be greater than the 2013 record.xiv This case study will analyze the ways physical characteristics of a residence can impact its preservation. Lot size and house size will be the primary focus. The Northeast case study aims to dissect the issues impeding the preservation of modern homes in the area, namely the excessively high land value and the preference for oversized suburban homes.

The Southeast case study will focus on Hammond, Louisiana and the architecture of John

Desmond. Hammond is a small Louisiana town, about an hour northwest of , of a little over 20,000 people.xv Scholarship about modernism in Louisiana is generally dominated by

Curtis and Davis, the architects behind the Superdome. However, there was a small, yet significant, enclave of modern architects in New Orleans and the surrounding area, which included John

Desmond. His New Formalist buildings became an integral part of the visual fabric of Hammond,

Louisiana.

John Desmond graduated from Hammond High School in 1937 and attended Tulane

University where he graduated with a degree in architecture in 1941. He earned a Master of

Architecture from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied under W.W.

Wurster and . Desmond worked at Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York City and with A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge before starting his own practice in Hammond, Louisiana in

1953.xvi Desmond built over 36 residences in Hammond, including his own.xvii The locations of many Desmond designed residences in Hammond were never properly recorded so it is frequently a guessing game that relies on oral history to determine which houses are Desmond houses. This

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case study will also analyze the community’s perception of historic preservation, particularly in relation to modern architecture. The Southeast case study aims to analyze the challenges facing modern preservation in an area where bias against the aesthetics of modernism is very strong.

The Midwest case study will feature the town of Midland, Michigan, home of Dow

Chemical and an unparalleled concentration of modern residences designed by Alden B. Dow and his protégés. While Midland is a relatively small town about 2 hours away from , the quality of the modern architecture is on par with that of modernist meccas New Canaan and Palm Springs.

The preservation of the architecture is impeccable as well. The majority of the modern residences retain their original floor plan along with their custom built in features. Many even include original carpeting and appliances. Alden B. Dow, one of the heirs to the Dow Chemical fortune, focused much of his professional energy on Midland and the Midwest.xviii In addition, Alden B. Dow also had access to cutting edge experimental materials. Fortunately, the materials he used the most frequently, such as the cinder ash and concrete composed Unit Blocks, are hardy to the elements.

Very few have failed and required in-kind replacement. This is a rarity in modern architecture and preservation. The case study will analyze the impact of material and public programming in the preservation of modern residences.

The West Coast case study will focus on Palm Springs, California and how the community has set the current standard for modern preservation. Palm Springs is famous for its plethora of

“Desert Modern” public and residential architecture. Homes designed by , John

Lautner, Albert Frey, E. Stewart Williams, Donald Wexler, and William F. Cody, are considered to be significant part of the architectural history of modernism.xix Palm Springs hosted its first celebration of modern architecture in 2006 with the Palm Springs Modernism Show and Sale in tandem with a symposium on modern architecture organized by the Architecture and Design

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Council of the . The success of those events encouraged the Modernism

Show & Sale, Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, the Palm Springs Modern Committee, the

Palm Springs Historical Society, and the Palm Springs Art Museum to come together to form an annual modernism week to celebrate the mid-century modern architecture of Palm Springs. xx

Today, Modernism Week is one of the premier events in historic preservation and architecture in the United States. This event has evolved to be a conference of sorts for professionals in modern preservation. Many modern preservation initiatives take their projects to Palm Springs Modernism

Week to publicize and legitimize their local preservation efforts. This case study will analyze the positive impact that Modernism Week has had on the preservation of mid-century modern residences in Palm Springs. I plan on deconstructing the process through which Palm Springs

Modernism Week rose to national prominence as the standard bearer for modern preservation. The purpose of the West Coast case study is to analyze the methods, programming, and organizations that allowed Palm Springs to develop an internationally revered modern preservation ethos and provide a set of instructions for other communities hoping to improve local support for modern preservation.

The primary objective of the thesis is to academically dissect the factors that contribute to the demolition of modern properties and analyze real world modern preservation successes and failures to produce a methodology for more pragmatic preservation of modern residences. Ideally this piece of writing will serve as a reference text, call to action, and set of guidelines for individuals and organizations undertaking the complex task of modern residential preservation.

The intention of the following pages is to inspire advocacy for the preservation of modern residential properties and to assist in the process of creating feasible preservation plans for these immensely important structures.

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Notes i Anthony S. Denzer, “Masters of Modernism,” Masters of Modernism (2004), http://www.mastersofmodernism.com/?page=Modernism. ii Nancy Beth Gruskin, "Building Context: The Personal and Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989)" (Order No. 9809107, Boston University, 1998), https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/304457587?accountid=14437. iii Ibid. iv Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 11. v “Modern Architects: Paul R. Williams,” TTK represents (2014), http://ttkrepresents.com/Paul-R.-Williams. vi “Explore L.A. – Historic Places: Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building,” Los Angeles Conservancy (2016), https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/golden-state-mutual-life-insurance-building. vii Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 13. viii “Explore L.A. – Historic Places: Golden State Mutual Life Insurance Building,” Los Angeles Conservancy (2016), https://www.laconservancy.org/locations/golden-state-mutual-life-insurance-building. ix Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993). x Ibid., 11. xi William Larson, The Value of Land in the United States (The Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce. April 3, 2015), https://www.bea.gov/papers/pdf/new-estimates-of-value-of-land-of-the-united-states- larson.pdf. xii William D. Earls, The Harvard Five in New Canaan : Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, , John Johansen, Philip Johnson, & Others (1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006). xiii Building Conservation Associates, New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses (Hartford: Connecticut Commission on Culture & , 2008), https://www.dropbox.com/s/fa928g3u0b0u43u/New%20Canaan%20 Moderns_Report%20main%20section.pdf?dl=0. xiv Justin Papp, “Tearing down, Building Big,” Darien News (March 25, 2016, 2:01 pm), www.dariennewsonline.com/news/article/Tearing-down-building-big-7014965.php. xv United States Census Bureau, “QuickFacts: Hammond, Louisiana,” generated by Anna Marcum, (October 15, 2017), https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/hammondcitylouisiana/PST045216. xvi J. Michael Desmond, “John Jacob Desmond,” KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, ed, David Johnson, (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010, January 6, 2011), http://www.knowla.org/entry/573/. xvii “bifurcated plan,” intypes (Cornell University, 2017), https://intypes.cornell.edu/expanded.cfm?erID=9.

xviii Alden B. Down Creativity Center, Composed Order: The Architecture of Alden B. Dow (Midland, Michigan : Alden B. Dow Creativity Center, 1995).

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xix “About Palm Springs: Desert Modernism,” Visit Palm Springs California – Like No Place Else (2017), http://www.visitpalmsprings.com/page/mid-century-modern-architecture/8185. xx “About Us,” Modernism Week: The Ultimate Celebration of Midcentury Architecture, Design and Culture (2017), http://www.modernismweek.com/about-us/.

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Chapter 1: The History of Modern Residential Architecture

Architectural history has an inalienable impact on the methods preservationists use to interpret a building. The historical significance of a building is the single most important factor in determining whether or not it should be preserved. For example, to be listed on the National

Register of Historic Places a building must meet one of at least one the following criteria: a place of an event that contributed to American history, a place associated with a significant person in

American history, a place with design or construction that has great artistic value or is the work of a master, or a place that has the potential to provide significant information about American history or pre-history.i While architectural significance is not the only path to official designation on the

National Register of Historic Places, each path evaluates the building’s role in American history.

However, it is worth the effort to analyze the relationship between architectural history and preservation because neither are objective disciplines and are always subject to personal bias. It is important to intimately and critically examine the narrative of modern residential architecture in the United States to ensure that more impactful preservation is practiced.

The history of modern architecture and the development of the United States as a preeminent world power are intimately intertwined. While modernism is popularly viewed as something rooted in European ideology, its roots can be traced to the 1893 World’s

Columbian Exposition and the work of . Most well-known for his credo “,” which became a de facto rallying cry for the modern movement, Louis

Sullivan’s work was closely associated with the Chicago School of architecture. Sullivan’s organic architecture embodied the value of democracy, the importance of nature, the autonomy of the individual, and the earnest expression of function without extravagance (Fig. 1).ii

- 1 - Fig. 1: Louis Sullivan, Adler and Sullivan with Frank , Junior Draftsman. Exterior of the James Charnley House, 1892. The Foundation Archives (The | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, , New York).

The 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian Exposition honored the 400th anniversary of

Christopher Columbus’ voyage to the Americas and signaled a turning point in the United States of America’s role as a world leader in art, architecture, and technology. The head architect of the

Exposition, Daniel Burnham, recruited the most prominent American architects, including Louis

Sullivan’s firm Adler and Sullivan, to design a collection of temporary buildings for the Exposition call “The Court of Honor.” This space housed primary exhibition buildings inspired by classical architecture which quickly became known as the “White City.” The public success of the clean and orderly “White City” ushered in the City Beautiful Movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. iii While Louis Sullivan’s firm designed a building in the classical style for the Court of

Honor, he made no secret of his disapproval of the architectural program for the Chicago World’s

Columbian Exposition. Sullivan even “bitterly blamed the Columbian Exposition for foisting a

Classical lie on to the American public, prophesying that it would set back the course of a proper

American architecture by half a century.”iv

- 2 - One of the many young architects inspired by the 1893 Chicago World’s Columbian

Exposition was Frank Lloyd Wright, the leading force in shaping modern American architecture in the 20th century. Wright joined Adler and Sullivan in 1888 where he was exposed to the earliest philosophical signs of modernism in architecture. By the time the Chicago World’s Columbian

Exposition opened in 1893, Wright had started his own architectural practice. Wright shared

Sullivan’s distaste for the classical revival style of the Court of Honor, but he respected the proportion, geometry, and symbiotic relationship of the underlying form of the classical buildings.

Wright was also exposed to Japanese architecture in its traditional form at the Japanese government’s official pavilion, which featured a half-scale reproduction of a Japanese temple. The open plan, horizontality, broad roofs, carefully wrought craftsmanship, and non-structural walls used in the temple would inform Wright’s design aesthetic for the rest of his career.v

Fig. 2: Frank Lloyd Wright. Exterior of the Frederick C. Robie Residence, 1906. 5757 Woodlawn Avenue, Chicago, Illinois. Photo by Ezra Stoller, 1967. The Ezra Stoller Archive and ESTO.

It is tempting for architectural historians to view the American tradition of modernism, primarily influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright, and the European tradition of modernism, primarily influenced by the teachings of the Bauhaus, as completely separate tracts of stylistic

- 3 - thinking. However, there was free and open transatlantic exchange of ideas about the aesthetics, philosophy, and execution of modern architecture. Frank Lloyd Wright’s iteration of modern architecture is most beautifully executed in his works of residential architecture, such as his 1906 masterpiece of Prairie Style architecture, (Fig. 2).vi Luscious Japanese block prints of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style buildings were published abroad in 1910 by the German

Wasmuth Press in a portfolio titled, Ausgeführte Bauten und Entwürfe von Frank Lloyd Wright

(Studies and Executed Buildings by Frank Lloyd Wright). Young European architects were enraptured by Wright’s bold abstract forms stripped of ornament. In addition to the bevy of young

American architects influenced by Wright and practicing in the Prairie Style, European Modernists

Walter Gropius and Mies van der Rohe, who would become leaders of the Bauhaus, began to incorporate some of Wright’s abstract forms in their own work.vii In fact, prior to the arrival of other European modernists dispersed by escalating tensions in Nazi , Rudolph Schindler and Richard Neutra came to the United States to work with Frank Lloyd Wright. Schindler and

Neutra became well known on the West Coast for their expert blend of European rationalism with

Wrightian organicism.viii These expats greatly influenced generations of American architects, popularizing the European modernist aesthetic throughout the United States. The transcontinental flow of modernist innovation between Europe and the Americas would continue until both traditions fused in the post-World War II United States.

Fig. 3: Walter Gropius. Exterior of the Bauhaus, Dessau, Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, 1925-1926. Avery/GSAPP Architectural Plans and Sections (Columbia University). © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild- Kunst, Bonn.

- 4 - Staatliches Bauhaus, referred to simply as the Bauhaus (Fig. 3), sits at the apex of thought and philosophy for the modern movement. The Bauhaus was a German school of architecture, sculpture, painting, design, and craft in operation from 1919 to 1933 responsible for bringing the modern movement to international prominence. Walter Gropius developed the school as a sort of

“utopian craft guild” that employed Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and taught such titans of the modern movement as Marcel Breuer, Josef Albers, Anni Albers, László Moholy-Nagy, Paul Klee, and Vasily Kandinsky.ix

The Bauhaus is widely viewed as the birthplace of the modern movement; an ill-informed conception that feeds the myth that European Modernism is the purest form of the style.

Architectural Historian Hyun-Tae Jung has gone so far as to state, “Mid-twentieth-century

American architecture has been considered a degenerate outgrowth of modern European architecture.”x Jung legitimizes his argument by quoting another scholar, Colin Rowe, who describes American modern architecture as “purged of its ideological and societal content…a décor de la vie for Greenwich, Connecticut…a suitable veneer for the corporate activities of enlightened capitalism.”xi However, this view does not account for the fact that there was a robust cultural dialogue regarding modernism between the United States and Europe.

Fig. 4: Walter Gropius. Exterior of the Muche/Schlemmer Double House Master’s House, Dessau, Saxony- Anhalt, Germany, 1925-1926. KCAI Digital Image Collection and Magdalena Droste: “The Bauhaus, 1919-1933: Reform and Avant-Garde”; Published Köln; Los Angeles:Taschen, c2006. p.128 top. Photo Credits:© 2002 Taschen GmbH.

- 5 - European iterations of modern residential architecture were frequently described by

American observers as industrial and uninviting. Walter Gropius’ modern Dessau Masters’ Houses

(1925-1926) were an early example of European modern residential architecture (Fig. 4). The buildings were composed in the form of interlocking cubic structures at varied heights. Each home had a vertical strip windows with large terraces and balconies. While the houses were constructed primarily of white stucco and concrete, bright colored accents activated the homes.xii However, the most important feature of the Masters’ Houses were their inhabitants. This collection of striking modern residences with a utopian communal standard of living would become “a colony for avant- garde artists, the closest Gropius came to realizing his ideal of domestic living.”xiii

Fig. 5: Le Corbusier. Exterior of Savoye, Poissy, France, 1929-1931. Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation (VRC), Columbia University in the City of New York. © 2014 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, / FLC.

The perception that modern houses are cold, unfeeling, impersonal voids stems from the architectural philosophy of Le Corbusier. The famous epithet “A house is a machine for living,” is an iconic phrase that Le Corbusier originated to describe his design for Villa Savoye (Fig. 5).

To many scholars, Villa Savoye, built between 1928 and 1931 was the first building to embody the fully formed modern movement. It was readily accepted into the cannon of architectural history after its inclusion in the famous 1932 Modern Architecture: International Exhibition at the

- 6 - Museum of Modern Art, New York curated by Philip Johnson and Henry-Russell Hitchcock. This was many Americans first introduction to European Modernism. Critic Walter McQuade wrote of

Villa Savoye:

“There was but little texture, or even color to [the Villa Savoye]; whiteness, instead, and

masklike windows flatly reflecting the sky. There was no elaboration of detail nor visual

depth; the walls seemed stretched tightly over the skeleton, very tense, as if to suggest the

dynamism of the motor age.... It was high art, a really new kind of architectural expression,

a poem of the new industrial day; not a level-minded expression of industrialism."xiv

As Villa Savoye was elevated to the level of fine art and regarded as a jewel box of living, it became a distant, unattainable, and frankly undesirable style of living. It was not until the onset of

World War II, when an influx of exiled European Modernist arrived on American shores that modernism began to fully adapt to its North American environment and become an aspirational style of living.

Fig. 6: Walter Gropius. Gropius House, Lincoln, Massachusetts, 1938. Courtesy Ralph Lieberman: Architectural Photography. © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / BILDKUNST, Bonn.

Fleeing persecution from the Nazis, Walter Gropius took a position as a professor of architecture at in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1937. Gropius brought with him Marcel Breuer, former student and fellow Bauhäusler, to teach at Harvard. Gropius and Breuer

- 7 - immediately began to implement portions of Bauhaus pedagogy into the traditional, Beaux Arts curriculum. This pedagogical shift shaped the way that architecture is taught in American universities. In 1938, Gropius began construction on his home in the Boston suburb of Lincoln,

Massachusetts (Fig. 6). As opposed to duplicating the aesthetics, materials, and construction of his

Masters’ Houses in Dessau, Gropius decided to render his modern designs in traditional New

England materials. This choice is considered by many architectural historians to be a significant moment in the development of American modern residential architecture.xv However, it is important to note that Eleanor Raymond, a female architect based in Boston, Massachusetts, studied the homes designed by the European Modernists on trip abroad from 1928 to 1930 and adapted New England materials to modern forms in her designs for the 1931 Rachel Raymond

House.xvi The home acted as a calling card for Gropius’ architectural practice and embodied the

American manifestation of his Bauhaus design ideals of simplicity, functionality, economy, geometry, and aesthetic beauty of raw materials as opposed to extraneous ornamentation.xvii

Fig. 7: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. The Farnsworth House, Plano, Illinois, 1945- 1951. SAHARA and Jeffrey E. Klee, Brown University. © 2008 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn.

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe was another Bauhäusler forced to flee Germany for the United

States at the onset of World War II. Mies van der Rohe settled in Chicago where he was appointed the directorship of the School of Architecture at the Armour Institute of Technology, which later became Institute of Technology.xviii Chicago proved to be a hospitable environment for

- 8 - the development of Mies van der Rohe’s American manifestation of Bauhausian modernism. There is no question that the rich built environment of Louis Sullivan and Frank Lloyd Wright’s

American Modernism influenced the evolution of Mies van der Rohe’s work. In fact, there is a history of Frank Lloyd Wright both admiring and bristling at the stature that Ludwig Mies van der

Rohe garnered in the United States through his Chicago buildings.xix Mies van der Rohe’s most iconic work of modern residential architecture is the Farnsworth House (Fig. 7) which was designed and built as a country retreat for Dr. Edith Farnsworth in Plano, Illinois between 1945 and 1951. The home was lauded as a touchstone in the canon of architectural history after a model of the home was included in an exhibition of Ludwig Mies van der Rohe’s work curated by Philip

Johnson at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1947. Of the home’s stylistic differences form Mies van der Rohe’s European domestic work, Johnson wrote, “The Farnsworth house with its continuous glass walls is an even simpler interpretation of an idea. Here the purity of the cage is undisturbed. Neither the steel columns from which it is suspended nor the independent floating terrace break the taut skin.”xx The Farnsworth House is emblematic of Bauhausian modernism’s effort to respond to its natural landscape. The horizontality of the structure mimicked the plains of the informal landscape and the glass walls became a permeable membrane that allowed the natural setting to become an inextricable part of the home’s interior. Mies van der Rohe’s Farnsworth

House created an expanded sensitivity to setting and local building materials by making the natural environment a major feature of the house. This intimate relationship between nature and siting became one of the primary features of American modern residential architecture; imitated in both high style architecture and tract ranch homes alike.

- 9 -

Fig. 8: Carl Koch for Techbuilt Home. Advertisement, 1953.

Fig. 9: The Lustron Home. Lustron Advertisement in the “Saturday Evening Post”, 1949.

Fig. 10: Frank Lloyd Wright. Usonian Houses for the USA, Pittsfield, Massachusetts, 1942. The Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation Archives (The Museum of Modern Art | Avery Architectural & Fine Arts Library, Columbia University, New York). © 2014 Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Modernism began to permeate the American housing market in the prosperous years following World War II. Anticipating millions of returning G.I.s utilizing G.I. Bill housing loans and knowing that construction had nearly halted during the Great Depression and was delayed throughout World War II, the United States government realized that the current housing stock

- 10 - was simply not enough for the demand. Modern architects were consulted to created efficient and affordable solutions to mitigate this crisis. The answer seemed to be pre-fabricated modular housing. Some of the most notable modular housing efforts were Carl Koch’s Techbuilt houses

(Fig. 8) and the Lustron Company houses (Fig. 9). Even Frank Lloyd Wright tried his hand at accessible housing with the development of his Usonian houses (Fig. 10) which were beautifully designed and crafted while being under $5,000 to construct, including architect’s fees. Wright envisioned these homes being clustered in full Usonian neighborhoods. Unfortunately, as these homes frequently ran over budget, Wright’s Usonian dream did not become reality. However, there are beautiful Usonian homes throughout the country and their impact on the ubiquitous suburban ranch home cannot be overstated.xxi

Fig. 11: The Architects Collaborative. The Fletcher House, , Lexington, Massachusetts, 1948. Photo by Ezra Stoller, 1950. The Ezra Stoller Archive and ESTO.

- 11 - Fig. 12: The Architects Collaborative. The Sherwood House, Six Moon Hill, Lexington, Massachusetts, 1948. Photo by Ezra Stoller, 1950. The Ezra Stoller Archive and ESTO.

The demand for housing also caused American homebuyers to look outward into suburban areas, utilizing the new accessibility of the American automobile to create a more hospitable living environment. The Architects Collaborative (TAC), a group of young Boston architects under the supervision of noted modernist, Walter Gropius, were among the first to create a collaborative suburban living environment with their developments, Six Moon Hill (Fig. 11 and 12) and Five

Fields in Lexington, Massachusetts. These neighborhoods consisted of varied types of modern homes constructed out of the same modular elements and features. The neighborhood associations reviewed any and all alteration to the exterior of the homes to maintain a cohesive aesthetic throughout the neighborhood. Six Moon Hill and Five Fields also recruited various architects, creatives, academics, authors, and scientists to live in these collaborative utopian environments.

These neighborhoods were so successful that developers across the country began to mimic the general concept of a cooperative neighborhood, beginning with Peacock Farm and Turning Mill in Lexington and spreading all the way to the Joseph Eichler communities in California (Fig.

13).xxii

- 12 - Fig. 13: Joseph Eichler. Birthday Postcard Published by Eichler Homes, Inc., Showing the Openness of the Kitchen, Sunnyvale, California, Circa 1950s. William Bird.

Fig. 14: Levitt & Sons. Sales Flyer for the Levittowner, Levitttown, Pennsylvania, 1952. The State Museum of Pennsylvania.

The development of the Ranch house signals the national acceptance of the tenants of modernism as the residential norm. While Colonial Revival and Traditional Minimalism elements were used in many Ranch homes, modern influences were apparent in each design. A combination of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes and Alfred Levitt’s popular “Levittowner” homes (Fig.

15), the rambling ranch house was low to the ground, with a single large, picture window facing the front lawn, with split-levels, and a carport to incorporate additional living space and the

- 13 - quintessential automobile. In 1950, nine out of every ten new homes was a ranch style house.xxiii

These homes were extremely popular until the 1980’s when homeowners became interested in larger homes with the traditional trappings of wealth such as large porticoes and gables. As

Americans distanced themselves from the ranch houses of the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, high style modern homes also became more susceptible to demolition, ushering in the age of the teardown.

- 14 - Notes i National Parks Service, “National Register of Historic Places Program: Fundamentals,” National Register of Historic Places, (2017), https://www.nps.gov/nr/national_register_fundamentals.htm. ii Mark Gelernter, A History of American Architecture: Buildings and their Cultural and Technological Context, (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2001), 213-214. iii Ibid., 202-204. iv Ibid., 213-14. v Ibid., 215-216. vi Ibid., 218-19. vii Ibid., 220. viii Ibid., 237-240. ix Alexandra Griffith Winton, “The Bauhaus, 1919–1933,” Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, (New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–,August 2007; last revised October 2016), http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/bauh/hd_bauh.htm. x Hyun-Tae Jung, “Technologically Modern: The Prefabricated House and the Wartime Experience of Skidmore, Owings and Merrill,” Vladimir Kulić, et al eds., Sanctioning Modernism : Architecture and the Making of Postwar Identities (Austin: University of Texas Press, 2014), 186. xi Ibid. xii Bauhaus Dessau, “Bauhaus Buildings in Dessau: Masters’ Houses by Walter Gropius (1925-1926)” (2017), http://www.bauhaus-dessau.de/en/architecture/bauhaus-buildings-in-dessau/masters-houses.html. xiii Philip Oltermann, “A renaissance for Bauhaus as Germany grapples with its past: Berlin architects honour Walter Gropius with new take on the meisterhäuser,” The Guardian, (May 15, 2014), https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/15/reopening-of-bauhaus-houses-bombed-in-war. xiv Kevin D. Murphy, "The Villa Savoye and the Modernist Historic Monument," Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 61, no. 1 (2002), 68-89, doi:10.2307/991812. xv Ingolf Kern, Susanne Knorr, and Christian Welzbacher, Bauhaus Travel Book (München: Prestel, 2017), 282-287. xvi Raymond’s groundbreaking architectural practice will be analyzed in depth in the “Female Architects and Architects of Color” chapter of this thesis. Source: Doris Cole, Eleanor Raymond, Architect (Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, 1981), 40-41. xvii Historic New England, “Gropius House (1938)” (2017), https://www.historicnewengland.org/property/gropius- house/. xviii Ingolf Kern, Susanne Knorr, and Christian Welzbacher, Bauhaus Travel Book (München: Prestel, 2017), 287- 289. xix Museum of Modern Art, New York, “Frank Lloyd Wright at 150: Unpacking the Archive, June 12 – October 1, 2017, the Museum of Modern Art” (2017), https://www.moma.org/calendar/exhibitions/1660?locale=en.

- 15 - xx National Trust for Historic Preservation, “History of the Farnsworth House,” Farnsworth House (2017), https://farnsworthhouse.org/history-farnsworth-house/. xxi Anna Marcum, Modern Prospective Easement Survey for Historic New England (Boston: Historic New England, 2017). xxii Ibid. xxiii Witold Rybczynski, “The Ranch House Anomaly: How America fell in and out of love with them,” Slate (April 17, 2007), http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/architecture/2007/04/the_ranch_house_anomaly.html.

- 16 - Chapter 2: The History and Cultural Perception of Demolition

“Demolition is a particularly American act; a concise and visually compelling

expression of the belief that history is transient, that a new beginning is always in

the cards, that the glories of the past are only a prelude to an even more glorious,

everlasting present.”i

David Samuels, Harper’s July 1997

If modern residential architecture is the visual manifestation of the American Dream, the act of demolition embodies the fire and passion of the Horatio Alger myth – clawing one’s way from rags – blighted buildings, overgrown forests, and abandoned farmland – to riches – well- designed modern ranch homes with perfectly manicured lawns and carefully curated vegetation.

Demolition is the tangible, destructive, ruthless work ethic that enabled the American Dream to come true at the mid-century. This “culture of clearance” provided the space for modern architecture to grow, mature, and flourish in the American landscape.ii

The American obsession with demolition reached its zenith 1960s when one out of every seventeen homes were destroyed across the nation. According to the U.S. Census of Housing, around 7.5 million residences were demolished between 1950 and 1980; during the 1960s the rate of demolition soared to a staggering 27,000 residences per year.iii The 1950s and 1960s, the years in which the practice of demolition was at its zenith, are also the years in which the bulk of modern residential architecture was built in the United States. One could make the case that the recent rash of modern residential “scrapeoffs” and “bash-and-builds” are the consequence the sins of modern architecture’s creation.

- 17 - The history of demolition in the United States is rife with political meaning. Americans view their relationship with the environment, including the built environment, through the lens of the uniquely American philosophy of manifest destiny to expand their dominion from coast to coast and manipulate the land specifically for the nation’s gain.iv Cultural historian Francesca

Russello Ammon summarizes the phenomenon as follows:

“The landscape has long absorbed the process of creative destruction: capitalist society’s

tendency to destroy while creating anew. Since the early settlement of the nation, taming

the natural environment has been integral to the establishment of America’s ‘second

nature.’ Early settlers cleared forests for farmland, carved up the plains, and drove canals

and railroads through the land. These acts of clearance often involved simple tools like the

ax in the hands of hired and slave labor…In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries,

immigrant tenements and shantytowns fell, making way for new parks, infrastructure, and

other public and commercial uses. The postwar United States stands out for undertaking

large-scale clearance on a nationwide scale. Over the span of just a few decades, the quest

for progress drove the destruction of cities, suburbs, and rural landscapes across the

country.”v

The mid-century demolition and construction boon was facilitated by the wide variety of tax incentives made newly available to construction and demolition companies. Before 1940, it was expected that a building would be in use for 40 years at the very least, likely many more. Tax code and additional incentives were designed to favor long lasting construction and maintenance of buildings through depreciation, or the tax deductions available to buildings as the structures aged.

However, in the 1950s, thanks to the aggressive construction industry lobby, the tax code was

- 18 - modified to allow owners of new commercial buildings to reap the benefits of depreciation immediately and benefit from massive tax deductions during the initial phases of a building’s life.vi

“From the time a building is completed, its destruction begins,” asserted Architectural

Record in 1949. A bleak declaration indeed, but one that would characterize the built environment of the United States for decades to come.vii In the Office of Metropolitan Architecture’s 1995 publication, S, M, L, XL, noted architect Rem Koolhaas relayed a similar sentiment and stated that contemporary architectural output has a life expectancy of 30 years. Koolhaas named the demolitionist the patron saint of architects, noting that the architectural life cycle takes place

“within a single generation. Modern building is literally written off.”viii Architectural manifestos aside, there is tangible proof to Koolhaas’ claims – the average American building lasts only thirty- five years.ix While some of this “build-and-bulldoze” ethos is due to cultural phenomena, the effects become tangible when coupled with monetary incentives for a constant cycle of newness and destruction. Geographers John Jakle and David Wilson, authors of Derelict Landscapes: the

Wasting of America’s Built Environment, said the following of buildings constructed with these incentives in mind:

“Buildings that are intended to be written off quickly need not be durable. They need only

function efficiently for the short run before capital gains are taken, and the cycle of tax

incentives repeated elsewhere. Tax laws and related accounting procedures have not

engendered permanency in the American landscape.”x

The ephemerality of buildings in the American built environment has been spun to the public as a signifier of American “progress.” In 1988, the National Association of Demolition Contractors held a conference in Las Vegas with the ominous theme “Demolition for Progress,” complete with a new validating mission statement: “Demolition is a silent partner in progress. It, too, is often an

- 19 - unnoticed trade, but it is demolition that sets the stage and gets the ball rolling, the wrecking ball!

We are coming of age ‘The Demolition Age.’”xi

The great preservation battles of the United States were fought over urban public and commercial buildings. The most famous of these battles is the fight to save Pennsylvania Station in New York City. The 53-year-old structure, designed by McKim, Mead & White and completed in 1910, was demolished to provide space for Madison Square Garden and a new subterranean railroad station. The loss of Pennsylvania Station gave rise to countless preservation laws, regulatory agencies, and the preservation movement as it is known today. Pennsylvania Station was an excellent specimen of Beaux-Arts architecture and the original structure occupied two full city blocks. In You Can’t Go Home again, Thomas Woolf wrote,

“Nine acres of and granite, 84 Doric columns, a vaulted concourse of

extravagant, weighty grandeur, classical splendor modeled after royal Roman baths, rich

detail in solid stone, and an architectural quality in precious materials that set the stamp of

excellence on a city.”xii

The demolition of Pennsylvania Station was announced in on July 25, 1961.

On August 2, 1962, Norval White, Jordan Gruzen, and Elliot Willensky led the Action Group for

Better Architecture in New York or AGBANY in an impromptu protest to save Penn Station (Fig.

1). Noted architects Philip Johnson and Paul Rudolph, Museum of Modern Art trustee Elizabeth

Bliss Parkinson, Eleanor Roosevelt, Stewart Alsop, Jane Jacobs, and Norman Mailer were prominent supporters of AGBANY.xiii In early 1963, AGBANY submitted an official brief advocating against demolition and the construction of Madison Square Garden to the City Planning

Commission. While their protest and official brief generated a lot of attention, the demolition of

Pennsylvania Station commenced on October 28, 1963.xiv

- 20 - Fig. 1: Protest Rally in 1962 against the Demolition of Pennsylvania Station. David Hirsch.

The protests were attended by people who desperately wanted to save the building, but unfortunately offered no tangible way to do so. Philip Johnson, despite the fact that he was a huge supporter of the fight to save Penn Station, gave the protesters a necessary dose of realism: “You can picket all you want, but it’s not going to do any good. If you want to save Pennsylvania Station, you have to buy it.”xv Johnson’s sentiment was shared by people on both sides of the preservation issue. Morris Lipsett, the demolitionist whose company tore Pennsylvania Station to pieces defended his company’s actions to a reporter saying:

“If anybody seriously considered it art, they would have put up some money to save

it…You always have half a dozen societies around trying to preserve everything. In some

areas the land is just too valuable to save anything that doesn’t fully utilize it.”xvi

- 21 - Fig. 2: John M. Johansen. The Taylor House, or Symbol of the Uncertainty of Life: The Labyrinth House, Westport Connecticut, 1966. Demolished 1988. Courtesy of Fuck Yeah Brutalism.

Interestingly, preservationists have not yet grasped the vitality of this perennial obstacle and have yet to develop effective strategies to overcome it. The problem of cultural value versus market value extended to residential architecture in 1988, when TV personality Phil Donahue demolished the Labyrinth House, a 1966 landmark home designed by John Johansen.xvii The home was vacant for several years before Donahue purchased the parcel. When plans were announced to demolish the home that Johansen described as “A Seminal Work,” local historians and preservationists alike reacted with shock and dismay.xviii The public had a hard time reconciling

Donahue’s public image as a sensitive mediator with his ruthlessness in regard to his desire to demolish the Labyrinth House. After a failed attempt to convince Donahue to consider alternatives to demolition, John Johansen said:

“It’s like a death in the family. Mr. Donahue has a right to his taste but ownership is a

responsibility and not a power over everything. If it were the Mona Lisa and he didn’t like

it, he would have had it destroyed. He’s known on TV as Mr. Sensitivity, but I find it

difficult to reconcile his image in public and his performance in private.”xix

Willis Mills, president of the Connecticut Society of Architects, also tried to convince Donahue to reconsider the demolition. Of the conversation, Mills said, “It was no use. He found the house to be ugly and overly modernistic. In the midst of the conversation, I felt like he had a microphone in his hand. He had it in a tight grip and he wouldn’t release it.”xx The above quotes from architects,

- 22 - historians, and preservationists on the demolition of the Labyrinth house portray Donahue in a terrible light, making him out to be a tasteless, money-hungry villain with no regard for the public good, but it is negligent not to examine the other factors that influenced Donahue’s decision to demolish the home.

It is easy for any preservationist to immediately blame Donahue alone for the loss of this touchstone of residential architectural history. However, this instinct forfeits any responsibility on the part of the public, architects, historians, and preservationists. Donahue was steadfast in his belief that it was his prerogative to demolish the home if he saw fit. When a New York Times reporter asked him what he thought of the scandal he quickly retorted, “When they pass out the scandals, I'll take this one.”xxi Donahue purchased the house after it had been sitting in disrepair for years. One can infer that he took the home’s abandonment and stagnation on the market as a sign that the home was worthless. When preservationists rely on a reactive strategy of outreach, engagement, and advocacy, ignorance becomes an insurmountable obstacle for preservationists to overcome. Frankly, Phil Donahue offered a series of well-reasoned, inarguable truths about the

Labyrinth House and his choice to demolish it.

Fig. 3 and 4: John M. Johansen. Interior (left) and Detail of the Taylor House, or Symbol of the Uncertainty of Life: The Labyrinth House, Westport Connecticut, 1966. Demolished 1988. OfHouses and Fuck Yeah Brutalism.

- 23 - Donahue defended his decision to PEOPLE Magazine:

“That house was on the market for a long time and nobody wanted to buy it. I’m prepared

to respect people who say it’s a masterpiece, but it was maladapted to the area. It looked

like an avant-garde bomb shelter. It was surrounded by an empty lot, and it was a home for

vagrants, lovers and other strangers at midnight. There were beer cans and McDonald’s

wrappers. I don’t want to live next to an empty house. Where were all these caring

people when the building was empty? I’m supposed to have some moral obligation to a

house nobody wants to buy?”xxii

It is impossible to logically refute Donahue’s argument. Why weren’t preservationists, historians, and architects actively exploring ways to save this home before it was put on the market? Why didn’t they purchase the home after it was on the market? This is yet another case where preservationists did not properly utilize their most valuable asset, time. Swooping in at the last minute to try and change an owner’s mind about demolition is rarely successful. In preservation, time is money and money speaks volumes about the cultural value of a piece of property. In the case of John Johansen’s Labyrinth House, preservationists missed the mark on both counts.

As the real estate market boomed throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, the teardown phenomenon reached a fever pitch. Between 2004 and 2006, the rate of teardowns accelerated with record numbers of residential demolitions. According to Plunkett’s Real Estate and Construction

Industry Almanac 2007, most homes that are listed as teardowns are “smaller structure(s) (under

2,000 square feet) built more than 30 years ago, with such dated features as low ceilings, small kitchens, and limited closet space.” However, right before the housing bubble burst and incited the financial crisis of 2008, Plunkett noticed that “upscale neighborhoods such as Highland Park,

Illinois; Sarasota, Florida; and , Texas [were] regularly seeing the destruction of homes less

- 24 - than 15 years old or those remodeled as little as a year ago.”xxiii Desirable, well established neighborhoods in demand by wealthy consumers, who are in the market for large, brand new, state- of-the-art homes, experience a greater rate of teardowns than less desirable areas. Ironically,

Plunkett cites rising preservation restrictions for homes “built as late as the aftermath of World

War II” as a motivator for the growing destruction of residences and predicts that “homeowners with property in highly desired neighborhoods will put off remodeling if they plan to sell within the next few years. In such cases, the home may be of negligible value while the lot is exceptionally valuable.”xxiv

Deferred maintenance of residences will result not only in the degradation of architectural integrity but a general loss of property value, which will put the structure at an even greater risk of demolition. When evaluating the demolition threat of a residence, one must remember “the rule of three,” or the general guideline that the wrecking of a building will be profitable if a new structure on the same land parcel will sell for three times the price that the developer paid for the property.xxv Websites such as Teardowns.com were founded to aggregate listings of older, run- down homes, to accommodate the public’s perceived preference for newer, bigger, and better homes with the fact that “32 percent of the country’s nearly 132 million homes are between 55 and

95+ years old”xxvi by providing a collection of properties ripe for demolition.xxvii The appeal of the teardown was so great that in 2001, Los Angeles County issued over 1,200 demolition permits for residential properties, prompting the Los Angeles Times to write, “Snakes shed scales. Roses drop petals and Los Angeles levels buildings – about 3 per day.”xxviii Journalist and architectural critic

Jeff Byles sharply acknowledged the trend, writing:

“Behold the teardown, or the junking of an existing house in order to build a vastly larger

one on the same site. From Boston to Beverly Hills, the quaintest bungalows, Cape Cods,

- 25 - Colonials, and ranches are getting munched away in tactical real estate maneuvers known

as ‘bash-and-builds’ and ‘scrape offs,’ clearing the plot for gentry-friendly ‘starter castles’

and perilous ‘snout houses’– the latter so called for their forward thrusting garages, which

are deemed so gangrenous they’re banned from older neighborhoods in Portland,

Oregon.”xxix

Byles goes on to discuss Stamford, Connecticut, where he claims that the community is apathetic in regard to their neighbor’s homes being flattened for “McMansions”. xxx In 2002, the National

Trust for Historic Preservation published a list of historic communities where teardowns were a popular practice; over 100 communities in 20 states were identified as having rampant teardowns take place in architecturally significant neighborhoods. According to the New York Times, “by

2008 the list had grown to around 500 communities in 40 states — with about a third of those in

New Jersey, New York and Connecticut.”xxxi

Many in preservation thought that the popularity of teardowns would decrease with the down turn of the real estate market in 2008. Immediately following the financial crisis in 2008, there was a brief slow in residential teardown practices, giving preservationists a false sense of ease that the trend had subsided. For example, Westport, Connecticut, a town so fond of teardowns that over 100 homes were demolished per year in 2005, 2006, and 2007 and has a local news website which features a “Teardown of the Day,”xxxii experienced a sharp downturn in demolition permits in 2008 and 2009.xxxiii The Summer 2009 issue of Preservation Magazine, published by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, ran an article by Adrian Scott Fine titled, “Is the

Teardown Trend Over?” Scott Fine writes of the teardown slow down:

“With home prices down 29 percent nationally since peaking in mid-2006, teardowns as a

niche building–practice may no longer be economically viable in some markets…In hard-

- 26 - hit markets, teardowns are increasingly risky and less likely to result in the same profit

margins realized in the last eight years, prompting what appears to be a near halt in activity

in some communities.”xxxiv

However, the author also warns that while there has been a lull in teardowns, this does not mean that the trend is “over” and writes:

“Now, more than ever, with the slump in the economy and slowdown in teardowns—likely

a short-term situation—there is a window of opportunity to change teardown practices.

Community activists and residents should take advantage of this cooling-off period and be

proactive—by working with elected officials and decision-makers to put in place

meaningful tools—before teardowns start up full force again through a turnaround in the

market.”xxxv

And bounce back the market did. Fortunately, there was a great deal of introspection and advocacy for early 20th century, pre-World War II homes. However, the value of modern residential architecture was less of a priority. This attitude was encapsulated in the following 2008 New York

Times quote: “And while few mourn the passing of a 1965 split-level ranch, razing real architectural gems should not be taken lightly.”xxxvi

By 2012, the teardown market was gaining speed yet again. Toby Weiss, a mid-century modern preservation enthusiast and St. Louis-based blogger behind B.E.L.T. (Built Environment in Layman’s Terms), published a blog post titled “Why Do Realtors List Mid-Century Modern

Homes as Teardowns?” Drawing on examples from the St. Louis metropolitan area, Weiss opines:

“But if a home is in good condition, isn’t it a bit manipulative to call something a “tear

down?” It’s a bit of judgement casting, an assumption that everyone who runs across the

listing will think that a mid-century modern home is horrid. I completely understand the

- 27 - financially-motivated aspects of labeling a home a tear down. Everyone involved in the

sale wants to get paid. But marketing has a very powerful influence everywhere, including

real estate…So words matter, and some aspects of pegging mid-century homes for

demolition is absolutely suggestive selling.”xxxvii

Weiss’ observation is absolutely correct. While the aesthetics of modern residential architecture and mid-century modern furniture are experiencing a cultural resurgence, which several preservationists credit with the popularity of Ikea and the television show Mad Men, homes built in the 1950s and 1960s are facing the threat of rebounding demolition rates and being labeled by the real estate market as teardowns. In 2014, The Hollywood Reporter, ran an article about the

Beverly Hills real estate market and the construction boom in one of the communities most desirable neighborhoods, Trousdale Estates. The neighborhood was developed with high style examples of modern residential architecture dotting the hillside. Construction was booming in

Trousdale Estates where “47 houses [were] under construction or renovation within the 410-acre hillside community of about 530 residences, where developers and homeowners [were] snapping up untouched midcentury properties to rebuild into modern abodes with values as high as triple their costs.”xxxviii Despite increased regulations placed on construction in the neighborhood by the city, homes designed by Paul Revere Williams, Hal Levitt, and A. Quincy Jones were either razed or altered beyond recognition.xxxix

The 2015 American Community Survey Selected Housing Characteristics Data collected by the United States Census Bureau estimates that there are about 133,351,840 housing units in the United States of America.xl As of 2015, there are an estimated 53,510,043 homes that are 50 years of age or older and 35,939,960 of those homes were built between 1940 and 1969, the period of significance for modern residential architecture. Compared with the 2010 American Community

- 28 - Survey Selected Housing Characteristics Data, the overall number of homes in the United States increased by 3,313,760 but the number of historic homes decreased by 1,837,899.xli Over

1,049,984 homes built between 1940 and 1969 were demolished in just five years. The reason for the loss of these homes is not recorded – it could be demolition, blight, or structural failure. There is no telling the condition, quality, or significance of these modern homes that have been destroyed since 2010. The 1940 to 1969 modern period of significance is of great importance not only to the scope of this thesis but also because many of these structures just reached their 50th year, finally making them eligible for National Register of Historic Places Listing and a bevy of other honorary titles.

In looking at the 2010 and 2015 American Community Survey Selected Housing

Characteristics Data, it is important to note the huge increase in loss between homes built between

1960-1969 and homes built between 1970-1979. The loss of homes built in the 1970s, which are between 47 and 38 years old, is over 192% greater than the loss of homes built during the previous decade. The general disregard for homes built in the 1970s should be considered through the lens of the building’s life cycle. Kent Barwick of the New York City Landmarks Preservation

Commission perfectly summarized the phenomenon saying, “There’s a funny cycle that occurs in the history of a building. It is very much appreciated when it is put up, then it sort of disappears into the city when other buildings become more noticeable or celebrated. And just a little while before it is rediscovered, it is thought to be absolutely worthless. That’s the dangerous moment for a building.”xlii The “absolutely worthless” stage of a building’s life is the most crucial moment for preservationists to get involved in advocating for the conservation of the structure. As this stage usually occurs when the building is between 30 and 45 years old, many preservationists are not yet concerned with preserving structures of that era because they do not meet the “50-year mark”

- 29 - required for historical significance. In order to be more effective, preservationists must be more forward thinking and proactively pinpoint significant properties before they are threatened with the wrecking ball.

Fig. 5: Richard Neutra. The Largent House, 49 Hopkins Avenue, Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California, 1936. Demolished October 19, 2017. NBG LED Lighting.

Fig. 6: Richard Neutra. The Largent House, 49 Hopkins Avenue, Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California, 1936. Demolished October 19, 2017. SFist.

Fig. 7: Richard Neutra. The Largent House, 49 Hopkins Avenue, Twin Peaks, San Francisco, California, 1936. Demolished October 19, 2017. Socketsite.

- 30 - It is important that preservationists never let their guard down when it comes to demolition and the teardown phenomenon. On October 19, 2017, Richard Neutra’s 1936 Largent House in

San Francisco’s Twin Peaks neighborhood was illegally demolished. Despite the fact that the developer, doing business as 49Hopkins LLC, had yet to obtain a permit from the city for the home’s demolition, he will likely face only a small fine from the city.xliii While this home did not qualify for local historic protections as its interior had been altered over the years, the home is significant because it is one of only five Neutra homes in the San Francisco area. San Francisco is one of the most expensive real estate markets in the United States. Data from the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy determined that in San Francisco, land value exceeds property value by 81%, greatly increasing a structure’s likelihood of becoming a teardown.xliv In addition to being in a highly competitive market the Largent House was also quite small, with only one bedroom and

927 square feet total. The developer quietly acquired this property with “jaw dropping panoramic views” for $1.7 million in January 2017. KG Construction was employed to quickly and quietly demolish the home in a classic example of the “ask forgiveness not permission” ethos of preservation averse developers.xlv While the destruction of Richard Neutras’ Largent House is one of the more recent major losses in modern residential architecture, it is certainly not the only one.

Characteristics of the Largent House fit a larger trend for modern homes nationwide that are ripe for demolition.

- 31 - Notes i David Samuels, “Bringing Down the House,” Harper’s, 295, no. 1766 (July 1997), 65. ii Francesca Russello Ammon, Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape (New Haven; : Press, 2016), 5. iii Ibid. iv Julius W. Pratt, "The Origin of ‘Manifest Destiny’," The American Historical Review, 32, no. 4 (1927), 795-98, doi:10.2307/1837859. v Francesca Russello Ammon, Bulldozer: Demolition and Clearance of the Postwar Landscape (New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2016), 4-5. vi John A. Jakle and David Wilson, Derelict Landscapes: The Wasting of America's Built Environment; Geographical Perspectives on the Human Past (Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1992), 20-24. vii Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 16-17. viii Rem Koolhaas, Bruce Mau, Jennifer Sigler, Hans Werlemann, Office for Metropolitan Architecture, O.M.A./Koolhaas, O.M.A, and Oma, Small, Medium, Large, Extra-large: Office for Metropolitan Architecture, Rem Koolhaas and Bruce Mau (New York: Monacelli Press, 1995), 1099. ix Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 16-17. x John A. Jakle and David Wilson, Derelict Landscapes: The Wasting of America's Built Environment; Geographical Perspectives on the Human Past (Savage, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1992), 20-24. xi Richard J. Burns, “Introduction to Special Advertising Section,” Demolition Age (17, no. 2, March/April 2005), 7. xii Thomas Wolfe, You Can’t Go Home Again (New York: Harper Perennial Classics, 1998), 46. xiii David W. Dunlap, “50 Years Ago, Sharply Dressed Protesters Stood Up for a Train Station They Revered,” New York Times (July 31, 2012), http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/07/31/50-years-ago-sharply-dressed-protesters- stood-up-for-a-train-station-they-revered/?_r=1. xiv The New York Preservation Archive Project, “Preservation History Database: Pennsylvania Station” (November 1, 2016), http://www.nypap.org/preservation-history/pennsylvania-station/. xv Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 143-144. xvi Ibid. xvii John M. Johansen, “The Labyrinth House” (2011), http://johnmjohansen.com/Labyrinth-House.html. xviii Nick Ravo, “Eyesore or Landmark? The House Donahue Razed,” New York Times (June 10, 1988), http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/10/nyregion/eyesore-or-landmark-the-house-donahue-razed.html. xixVictoria Balfour, “Tv's Phil Donahue Demolishes a Unique House and Perhaps His Reputation as Mr. Nice Guy,” People (June 27, 1988), http://people.com/archive/tvs-phil-donahue-demolishes-a-unique-house-and-perhaps-his- reputation-as-mr-nice-guy-vol-29-no-25/. xx Ibid.

- 32 - xxi Nick Ravo, “Eyesore or Landmark? The House Donahue Razed,” New York Times (June 10, 1988), http://www.nytimes.com/1988/06/10/nyregion/eyesore-or-landmark-the-house-donahue-razed.html. xxii Victoria Balfour, “Tv's Phil Donahue Demolishes a Unique House and Perhaps His Reputation as Mr. Nice Guy,” People (June 27, 1988), http://people.com/archive/tvs-phil-donahue-demolishes-a-unique-house-and-perhaps-his- reputation-as-mr-nice-guy-vol-29-no-25/. xxiii Jack W. Plunkett and Ltd Plunkett Research, Plunkett's Real Estate & Construction Industry Almanac (Houston, TX: Plunkett Research, Ltd, 2007), Google PLAY: Books (accessed October 20, 2017). xxiv Ibid. xxv Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 9-10. xxvi Rachel Mazanec, “Teardowns: An Evolution within the Housing Market,” Chicago Agent Magazine (August 24, 2015), https://chicagoagentmagazine.com/2015/08/24/teardowns-an-evolution-within-the-housing-market/. xxvii Teardowns.com, “All Listings” (2009), http://teardowns.com/Listings.aspx. xxviii Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 9-10. xxix Ibid., 8. xxx The term “McMansion” was created by architects and architectural critics in response to poorly designed, oversized, market-conscious homes in the 1980s. As the average size of the American home grew from 1,500 square feet in 1970 to over 2,500 square feet in 2007. While the exact parameters of what constitutes a “McMansion” are malleable, except for the fact that the home must be over 3,000 square feet. As these homes are often designed with solely the real estate market in mind, they are frequently the type of home developers build on teardown lots to turn a profit. The term “McMansion” was further popularized with Kate Wagner’s architecture blog McMansion Hell, “which roasts the world’s ugliest houses from top to bottom, all while teaching about architecture and design.” - Nate Berg, “The Wildly Variable Definition of ‘McMansion,’” CITYLAB (April 20, 2012), https://www.citylab.com/equity/2012/04/does-word-mcmansion-actually-mean-anything/1813/. - Kate Wagner, “About,” McMansion Hell (2016-2017), http://mcmansionhell.com/about. xxxi The New York Times Editorial Board, “Holding Back the Wrecking Ball,” New York Times (July 1, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/opinion/01tue3.html. xxxii WestportNOW, “Teardowns” (2017), http://www.westportnow.com/index.php?/v2/teardowns/. xxxiii Adrian Scott Fine, “Is the Teardown Trend Over?,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2009), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/is-the-teardown-trend-over. xxxiv Ibid. xxxv Ibid. xxxvi The New York Times Editorial Board, “Holding Back the Wrecking Ball,” New York Times (July 1, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/01/opinion/01tue3.html. xxxvii Toby Weiss, “Why Do Realtors List Mid-Century Modern Homes as Teardowns?,” B.E.L.T. ST. L: Built Environment in Layman’s Terms, St. Louis (September 3, 2012), http://www.beltstl.com/why-do-realtors-list-mid- century-modern-homes-as-teardowns/. xxxviii Jacquelyn Ryan, “Beverly Hills Real Estate: Teardown Boom (and Tragedy) in Trousdale,” The Hollywood Reporter (June 30, 2014), http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/beverly-hills-real-estate-teardown-714176.

- 33 - xxxix Ibid. xl United States Census Bureau, “SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS 2011-2015: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,” American Fact Finder, generated by Anna Marcum (October 15, 2017), https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/15_5YR/DP04/0100000US. xli United States Census Bureau, “SELECTED HOUSING CHARACTERISTICS 2006-2010: American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates,” American Fact Finder, generated by Anna Marcum (October 15, 2017), https://factfinder.census.gov/bkmk/table/1.0/en/ACS/10_5YR/DP04/0100000US. xlii Jeff Byles, Rubble: Unearthing the History of Demolition (1st ed. New York: Harmony Books, 2005), 143. xliii Jay Barmann, “Architect Richard Neutra’s First SF Project Illegally Razed by New Owner,” sfist.com (October 19, 2017), http://sfist.com/2017/10/19/architect_richard_neutras_first_sf.php. xliv Yuqing Pan, “Not Dirt-Cheap: 10 Cities Where Land Is Worth More Than the Home on It,” realtor.com (January 11, 2017), https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/top-10-cities-where-the-dirt-beneath-your-home-is-way-more- valuable-than-your-home/. xlv “First Richard Neutra Designed Home in SF Illegally Razed,” SocketSite (October 19, 2017), http://www.socketsite.com/archives/2017/10/first-neutra-designed-home-in-san-francisco-has-been-illegally- razed.html.

- 34 - Chapter 3: Factors Increasing Demolition Risk

Modern residential architecture possessing any two of the following characteristics is at greater risk of demolition or alteration beyond recognition:

1. High land value

2. Parcel size over two acres

3. Residence less than 2,500 square feet

4. Female architect or architect of color

5. Failure of modern materials

6. Bias against the aesthetic of modernism

Large parcel size, smaller residences, and experimental materials are frequent characteristics of modern architecture and explain why many modern buildings, despite their architectural significance, face the wrecking ball at greater rates than their older peers. High land value, under- appreciated architects, and biases against certain styles of architecture influence the demolition of many historic structures. These characteristics were selected as major indicators of heightened demolition after surveying hundreds of modern homes in Massachusetts and a select few throughout the Northeast. These traits appeared again and again in modern properties that would have been included as significant structures in the survey – if not for the fact that they had been altered beyond recognition or demolished.

- 35 - High Land Value

Fig. 1: Top 10 Cities Where Land Value Exceeds Property Value, January 11, 2017. Realtor.com.

While it is tempting to argue that these traits that push a building toward demolition are unique to the Northeast, the regional case studies featured in this thesis reveal that these characteristics contribute to the demolition risk of modern residential architecture nationwide.

High land value is one feature that varies based on the locale of the home. However, it is important to note that many meccas of high modernism, New Canaan, Connecticut and Palm Springs,

California for instance, have exceedingly high land values, frequently rendering homes less valuable than the land itself. As mentioned in the previous chapter, this discrepancy in value contributes significantly to the likelihood of a home being sold as a teardown. The top 6 of the 10 cities where land value exceed property value are San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Ana, Oakland,

Los Angeles, and San Diego – all located in California. The 7th city where land value exceeds

- 36 - property value is Boston, MA (Fig. 1).i These statistics are disheartening as all of these locations are home to a huge selection of excellent examples of modern residential architecture, particularly the Los Angeles, California area and the Boston, Massachusetts area. These regions should be carefully monitored by proactive preservationists to alert interested parties when mid-century modern homes go on the market and advocate renovation instead of demolition.

Preservationists should also note that the problem of the teardown is not exclusive to notoriously overpriced coastal metropolitan areas. In 2006, the National Trust for Historic

Preservation pinpointed Dallas, Texas, Salt Lake City, Utah, Atlanta, Georgia, Chevy Chase,

Maryland, , New York, and the Chicago Metropolitan Area as areas with some of the greatest teardown rates in the United States.ii These communities have put forth proactive policy and advocacy measures to curb the teardown trend and harness it in positive ways. Dallas, Salt

Lake City, and the Chicago Metropolitan Area are three particularly relevant examples as each locale has a notable collection of architecturally significant mid-century modern homes.

The Lone Star State is quite famous for its lassiez-faire approach to building and land use policy.iii Dallas real estate appreciation has increased by 92.49% since 2000 with an average annual increase of 3.81% making the real estate value relatively high compared to the rest of Utah and average compared to the rest of the nation. Homes built between 1940 and 1969 comprise 33.7% of the Dallas housing market.iv While the city is not what many would think of as a preservationist’s goldmine, there are in many exceptionally well designed high style examples of modern residential architecture in the Dallas metropolitan area. Dallas quickly matured into a major American city after World War II when companies like Ling-Tempo-Vought (LTV)

Corporation and Texas Instruments began to experience significant growth.v The technology boom of the 1950s and 60s coupled with the oil boom of the 1930s, created significant amounts of wealth

- 37 - in the city and since the population increased exponentially at this time hundreds of beautiful mid- century modern homes were built. Concentrated in the Casa View , Disney Streets of Midway

Hills, and Northwood Hills Addition neighborhoods of Dallas and in the designs of Dallas architects O’Neil Ford and Howard R. Meyer, modern residential architecture is a significant part of the visual fabric of Dallas’ built environment.vi

As Dallas continued to grow at the turn of the 21st century, the teardown trend became a pervasive threat to historic neighborhoods. Eschewing traditional preservation methods like conservation and historic districts, Dallas employed a new regulatory tool, the Neighborhood

Stabilization Overlay Zone which “offer(s) residents of a specified area a plan that can set standards for the height, garage orientation and location, front and side setbacks, front facade area, and total square footage for new buildings, including garages.”vii While this regulatory action does not explicitly prevent the demolition of architecturally significant modern homes, it eliminates the majority of benefits associated with teardowns and new construction. As property values continue to soar in Dallas, local preservationists will have to be vigilant about protecting their historic built environment.

Salt Lake City, Utah has also made great strides in policy change to curb the teardown trend. Salt Lake City’s real estate appreciation has increased by 95.99% since 2000 with an average annual increase of 3.92% making the real estate value relatively high compared to the rest of Utah and extremely high compared to the rest of the nation. Homes built between 1940 and 1969 comprise majority of the housing market in Salt Lake City accounting for 34.1% of the housing stock.viii In 2006, Salt Lake City established “the Compatible Residential Infill Development

Ordinance, an experimental tiered review process that addresses issues such as height, setbacks, lot coverage, garages, additions, demolition, and fines. The customized process was created after

- 38 - lengthy discussions with property owners citywide and through innovative online public participation measures.”ix Again, while this measure does not outright ban teardowns or put in place strict preservation regulations, it effectively renders the teardown option unappealing.

The implementation of this ordinance created a more hospitable environment for the preservation of mid-century modern homes. In the last decade, preservation of modern architecture has become a major priority for the Utah Heritage Foundation, the foremost preservation advocate in the state. In 2009, Salt Lake Modern was established as a formal committee of the Utah Heritage

Foundation. The committee has hosted tours of the Westshire neighborhood of West Valley City; presented Affordable Mid-century Modern Resources Roundtable and Get a Reaction: Preserve

Utah’s Nuclear Age at 2010 Utah Preservation Conference; co-hosted Modernism at Risk: Modern

Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks exhibit with the World Monuments Fund and University of Utah College of Architecture + Planning; hosted a tour of the Olympus Cove neighborhood in

Salt Lake City; advocated for the reinstatement of the historic preservation committee in Salt Lake

County; and sought designation for Cliff May-designed neighborhood within Olympus Cove,

Millcreek Township.x

While the Chicago Metropolitan Area is home to the highest concentration of historic neighborhoods facing the imminent threat of teardowns in the nation, the real estate market is not anywhere near as competitive as other cities with similar teardown rates.xi Chicago’s real estate appreciation has increased by 43.92% since 2000 while the average annual appreciation is 2.10%, making the real estate value very high compared to the rest of Illinois and the nation. 75.2% of the housing stock in Chicago was constructed before 1969. Homes built between 1940 and 1969 comprise 30.5% of the local housing market.xii Chicago is famous for its density of architecturally

- 39 - significant buildings and being home to world renowned architects Frank Lloyd Wright and

Ludwig Mies van der Rohe.

Preservation Chicago was founded on October 23, 2001 after the loss of a “cluster of historic buildings including the old Coe Mansion, which housed the well-known Ranalli’s

Restaurant.”xiii While Preservation Chicago acknowledges modern preservation as a priority for the organization, it focuses primarily on public and commercial modern buildings like Bertrand

Goldberg’s Prentice Women’s Hospital and Walter Gropius’ buildings on the former Michael

Reese Hospital campus.xiv The majority of preservation advocacy and action for modern residential architecture is done through a preservation nonprofit called Chicago Bauhaus & Beyond.xv The organization provides frequent modern house tours, lectures, and preservation resources for those interested in the preservation of Chicago’s modern residences. Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond works to preserve the buildings of Ralph David Anderson, Baldwin Kingrey, Roy “Bud” Binkley,

Dennis Blair, Edward Dart, William Deknatel, Don Erickson, Burton “Bud” Frank, Buckminster

Fuller, Bruce Goff, Bertrand Goldberg, Tony Grunslfed, David Haid, Robert Hausner, Edward

Humrich, Keck & Keck, John Randal McDonald, John V. McPherson, Ralph Rapson, H.P. Davis

Rockwell, Paul Schweikher, Calvin Jay Tobin, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Harry Weese, and

Edmond Zisook.xvi Preservation in the Chicago Metropolitan Area has been allowed to flourish thanks to grassroots community organizing. Preservation non-profits and groups such as the

Chicago Suburban Alliance have “been meeting; sharing information, best practices, and strategies; and serving as a resource for more than 20 Chicagoland community groups.”xvii

Parcel Size Over Two Acres

The large parcels of land upon which many modern residences were built contribute to the market’s desire to demolish the home and subdivide these lots. When coupled with high land

- 40 - values, the potential for financial gain after fitting three houses on a lot that previously accommodated one is very attractive to developers. The National Trust for Historic Preservation listed “Environmental Issues” – which includes further subdividing lots for higher density housing

– as one of the three great obstacles in preserving postwar architecture. Sandy Isenstadt, professor of art history specializing in architecture at the University of Delaware, wrote:

“Preserving significant portions of that low-density belt [of suburban development]

inevitably forces new development either back toward city centers or even further out.

Where I live, in Lexington, Ky., ranch houses have been razed and larger, neo-traditional

houses put up; postwar lots have been subdivided and built up faster than neighborhoods

are able to respond. Some of these doomed houses are terrific and, as an architectural

historian, I lament their passing.”xviii

However, Isenstadt rightly notes that one of the greatest challenges in preserving modern architecture is that “there`s way too much of it. Millions of acres of suburban development thicken our nation`s cities like a girdle of low-density urban flab, as familiar, as unwanted, and as easily disregarded as those extra pounds settled on middle-aged hips.”xix While many see this suburban sprawl as an opportunity for higher density housing, it is crucial that these historic resources be properly evaluated before being demolished and subdivided. Unfortunately, in the case of many modern homes, this courtesy is not extended.

Residence Less Than 2,500 Square Feet

Another reason that modern residential architecture faces greater rates of demolition than its older peers is that modern residences were frequently designed to be small and efficient machines for living, eschewing the ornament and excess of homes popular in the late 19th and early

20th century (Fig. 2). The trend for oversized homes, colloquially referred to as “McMansions,”

- 41 - grew in popularity in the 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. In the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s, the average square footage for a single family home hovered around a modest 1,400 square feet. In 1940, the average American home was 1,246 square feet while the average household size was 3.7 people.

In 1950, the average American home was 1,320 square feet while the average household size was

3.4 people. In 1960, the average American home was 1,510 square feet while the average household size was 3.3 people.xx Over the next 60 years, the size of the American household shrank while residential square footage exploded. In 2010, the average American home was a staggering 2,430 square feet while the average household consisted of just 2.6 people (Fig. 3).xxi

Fig. 2: Data Regarding Growth in Home Size and Average Home Size. September 8, 2016. Property Shark.

Fig. 3: Growth in Average United States Home Size between 1950 and 2010. September 8, 2016. Property Shark.

The craze for supersized McMansions is a significant motive behind the teardown trend.xxii

These “monster houses” were born of the American credo that “bigger is better” and contribute to teardown rates, monster infill, and gargantuan additions which can severely alter the fabric of

- 42 - historic residential neighborhoods.xxiii Oversized residences also contribute to rising cost of living in desirable neighborhoods that were once affordable, creating a rarely discussed new type of suburban gentrification.xxiv Preservationists in Palm Beach, Florida, San Francisco, California, and

Portland, made great strides in discouraging and limiting the proliferation of McMansions.

The Preservation Foundation of Palm Beach “used a combination of design tools and community education programs. The group hired world-renowned consultants to make presentations to residents and decision-makers, develop design guidelines, suggest strengthened design overlay districts, conduct community design charrettes, and produce visual ‘build out models’ to demonstrate how houses can either respect or violate the human scale of their communities.” In

San Francisco, preservationists turned to grassroots organizing to combat the threat of demolition due to the absurdly competitive real estate market. Steven Nichelson and his neighbors in the

Delores Heights/ Eureka Valley neighborhood formed San Franciscans for Orderly Growth and took on destructive redevelopment through local politics. Through the use of “existing planning tools, the group helped to convince the planning commission to conduct historic resource surveys of neighborhoods once considered marginal and to consider zoning changes that would protect those neighborhoods.” In Portland, zoning was the answer to the problem of the McMansion. Rick

Michaelson put for a zoning plan that regulated height and bulk through the existing building envelope and existing historic building patterns.xxv

Apart from regulating plans for new constructions and additions in historic neighborhoods, preservationists and real estate agents alike face the challenge of making living in a smaller space more desirable to the contemporary homebuyer. In 2010, the National Trust for Historic

Preservation listed size as one of the top challenges for saving modernism. Under the heading

Thank You for Your Years of Service, Now Good-Bye, Adrian Scott Fine writes:

- 43 - “There is a perception that many modernist and recent past buildings are obsolete and were

not intended to last for generations—because the materials used then are often not what

we’d choose today, and because these places no longer meet people’s current needs. Size,

for instance, is an issue. Most mid-century homes are considered very small by today’s

standards…Consistently house size has been growing even though the average family size

is now smaller than in the 1950s. An encouraging sign is that new houses are starting to

shed some of their bloat, with the average size of an American house now decreasing for

the first time in decades.”xxvi

The slow decrease in average American home size is a benefit to modern preservation. However, many smaller, mid-century modern homes have still been expanded as home sizes increased.

Adrienne and Neil Sullivan purchased a 1953 modern home in Holmes Run Acres, in Fairfax

County, Virginia just outside of Washington D.C., and hired Edith MacArthur to do historically sensitive renovations and preservation. Of the renovation the Washington Post reports:

“The 915-square-foot, two-bedroom house had already been expanded with a master suite

in the 1980s before the Sullivans bought the property in 1999. They waited until 2011 to

add a new screen , a garage and reconfigured entryway with the help of MacArthur.

Earlier this year, the homeowners converted existing space within the 1980s addition into

a TV lounge and a more up-to-date master bathroom. Adrienne Sullivan’s advice to other

owners of midcentury modern homes: ‘Live in the house for a while before renovating, and

plan the renovation really well.’”xxvii

In the interest of preserving as much of the historic fabric of modern residential architecture as possible, it is important that preservationists be flexible in thoughtfully adapting the home to the requirements of contemporary living.

- 44 - Female Architect or Architect of Color

The perceived prestige of the architect is another important factor in the survival of a modern home. Generally, the modern architects whose buildings are a priority for preservationists are well established within the canon of architectural history. The bias in architectural history is skewed toward the work of white men, as in art history, literature, and the liberal arts in general.

Unfortunately, this means that the work of female architects and architects of color frequently goes unstudied and underrepresented. In the following chapter, the architectural careers of Eleanor

Raymond and Paul Revere Williams will be discussed and analyzed in great detail. The chapter will focus in particular on how several of Raymond and Williams most significant buildings have been lost to demolition and what preservationists can do to better preserve the work of underrepresented architects.

In addition to underrepresented architects’ buildings being more susceptible to demolition, vernacular iterations of mid-century modern residential architecture also face a greater threat of demolition because they are not a priority to preservationists. In 2010, the National Trust for

Historic Preservation listed The Favorite Child Syndrome as one of the top challenges for saving modernism:

“There is a bias toward placing a priority on modernist icons, saying only great buildings

and landscapes are worthy of preservation. In the preservation movement we have a history

of doing so, starting out by primarily saving the architectural specimens of homes and

mansions of moguls and presidents. Only later did we expand our reach and focus on

vernacular architectural styles and more-modest homes, industrial landmarks, and places

rich in cultural significance. The nomenclature, “modernism” and the “recent past,” is

intentional and strategic, distinguishing between the wide varieties of places that exist

- 45 - within the catchall otherwise known as mid-century modern. This era produced

phenomenal icons and great buildings and landscapes, rich in significance and without

question worthy of preservation—Philip Johnson’s , the Case Study Houses

of California, and ’s Freeway Park by Lawrence Halprin, to name only a few. While

we may focus on the icons and strive to ensure their preservation initially, we cannot

arbitrarily pick and choose which modern sites to give preferential treatment as our

favorites.”xxviii

There is much to be learned about the way that people lived from studying regional iterations of vernacular modernism. Due to the sheer amount of buildings constructed in the mid-century, it is difficult to know which ones are the most valuable to preserve. Unfortunately, the answer to this question is frequently to save the highest, most prestigious examples of modernism and allow nature to take its course on the less significant buildings. However, there is a case to be made for saving a few excellent examples of vernacular modernism so that future generations can get an idea of what the built environment of mid-century America really looked like.

Failure of Modern Materials

Modernism is characterized by the use of new, experimental materials. Unfortunately, since those materials had not been tested against centuries of construction successes and failures like traditional building materials, many experimental materials turned out to be not as durable, safe, or desirable as was once thought. The primary goal western preservation is to prolong the life of a structure while retaining as much architectural integrity as possible. By these standards it is paramount that all of the original building materials be preserved regardless of cost or practicality.

The Secretary of the Interior defines the practice of preservation as:

- 46 - “The act or process of applying measures necessary to sustain the existing form, integrity,

and materials of an historic property. Work, including preliminary measures to protect and

stabilize the property, generally focuses upon the ongoing maintenance and repair of

historic materials and features rather than extensive replacement and new construction. The

limited and sensitive upgrading of mechanical, electrical, and plumbing systems and other

code-required work to make properties functional is appropriate within a preservation

project. However, new exterior additions are not within the scope of this treatment. The

Standards for Preservation require retention of the greatest amount of historic fabric along

with the building’s historic form.”xxix

The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Preservation state the following in regard to the preservation of materials:

“5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes and construction techniques or examples of

craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.

6. The existing condition of historic features will be evaluated to determine the appropriate

level of intervention needed. Where the severity of deterioration requires repair or limited

replacement of a distinctive feature, the new material will match the old in composition,

design, color and texture.”xxx

In addition to preservation standards, the Secretary of the Interior also offers a framework of standards for rehabilitation, restoration and reconstruction of historic properties. The Secretary of the Interior defines the practice rehabilitation as:

“The act or process of making possible a compatible use for a property through repair,

alterations, and additions while preserving those portions or features which convey its

historical, cultural, or architectural values. The Rehabilitation Standards acknowledge the

- 47 - need to alter or add to a historic building to meet continuing or new uses while retaining

the building’s historic character.”xxxi

The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for Rehabilitation state the following in regard to the preservation of materials:

“5. Distinctive materials, features, finishes and construction techniques or examples of

craftsmanship that characterize a property will be preserved.

6. Deteriorated historic features will be repaired rather than replaced. Where the severity

of deterioration requires replacement of a distinctive feature, the new feature will match

the old in design, color, texture and, where possible, materials. Replacement of missing

features will be substantiated by documentary and physical evidence.”xxxii

While the Secretary of the Interior also offers Standards for Restoration and Standards for

Reconstruction, which recommend thorough documentation of failing materials before in-kind replacement, these methods are viewed only as emergency alternatives if preservation and rehabilitation are impossible. The Standards for Preservation and the Standards for Rehabilitation place a greater importance on the conservation of building materials than the practicality of those materials in the continued use of the structure. This inflexible approach to historic preservation and rehabilitation is a deterrent to many people who otherwise might be interested in purchasing and preserving older homes. These standards are particularly detrimental to the preservation of modern homes as conservation methods are often exceedingly expensive or inaccessible.

Conservation of modern materials has been hailed as the key to promoting the preservation of modern architecture. The Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles, California developed the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative in the late 1980s and early 1990s as “new conservation challenges emerged as the seminal works of the Modern Movement reached fifty

- 48 - years of age and became eligible for heritage protection. The new and innovative construction methods and materials that typify the era challenge traditional conservation approaches and raise new methodological and philosophical issues.”xxxiii While it is essential to research conservation methods for modern materials, expensive materials conservation efforts are financially out of reach for most homeowners and frankly preservation overkill for most mid-century modern residences.

It is not surprising that in 2010 the National Trust for Historic Preservation tackled the capricious nature of modern materials under the You Lack Integrity Quandry:

“Historic designations and protections generally favor places that have few alterations and

a high degree of integrity, especially when talking about historic fabric and materials. For

traditional historic buildings, this approach has worked pretty well. But when it comes to

modernist structures, many were built with mass-produced products and experimental

materials that may not be easily replicated and, in some cases, are now failing. Some

replacement materials are no longer in production, superseded by the better-performing

options available today. If we replace using entirely new products that resemble the look

of the originals, is that preservation? This calls into question the overall definition of

integrity when talking about modernist places.”xxxiv

The National Trust for Historic Preservation makes an excellent point that perhaps the standard ethics and practices of preservation are outdated when it comes to the practicality of preserving modern architecture. This can be a huge deterrent for many prospective homebuyers who would otherwise be interested in purchasing a mid-century modern home.

In addition to poorly aged modern materials, many examples of modern residential architecture have design features that are now considered to be extremely undesirable at best or a safety hazard at worst. The Spruce, “a new kind of home website offering practical, real-life tips”

- 49 - for homeowners, published a list titled “Mid-Century Modern Home Failures” which details the common hassles and complications that come standard with many examples of modern residential architecture.xxxv Many of the material failures cited in this list are necessary to create some of the hallmark aesthetics of modern residential architecture. Glass curtain walls, cantilevered foundations, open floor plans, flat roofs, and prominent fireplaces are among the characteristically modern features that are deemed to be “failures” of mid-century modern architecture. While the author is correct that there can be a plethora of preservation problems with glass curtain walls, cantilevered foundations, and flat roofs, there are multiple ways in which these problems can be remedied affordably with contemporary materials that preserve the intended aesthetic of modernism. Unfortunately, many preservationists argue primarily for the preservation of the materials as opposed to the preservation of the use and aesthetics.

In addition to problems of maintenance and preservation, many modern homes proudly display features that are hazardous by contemporary standards. The Chicago-based blog

Projectophile lists a few of these issues in “15 Mid-Century Modern Dream Homes That Will Kill

Your Children.”xxxvi The author lists open ledges with either no railing or insufficient railing, “fire, water, and other death traps inspired by nature” or modern architects’ penchant for interior reflecting pools, natural stone features, open fire places, etc., and floating with no railings and cumbersome curves as some of the most dangerous features of modern residential architecture.

Naturally, many prospective homeowners are deterred from purchasing mid-century modern residences with features that are perceived as dangerous. If it is difficult to sell a mid-century modern home, its likelihood of being sold as a teardown grows.

- 50 - Bias Against the Aesthetic of Modernism

The unpredictable nature of experimental modern materials contributes to the cultural bias against certain iterations of modernism. The National Trust for Historic Preservation cites several different forms of bias against modernism as a major obstacle in preserving modern architecture:

“5. No Beauty Pageant: We often say beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. That is not

always true, especially in terms of architecture. There seem to be patterns in design—scale,

proportion, and elements—that are inherently pleasing to people. This is the decidedly

unscientific “lovable” or “huggable” factor that we often see with earlier eras of

architecture and design. In contrast, mid-century buildings and landscapes are sometimes

criticized as being sterile, soulless, outright ugly, and even aesthetically challenged. Take

Brutalism, for instance, an architectural style during this period that favors poured concrete,

bold geometric shapes, and stark landscape settings. Even the name, Brutalism, does not

exactly evoke warm and fuzzy feelings. The realization that modernist places may not be

loved through traditional notions of beauty requires us to dig further to fully understand

these buildings and landscapes and their role in history.

6. A Lot of Baggage and Stigma: The modernist buildings constructed over the rubble and

debris of earlier historic buildings in the 1950s and ’60s sparked the present-day efforts of

historic preservation. Some argue it is counter-intuitive, or at the very least ironic, to now

want to preserve these places…Saving some of these sites can allow us to ‘own’ our past

and make sense of where we went right and wrong, serving as useful memorials and

exemplars for an era no longer with us.”xxxvii

- 51 - The bias against modern architecture stems from tangible – the appearance of the building – and intangible – the sins of the modern movement and loss of historic buildings before it – faults in the eyes of the public.

Fig. 4: Paul Rudolph. Orange County Government Center, Goshen, New York, 1970. New York Times and Jeff Goldberg/Esto..

Fig. 5: Harrison & Abramovitz. Empire State Plaza, Albany, New York, 1976. New York Times and Connie Zhou/Otto.

Much of the vitriol toward modern architecture is reserved for public buildings. In 2015, T

Magazine: The Magazine of the New York Times asked seven architects to defend some of the world’s ugliest, most egregious works of architecture. All were modern public structures built

- 52 - between 1930 and 1977. Zaha Hadid defended Paul Rudolph’s 1970 Orange County Government

Center in Goshen, New York (Fig. 4), a Brutalist government building that is kindly described as an eyesore and a financial drain. Even in her defense of the building Hadid plainly states,

“Rudolph’s work is pure, but the beauty is in its austerity…It is what it is.” The building was altered beyond recognition and subsequently demolished after a long preservation battle in 2017.

Annabelle Selldorf chose to defend Harrison & Abramovitz’s 1976 Empire State Plaza in Albany,

New York (Fig. 5), a large, International Style government complex, described as being more fitting to “planet Krypton than the capital of the state of New York.” Selldorf begins her argument with the telling phrase, “Against my better judgement, I like this complex.”xxxviii It is interesting to note that even architects, historians, and preservationists who understand the value in “hated” modern buildings feel the need justify their sympathy for these buildings. There is a similar sentiment with homeowners who purchase and modern homes. Many say they adapt their living style to small, 1,500 square foot living quarters, one car garages, and need for “extensive remodeling” for the prestige of owning a piece of modern architecture in a desirable neighborhood.xxxix

Hatred of modern architecture is broadcasted widely, ferociously, and loudly. Public modern architecture has been infused with political meaning by the “Alt-Right” who published a

16-minute rant titled “Why Modern Architecture SUCKS” on the Alt-Right conspiracy theorist platform, Infowars, outrageously claiming that modern architecture is “aesthetic terrorism” (Fig.

6).xl Paul Joseph Watson, the British alt-righter behind the video, echoes many familiar refrains against modernism: “High rises and concrete are dehumanizing. Modernism is the style of totalitarians, etc. Such claims are based on a misreading of architectural history; the early

Modernists had staunchly democratic ideals and aspired to improve living and working conditions

- 53 - for all classes in society.”xli While several conservative traditionalists have long despised many tenants of modernism, the Alt-Right has manipulated the perception of modern architecture to symbolize “globalist cultural tyranny” and the “liberal urban elite.”xlii

Fig. 6: Paul Joseph Watson. Why Modern Architecture Sucks, Infowars, July 1, 2017. Screenshot November 11, 2017.

Fig. 7: Amasa M. Lyman. “How Modern Architecture Destroys Your Relationships,” Return of Kings, January 31, 2015. Screenshot November 11, 2017.

- 54 -

Men’s Rights Activists (MRA), a faction of the Alt-Right, spewed their vitriol at modern residential architecture on the MRA platform Return of the Kings, a community that ardently discourages “women and homosexuals…from commenting here” and believes that “a woman’s value significantly depends on her fertility and beauty. A man’s value significantly depends on his resources, intellect, and character.”xliii The article written by Amasa M. Lyman claims that the elimination of strictly gendered spaces in the home “inculcates a false belief that male and female are equal,” (Fig. 7).xliv The author’s hatred of modern architecture (and people in general) continues in his analysis of Philip Johnson’s 1949 Glass House (Fig. 8):

Fig. 8: Philip Johnson. Glass House, New Canaan, Connecticut, 1949. Photo by Michael Biondo. The Glass House and the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“Philip Johnson’s celebrated Glass House of 1949 made the home into an exhibitionist

experience. Glass walls opened the bedroom to the world, a voyeuristic dream…Feminine

textures and materials combined with a traditionally male structure to confuse gender.

Johnson’s homosexuality was recognized as the bedroom ‘became a queering of the cave

- 55 - into a vaulted chamber… Sadean pleasure palace.’ (Betsky, 1997 p. 115) Such architects

queered the definition of manliness by manipulating gender in their architecture.”xlv

The author continues to eviscerate the philosophy and aesthetics of modern architecture in his critique of Le Corbusier’s 1924 Schroeder House (Fig. 9):

Fig. 9: Le Corbusier. Schroeder House, Utrecht, Netherlands, 1924. Photo by Hay Kranen / CC-BY. Wikimedia Commons.

“…Le Corbusier, sought to change how the family interacts. His iconic Schroeder House

(1924) would ‘redefine family life, women’s rights and the responsibilities and to each

other.’ He made no distinction of whom certain spaces were for. Corbusier got rid of

traditional feminine elements and shared family spaces to ‘give the impression of being

alone, and if desired completely alone.’ Cobusier’s client Eileen Gray may have preferred

to feel lonely, as she hopped from one lesbian relationship to the next, but it does not suit

normal people. An emphasis on loneliness undermined families across the world.”xlvi

The author’s loathing of women’s independence and agency has been translated into anger and disgust at modern architecture. While this bias against modern residential architecture is hateful, it does exist.

- 56 - Bias against modern architecture extends beyond the annals of the “Alt-Right.” In 2010, a

Psychology Today article titled, “Unhappy Hipsters: Does modern architecture make us gloomy?” posited that the angular, stripped down quality of modern residential architecture paired with the frequent use of neutral colors in modern homes frequently made people experience a sort of melancholy isolation. In addition to the general feeling of malaise that the author associates with modern architecture, there are many other effects:

“Form has other emotional effects. A 2007 study published in the journal

Neuropsychologia revealed that angular forms have a strange, unconscious emotional

effect on us. Viewing angular forms, as opposed to curved forms, triggers activation in the

amygdala, a small almond-shaped structure in the limbic system of our brains associated

with emotional memory — specifically fear. We may not feel any conscious fear, but this

brief moment of activity translates to a general sense of dislike for these objects.”xlvii

This research could certainly explain why the “lairs” of villains in James Bond films are almost exclusively masterpieces of modern residential architecture. People also have a general perception that modern architecture is not personal or inviting. The author reasons that this could be due to modernism’s restrained quality being, in the words of the author, “in tension with the idea of delight. Delight is an emotion of abundance — a celebration of sensation and richness. Delight and joy are primally connected to wellness, and wellness in nature is lush, plump, vibrant, and bountiful. Throughout our evolution, these were the aesthetics that signaled a good place to settle

— one that provided adequate water, food, and shelter to sustain life. The matte, bare surfaces beloved of modernists signal something else entirely. I can't help but think there must be something primal within us that understands such stripped-down spaces as inhospitable — the emotional equivalent of dry desert, or fallow fields.”xlviii Whether or not these observations are grounded in

- 57 - fact, the way that modern architecture has been culturally presented in articles, scholarly research, random blogs, movies, and television shows impacts the general perception modern homes to the

American populace. Unfortunately, modernism is too frequently presented in a sterile, dystopian, uninviting, and fear inducing manner, making it all the more difficult to convince the populace that these homes are worth saving.

The recognition of these characteristics as major factors in the demolition threat level for modern houses is intended to give preservationists a set of criteria to pinpoint at-risk properties before they are sold as teardowns or slated for demolition. The criteria are:

1. High land value

2. Parcel size over two acres

3. Residence less than 2,500 square feet

4. Female architect or architect of color

5. Failure of modern materials

6. Bias against the aesthetic of modernism

If a modern residence is deemed architecturally significant and it possesses at least two of the above characteristics, the home should be considered to be threatened. The home should be properly documented and closely monitored before a tangible demolition threat is incurred. Time is the single most valuable resource in preservation. Through meticulous research and observation, these criteria were selected to assist preservationists in garnering more time to save some of our most architecturally significant buildings – mid-century modern houses.

- 58 - Notes i Yuqing Pan, “Not Dirt-Cheap: 10 Cities Where Land Is Worth More Than the Home on It,” realtor.com (January 11, 2017), https://www.realtor.com/news/trends/top-10-cities-where-the-dirt-beneath-your-home-is-way-more- valuable-than-your-home/. ii Adrian Scott Fine and National Trust Staff, “New Tools to Fight Teardowns,” Preservation Magazine (July/August 2006), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/new-tools-to-fight-teardowns. iii Fernando Ramirez, “The weirdest images to come from Houston's lack of zoning laws,” Houston Chronicle (December 29, 2017), http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Weirdest-images-from-Houston-s- lack-of-zoning-laws-9171688.php. iv “Dallas, TX: Appreciation Rate Trends and Housing Market Data,” Neighborhood Scout (2017), https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/tx/dallas/real-estate. v Jackie McElhaney and Michael V. Hazel, “DALLAS, TX,” TSHA Texas State Historical Association (November 3, 2015), https://tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/hdd01. vi “Resources,” Discover Dallas! (2017), http://www.preservationdallas.org/resources/discover-dallas/. vii Adrian Scott Fine and National Trust Staff, “New Tools to Fight Teardowns,” Preservation Magazine (July/August 2006), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/new-tools-to-fight-teardowns. viii “Salt Lake City, UT: Appreciation Rate Trends and Housing Market Data,” Neighborhood Scout (2017), https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/ut/salt-lake-city/real-estate. ix Adrian Scott Fine and National Trust Staff, “New Tools to Fight Teardowns,” Preservation Magazine (July/August 2006), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/new-tools-to-fight-teardowns. x Kirk Huffaker, “Accomplishments,” Salt Lake MODERN (April 8, 2014), http://www.slmodern.org/2014/04/08/accomplishments/. xi Adrian Scott Fine and National Trust Staff, “New Tools to Fight Teardowns,” Preservation Magazine (July/August 2006), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/new-tools-to-fight-teardowns. xii “Chicago, IL: Appreciation Rate Trends and Housing Market Data,” Neighborhood Scout (2017), https://www.neighborhoodscout.com/il/chicago/real-estate. xiii “The History of Preservation Chicago,” Preservation Chicago (2017), https://preservationchicago.org/historys/. xiv “Mid-Century Modern,” Preservation Chicago (2017), https://preservationchicago.org/mid-century-modern/. xv “Homepage,” Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond (2017), http://www.chicagobauhausbeyond.org/. xvi “Architects + More,” Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond (2017), http://www.chicagobauhausbeyond.org/architects- designers/. xvii Adrian Scott Fine and National Trust Staff, “New Tools to Fight Teardowns,” Preservation Magazine (July/August 2006), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/new-tools-to-fight-teardowns. xviii Sandy Isenstadt, “Three Problems in Preserving the Postwar Landscape,” Preservation Magazine (Spring 2001), “http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/three-problems-in-preserving-the-po. xix Ibid.

- 59 -

xx Adela Muresan, “Who Lives Largest? The Growth of Urban American Homes in the Last 100 Years,” PropertyShark (September 8, 2016), https://www.propertyshark.com/Real-Estate-Reports/2016/09/08/the-growth- of-urban-american-homes-in-the-last-100-years/. xxi Ibid. xxii Adrian Scott Fine, “Is the Teardown Trend Over?” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2009), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/is-the-teardown-trend-over. xxiii Pratt W. Cassity and Anthony Veerkamp, “Taming the Monster House,” Preservation Magazine (March/April 2001), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/taming-the-monster-house. xxiv Donovan D. Rypkema, “The Oversimplification of Gentrification,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2004), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/the-oversimplification-of-gentrific. xxv Pratt W. Cassity and Anthony Veerkamp, “Taming the Monster House,” Preservation Magazine (March/April 2001), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/taming-the-monster-house. xxvi Adrian Scott Fine, “Top 13 Challenges for Saving Modernism and the Recent Past,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2010), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/top-13-challenges-for-saving-modern. xxvii Deborah K. Dietsch, “Real Estate: A midcentury love-hate relationship?” The Washington Post (November 25, 2015), https://www.washingtonpost.com/realestate/how-to-hate-a-midcentury-modern/2015/11/24/352455d6-8cb1- 11e5-acff-673ae92ddd2b_story.html?utm_term=.07a7ef4bd7d6. xxviii Adrian Scott Fine, “Top 13 Challenges for Saving Modernism and the Recent Past,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2010), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/top-13-challenges-for-saving-modern. xxix Kay D. Weeks and Anne E. Grimmer, The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring & Reconstructing Historic Buildings (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior Technical Preservation Services, 2017), 2, https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/treatment-guidelines-2017.pdf. xxx Technical Preservation Services, “Four Approaches to the Treatment of Historic Properties: Standards for Preservation,” The Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Technical Preservation Services, 2017), https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four- treatments/treatment-preservation.htm. xxxi Kay D. Weeks and Anne E. Grimmer, The Secretary of the Interior’s Standards for the Treatment of Historic Properties for the Treatment of Historic Properties with Guidelines for Preserving, Rehabilitating, Restoring & Reconstructing Historic Buildings (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Technical Preservation Services, 2017), 2, https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/treatment-guidelines-2017.pdf. xxxii Technical Preservation Services, “Four Approaches to the Treatment of Historic Properties: Standards for Rehabilitation,” The Guidelines for the Treatment of Historic Properties (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of the Interior National Park Service Technical Preservation Services, 2017), https://www.nps.gov/tps/standards/four- treatments/treatment-rehabilitation.htm. xxxiii Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative, “Overview,” Getty Conservation Institute (Los Angeles: November 2015), http://www.getty.edu/conservation/our_projects/field_projects/cmai/cmai_overview.html. xxxiv Adrian Scott Fine, “Top 13 Challenges for Saving Modernism and the Recent Past,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2010), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/top-13-challenges-for-saving-modern.

- 60 - xxxv Lee Wallender, “Mid Century Modern Home Failures,” the spruce (October 23, 2017), https://www.thespruce.com/mid-century-modern-home-failures-1822006. xxxvi “15 Mid-Century Modern Dream Homes that will Kill Your Children,” projectophile (February 27, 2013), https://projectophile.net/2013/02/27/mid-century-modern-dream-homes-that-will-kill-your-children/. xxxvii Adrian Scott Fine, “Top 13 Challenges for Saving Modernism and the Recent Past,” Preservation Magazine (Summer 2010), http://forum.savingplaces.org/viewdocument/top-13-challenges-for-saving-modern. xxxviii Alexandra Lange, “Seven Leading Architects Defend the World’s Most Hated Buildings,” T: The New York Times Style Magazine (June 5, 2015), https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/06/05/t-magazine/architects- libeskind-zaha-hadid-selldorf-norman-foster.html?_r=0. xxxix Sally Stitch, “50s-style homes strike a chord: midcentury modern coming back into its own among a segment of buyers,” The Post (October 17, 2004), http://milehimodern.com/press/DenverPost_Oct04.pdf. xl Amanda Kolson Hurley, “Why Is the Alt-Right So Angry About Architecture?” CITYLAB (July 3, 2017), https://www.citylab.com/design/2017/07/why-is-the-alt-right-so-angry-about-architecture/532470/. xli Ibid. xlii Ibid. xliii “About,” Return of Kings (2017), http://www.returnofkings.com/about. xliv Amasa M. Lyman, “How Modern Architecture Destroys Your Relationships,” Return of Kings (January 31, 2015), http://www.returnofkings.com/54065/how-modern-architecture-destroys-your-relationships. xlv Ibid. xlvi Ibid. xlvii Ingrid Fetell, “Unhappy Hipsters: Does modern architecture make us gloomy?” Psychology Today (February 6, 2010), https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/design-and-the-mind/201002/unhappy-hipsters-does-modern- architecture-make-us-gloomy. xlviii Ibid.

- 61 -

- 62 - Chapter 4: Female Architects and Architects of Color

Architecture is a field dominated by white men. The stereotypical architect is an older white male with graying hair in a rumpled tailored suit with bespoke round eyeglasses. This description does not differ much from academically lauded modern architects like Le Corbusier, Walter

Gropius, Marcel Breuer, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson. Unfortunately, the canon of great architects in architectural history mirrors the public perception of a stereotypical architect resulting in a collection of white male architects. However, there is much more diversity in architectural history than the public has been lead to believe. While there were not as many female architects and architects of color due to societal oppression of both groups, each has made significant contributions to the field, particularly in modern architecture.

Linda Nochlin’s 1971 essay, Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?, can easily be applied to architecture and several more fields. Nochlin wrote:

“The fact of the matter is that there have been no supremely great women artists, as far as

we know, although there have been many interesting and very good ones who remain

insufficiently investigated or appreciated…That this should be the case is regrettable, but

no amount of manipulating the historical or critical evidence will alter the situation…The

fact, dear sisters, is that there are no women equivalents for Michelangelo or Rembrandt,

Delacroix or Cézanne, Picasso or Matisse, or even, in very recent times, for de Kooning or

Warhol, any more than there are Black American equivalents for the same…But in

actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred

other areas, are stultifying, oppressive and discouraging to all those, women among them,

who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and, above all,

male…The miracle is, in fact, that given the overwhelming odds against women, or blacks,

- 63 - that so many of both have managed to achieve so much sheer excellence, in those

bailiwicks of white masculine prerogative like science, politics or the arts.”i

This argument seamlessly translates to architecture in that there have been no “great” women architects or architects of color in the same vein as Gropius, Le Corbusier, Mies van der Rohe, and

Johnson. However, where art history and architectural history diverge is that little corrective research has been performed to give female architects and architects of color their due in the canon of architectural history. This is likely due to the fact that feminist art historians were undertaking this kind of research in the 1970s when many of these architects were considered to be contemporary and not necessarily in need of scholarly investigation. While Nochlin warns against the trap of digging up undervalued female architects and architects of color with the sole purpose of claiming that their work was as consequential as their canonized counterparts, it is still important to study their oeuvres, ensure their contributions to the field are recognized, and advocate for the preservation of their buildings.ii

Eleanor Raymond is one such female architect. A true pioneer in her field, Raymond made significant contributions in residential adaptive reuse, and technologically advanced architecture.

Despite the fact that she built one of the earliest modern homes in New England, the Rachel

Raymond House (1931), and a ground breaking solar heated home, the Dover Sun House (1948), there is not a strong preservation ethos for Eleanor Raymond’s buildings. Her work only garners the attention of the preservation community when one of her buildings is faced with imminent demolition. In fact, both the Rachel Raymond House and the Dover Sun House, her two most significant buildings, have been destroyed in the last twenty years without any effort to properly document these buildings prior to demolition.

- 64 - Eleanor Raymond was born in 1888 in Cambridge, Massachusetts to Thomas and

Josephine Raymond. Raymond attended Wellesley College where she took the majority of her courses in botany, fine arts, and architectural history, which informed her decision to enter the

Cambridge School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture for Women in 1916.iii Eleanor

Raymond’s decision to pursue higher education in landscape architecture and later architecture was influenced by her time spent abroad after graduating from Wellesley; her many visits to

Europe throughout her life and reverence for historic buildings greatly informed her innovative architectural practice of sensitive preservation, rehabilitation, and modernization of historic buildings.iv

Architectural education for women at the Cambridge School of Architecture and

Landscape Architecture was focused on domestic architecture. Henry Atherton Frost, a professor of architecture at Harvard and the Cambridge School, believed that women were particularly well suited to domestic architecture. While the school expanded its scope of architectural education in later years, in 1936 the school still encouraged focus on domestic architecture and asserted that female architects were much “more likely to be commissioned by individuals that by corporations and organizations.” In 1948, Architectural Record magazine noted that female architects displayed a particular aptitude for residential architecture.v While these beliefs and observations are problematic, they accentuate the root of why buildings designed by women and residential architecture are undervalued in architectural history.

The vast majority of Eleanor Raymond’s oeuvre consists of residential buildings and remodels. Since these modes of architectural design are domestic and associated with the feminine, they are not viewed as examples of high architectural style. It is important to note that scholarly discrimination against residential structures is not limited to gender. However, the association of

- 65 - the “residence” with the feminine does add to this bias. The canon of art and architectural history has long denigrated fine art primarily created by women as “craft.” This includes modes of creation that take place in the domestic sphere such as embroidery, ceramics, quilting, needlework, and sewing.vi Modes of creation associated with the “domestic” are frequently described as “kitsch” or

“low art.” The same modes of canonization can be transferred to the evaluation of architecture as well. Since the term “domestic” is the choice descriptor to undermine the importance of a work of art, it is no surprise domestic architecture is largely considered to be inferior to public and corporate commissions. The perceived low status of residential architecture coupled with the challenges of getting proper recognition for female architects presents a uniquely difficult preservation challenge.

Thankfully, archives of Eleanor Raymond’s architectural practice have been exceptionally well maintained by the Frances Loeb Library at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard

University and the Library and Archives of Historic New England. Despite this excellent documentation, there is only one major published work about Eleanor Raymond, written by

Raymond’s friend and mentee, Doris Cole. It was published during Raymond’s lifetime in 1981.

While it is a valuable resource, the book is general and, in some portions, obsequious, lacking the intensive academic analysis of the inspiration, impact, and influence of Raymond’s body of work.

Nancy Beth Gruskin’s 1998 Boston University dissertation, Building Context: The Personal and

Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989), is the most thorough and incisive work on Raymond’s life, architectural practice, and place in architectural history. Unfortunately,

Gruskin elected to leave academia shortly after the completion of her dissertation and her work was never published for consumption by a broad audience.vii Publication of Gruskin’s dissertation at the turn of the 21st century would have legitimized the legacy of Eleanor Raymond’s

- 66 - architectural practice and provided valuable exposure to Raymond’s body of work before the preservation battles to save the Rachel Raymond House and the Dover Sun House. Public awareness is the most indispensable tool available to preservationists and if more information about Eleanor Raymond were broadly accessible, her two most important works might still stand today.

Fig. 1: Eleanor Raymond. Rachel Raymond House, Rear Elevation, Belmont, Massachusetts, 1931. Demolished 2006. Photo tinting by Doris Cole circa 1980. Eleanor Raymond, Architect by Doris Cole.

Fig. 2: Eleanor Raymond. Rachel Raymond House, Interiors, Belmont, Massachusetts, 1931. Demolished 2006. Photo tinting by Doris Cole circa 1980. Eleanor Raymond, Architect by Doris Cole.

- 67 - Appendix A in Nancy Beth Gruskin’s dissertation, Building Context: The Personal and

Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989), is an annotated buildings list of significant architectural projects undertaken by Eleanor Raymond from 1919 to 1973.viii Of the 67 residential projects listed, 17 are purely modern in design, while the other 50 are primarily colonial revival or adaptive remodeling of original colonial structures with precisely, yet sensitively, planned modern interiors. Of the 17 purely modern residences, 11 have been demolished or altered beyond recognition. The Eleanor Raymond Townhouse (1923), Rachel Raymond House (1931),

Peabody Plywood House (1940), Peabody “Sun House” (1948), and Peabody “Border House”

(1949) have been demolished but were extensively published and lauded at the time of their construction and throughout Eleanor Raymond’s career. Since the importance of these structures was well known, why were they destroyed so carelessly?

The Rachel Raymond House was constructed in 1931 for Eleanor Raymond’s sister, Rachel and her housemate Edith Kingsbury (Fig. 1). The design is influenced by the Bauhaus “Masters

Houses” and the tenants of the International Style, but is distinctly unique in its relationship to the natural site of the home and its sensitivity to local materials. Doris Cole wrote the following of the features that rendered this design distinctly American:

“Raymond did follow the International Style in using the horizontal rectangle as the unit

of design in the general mass of the house and its subdivisions, such as windows, alcoves,

fireplace, bookshelves and cupboards, and room proportions, but with her skill this one

unit of design, the horizontal rectangle, brought a diversity of visual forms and living

spaces related to the required functions. Thus one of the most difficult tasks in design was

accomplished successfully – the translation of the foreign into truly American

architecture.” ix

- 68 - Eleanor Raymond also sought to remedy “the stiff hardness” of the European modernists’ residential designs (Fig. 2). To accomplish this, Raymond used rough-sawn cedar boarding to clad the home and chose a color for the house that complimented the existing flora and fauna of the site. In 1981 Raymond said:

“What we did was to keep the style, but to do it in local, New England, materials. Over

there it was all concrete or stucco, never wood. Over here wood was what we used so much.

I used rough-sawn matched wood boards for the outside finish of the walls. On the site

there were Cedar trees and Barberry shrubs, native Barberry shrubs with those little orange

berries. We kept all the growth around the house down to those two things. 1 painted the

the orangey-red of the Barberry fruit and stained the rough wood boards a soft gray-

green...I had been to California and had seen cloth used to shade open places so I did that

on the open terrace.” x

These characteristics are now considered to be typical of the Americanization of modern tenants for residential homes. Raymond was among the first to utilize these characteristics in modern residential architecture; Gropius would not use redwood sheathing on his personal residence in

Lincoln, Massachusetts for another seven years.xi

- 69 - Fig. 3: Eleanor Raymond. The Rachel Raymond House circa 2006, Belmont, Massachusetts. Historic New England Library and Archives.

Fig. 4: Eleanor Raymond. The Rachel Raymond House circa 2006 mid- demolition, Belmont, Massachusetts. Historic New England Library and Archives.

The Rachel Raymond House was severely altered in an interior renovation in the 1970s and later demolished in 2006 by the Belmont Hill School (Fig. 3-4). The lot was later turned into a tennis court for the school. Preservationists, architects, and architectural historians rallied around the building after the intention to demolish the home was announced. Editorials about the importance of the home were published in the Boston Globe. Docomomo ardently advocated for the preservation of the building. According to the December 13, 2006 meeting minutes of the

Belmont Historic District Commission, Richard Cheek, co-chair of the commission and noted architectural photographer, historian, and author, met with the headmaster of Belmont Hill School,

Richard Melvoin, to discuss the demolition of the Rachel Raymond House.xii The school commissioned a report on the history and conditions of the house by John McConnell, a local architect and architectural historian. While conclusions reached in the report weighed heavily on the school’s decision to demolish the house, Melvoin refused to make the report public.xiii Cheek also offered to organize a meeting between the school board and group of local preservationists, architectural historians, and other experts to discuss alternate preservation plans for the Rachel

- 70 - Raymond House. The Belmont Hill School declined the meeting and proceeded with the demolition. Of Melvoin and the school board’s reluctance to make public any information about the condition of the Rachel Raymond House, the Belmont Historic District Commission meeting minutes state:

“In effect…the Belmont Hill School had condemned the Rachel Raymond House without

publishing or substantiating the charges against it…Legally, the School had the right to

tear down the house as soon as the demolition permit was issued, and it chose to do so,

cutting off the exchange of ideas that might have resolved many of the problems cited by

the School and have persuaded it to postpone the destruction of the house pending further

examination of alternative solution.” xiv

The responsibility for the loss of the Rachel Raymond House lies with the preservation community.

The most valuable asset in preservation is time. Why was so much of it wasted in the case of the

Rachel Raymond House? Eleanor Raymond herself deemed the home the to be “one of the best

[she] ever did.” xv While preservationists, architects, and architectural historians came to the building’s defense once the intent for demolition was announced, the Belmont Historic District

Commission could have been monitoring the status of the home and advocating for its importance in the canon of architectural history.

Fig. 5: Pedro Joel Costa. AIA 2009 Committee on Design Ideas Competition (COD) The Rachel Raymond House - “Listening to the Past, Looking to the Future: A House for Today.” Courtesy Pedro Joel Costa and Architizer.

- 71 - The Rachel Raymond House is most famous for being one of the great modern residential preservation losses. The tragedy is included on numerous lists dedicated to “remembering

America’s lost buildings” and is frequently cited as a cautionary tale of the volatility of modern residential preservation. xvi Disappointingly, when one searches for information about the Rachel

Raymond House one of the more popular resources is a rendering of a “re-visioning” of the residence as an “invisible building” by Pedro Joel Costa (Fig. 5).xvii While Eleanor Raymond is credited with having originally designed the home, none of the resources detailing Costa’s

“invisible building” properly convey the importance of the home and Raymond.

Fig. 6: Eleanor Raymond. Dover Sun House, 49 Powissett Street, Dover, Massachusetts, 1948. Photo circa 1949. Courtesy The Scientific Monthly, Vol. 69, No. 6; Accessed on JStor.

Fig. 7: Dr. Marie Telkes (left) and Architect Eleanor Raymond (right) discussing the plans of the Dover Sun House. The Frances Loeb Library, Harvard University Graduate School of Design.

- 72 -

Another structure of Raymond’s that was destroyed was her groundbreaking Dover “Sun

House” 1948 (Fig. 6) created in collaboration with solar heating technology designed by Dr. Maria

Telkes of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Fig. 7).xviii Amelia Peabody, a successful sculptor and frequent client of Eleanor Raymond’s, provided the land and financing for the Dover

“Sun House” experiment. The project was a spectacular culmination of talent, research, and innovation. Raymond designed the home with the technical specifications of the solar heating system in mind. The home was modern in design and technology with tasteful nods to historic

New England architecture in details such as the brick fire place. Telkes’ solar heating system successfully heated the home for 6 years at which point the solar system was abandoned for a tradition gas furnace. The project inspired years of solar energy research and was listed as one of

Raymond's greatest achievements when the architect was honored as a Fellow of the American

Institute of Architects in 1961.xix

The Dover “Sun House” was listed for sale in 2012. The house and other Eleanor Raymond

Amelia Peabody Powissett Farm commissions are located on land now under the care of a

Massachusetts non-profit called The Trustees who run the farm as a Community Supported

Agriculture program.xx The “Sun House” was sold in 2012 as a teardown. The real estate listing reads as follows: “Selling as land. Land has poor condition home included ‘as is’. Four-bedroom, septic system installed in 1999. Beautiful bucolic setting overlooking Powisset Farm. See listing agent for deed restrictions.” xxi The people who purchased the home apparently spoke to the Dover

Historical Society about preservation possibilities for the home but ultimately decided that the

“Sun House” was in too poor of condition to restore. The home was demolished and replaced with a new construction before proper documentation of “Sun House” could be completed.xxii

- 73 - At the start of the chapter it is argued that buildings, particularly residences, designed by female architects are more susceptible to demolition because of the denigration of works deemed feminine by the academic establishment and the overall exclusion of the contributions of women from architectural history. In Where Are Architects?, Despina Stratigakos chronicles the calculated exclusion and derision of women in architectural practice and the impact it has had on generations of female architects.xxiii The ramifications of this exclusion and derision are acutely felt in architectural history. Even for female architects who overcame insurmountable obstacles to practice, they found later in their careers that libraries were not interested in preserving their archives. With much of the source material inaccessible, many female architects disappeared from memory and were never given a chance to be considered for the canon of architectural history.xxiv

Not only does this have a negative impact on women entering the field of architecture, but it is one of the greatest obstacles in the preservation of buildings designed by female architects. Awareness is the best weapon against demolition. The general public cannot be aware of the contributions of female architects like Eleanor Raymond if dissertations on the significance of their work are hidden away in obscure libraries accessible only by academics. Preservationists and architectural historians serve as the interlocutor between the immense wealth of information about American architecture and the public. The preservation community must take responsibility for the errors of past architectural historians and correct the massive oversight of female architect’s contributions to American architectural practice.

Architects of color experience similar forms exclusion, derision, and limitation in architectural practice. Quality data about architects of color and their experience in the field is even more scarce than that of women architects.xxv The complicated history of race relations in the

United States makes the accomplishments of black architects all the more significant and inspiring

- 74 - to future generations of architects. However, the pedagogy of architecture schools favors

Eurocentric aesthetics and architecture as the standard bearer of good design.xxvi As a result, many of the masterpieces of architects of color are left out of architectural history curriculums, leaving a significant void in the field that extends to preservation. Architectural historians and preservationists have passively accepted this void as the norm. Sharon Young, a member of the

New York Coalition of Black Architects (NYCOBA), told Victoria Kaplan, “If you don’t write the history of black architects, people won’t know about it. The stories disappear if they don’t get written. We need to be responsible for documenting our passing through here.” xxvii Young and the

NYCOBA are filling the gaps left by architectural historians to document the work of architects of color which will increase awareness of their significance and inspire their preservation.

Fig. 8: Paul Revere Williams (left) and Della Mae Williams at Lake Arrowhead. The Paul R. Williams Project and Paul R. Williams: A Legacy of Style.

Paul Revere Williams is an astounding African American architect considered by many scholars to be the forgotten “architect of Hollywood” (Fig. 8).xxviii While his work is well known and highly revered among black architects, Williams work is relatively unknown to the field at large. Paul Revere Williams became the first black member of the American Institute of Architects in 1926, the first black Fellow in 1956, and the first black AIA Vice President in 1970.xxix Paul

- 75 - Revere Williams, known to his friends and clients as PRW, was born in Los Angeles in 1894.

Orphaned at a young age, he and his older brother were raised in foster families. Williams graduated from Polytechnic High School in Los Angeles in 1912 and attended the Los Angeles

School of Art and the Beaux-Arts Institute of Design from 1913 to 1916. In 1914 he began to work in architecture firms, initially the firm of planner and landscape architect Wilbur D. Cook, Jr. After attending architecture classes at the University of Southern California, Williams began work with the architectural firm of Reginald D. Johnson, “one of Southern California’s most important residential architects” in late 1916 or early 1917.xxx This experience gave him the clout and credibility necessary to become one of most prolific residential architects in the United States. In

1919, Williams began to practice with John C. Austin, a firm with a greater focus on commercial projects. After passing the California architectural examinations and receiving his license in 1921,

Williams opened his own firm in 1924. xxxi

Fig. 9: Paul Revere Williams. The Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, California 1947-1959. Photo by Slim Aarons. 1stDibs.

- 76 -

Fig. 10: Paul Revere Williams. The Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, California 1947-1959. Photo circa 1957 for a Cadillac Advertisement.

While Williams was a wildly successfully architect, he still experienced extreme prejudice from his majority white clients. In his essay, I Am a Negro, Williams recalled the discrimination he faced in the early years of his architectural practice:

“During the early years of my practice, prospective home builders frequently came into my

office without being aware of my color. Perhaps they had merely been attracted by the sign

on my door; perhaps they had seen somewhere a house of my design, liked it, and inquired

until they discovered the name of the architect. Most of them were obviously serious in

their intention to build. Yet, in the moment that they met me and discovered they were

dealing with a Negro, I could see many of them ‘freeze.’ Their interest in discussing plans

waned instantly and their one remaining concern was to discover a convenient exit without

hurting my feelings.” xxxii

One of Paul Revere Williams most recognizable projects is a series renovations and additions to the Beverly Hills Hotel completed between 1947 and 1959 (Fig. 9). Most notably, Williams designed the Crescent Wing addition of the hotel in 1949 (Fig. 10). This wing features the iconic

“Beverly Hills Hotel” script sign for which the building is internationally recognized.xxxiii Williams updates to the original Mission-style building are so well known and loved that they have been preserved through the decades with many changes in ownership. Despite the fact the Paul Revere

- 77 - Williams gave the Beverly Hills Hotel its iconic look, he was not allowed to be a patron of the

Beverly Hills Hotel after the project’s completion.xxxiv Williams understood the limitations placed on him by the deeply held prejudice of many of his clients and developed marketing skills to earn their trust. One of these marketing tactics was the ability to draw upside down. Clients would enter

Williams’ office and as they began “describing their ideal living room, Williams sat on the opposite side offering suggestions and sketching out their joint vision, bringing the room to life before their eyes. Wary potential clients were quickly engrossed in the visualization of their dream homes.” xxxv Williams also “dressed impeccably, worked tirelessly, and tried to excel in all respects, simply to be accepted.” xxxvi Williams’ descendants, notably his granddaughter and author of his monograph Paul R. Williams, Architect: A Legacy of Style, Karen E. Hudson, are still working tirelessly to make sure that his legacy is preserved and he is given his rightful place in architectural history.

Residential architecture of all price points was the bread and butter of Paul Revere

Williams’ architectural practice. Williams published two widely available books of house plans:

The Small House of Tomorrow in 1945 and New Homes for Today in 1946. As of the publication of The Small House of Tomorrow, Williams had designed over 2,000 homes in Southern California and in various regions of the United States, Mexico, and South America.xxxvii The Platinum

Triangle, which consists of Bel Air, Holmby Hills, and Beverly Hills, is home to over 300 of these residences. While many of Williams’ palatial Georgian Colonial Revival and Spanish Colonial

Revival homes are protected from demolition because they align more closely with contemporary tastes, over 40 residences in the Los Angeles area – an estimate that biographer and granddaughter of PRW, Karen E. Hudson, deems conservative– have been demolished. xxxviii Unfortunately, there

- 78 - is no way of knowing for certain how many Paul Revere Williams homes have been destroyed as his archives were destroyed in a fire during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.xxxix

Fig. 11: Paul Revere Williams. The Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills, California, 1956. Photo by Merge Studios 1956. Mott-Merge Collection, California State Library.

Fig. 12: Paul Revere Williams. Interiors of the Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills, California, 1956. Photo by Merge Studios 1956. Mott-Merge Collection, California State Library.

Fig. 13: Paul Revere Williams. Interiors of the Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills, California, 1956. Photo by Merge Studios 1956. Mott-Merge Collection, California State Library.

- 79 - One of the most heartbreaking Paul Revere Williams losses was the demolition of his 1956 residence for Frank Sinatra in Trousdale Estates, an exclusive Beverly Hills neighborhood.xl The home retained an impeccable level architectural integrity until it was destroyed and replaced with

12,000 square foot, 7 bedroom, 9 bathroom, Mediterranean style mansion in 2006 (Fig. 11).xli Of the Frank Sinatra Residence, Hudson writes:

“Sinatra requested a small, functional home, and Williams responded with the ultimate

‘bachelor pad.” Featuring push-button service at its best. The sunken dining room mixes

indoor-outdoor effects and a tropical Lanai environment. The house is decorated in off-

white and charcoal, with ebony wood set off by white fabrics, all selected by Williams’

daughter, Norma Harvey.” xlii

Sinatra simply told Williams that he did not “want a large house. Just something small and livable.”xliii While the neighborhood covenant of Trousdale Estates required that all homes be one story, there were no limits in regard to architectural style. Williams was given the freedom to design without constraint and the resultant residence was his “unfettered vision of the future,” (Fig.

12 and 13).xliv

Fig. 14: Person to Person with Edward R. Murrow: Frank Sinatra, CBS, 1956.

- 80 - The residence became the national touchstone of the “bachelor pad” after Frank Sinatra gave a tour of the home on CBS’ Person to Person with Edward R. Murrow (Fig. 14).xlv The episode chronicles Sinatra seeing his “finished, two-bedroom, Japanese Modern house for the first time.” The episode begins in the combination bedroom and dressing room featuring a stylish, distinctly modern “Chinese red” fireplace. Sinatra proceeds to fill the audience in on his upcoming films, projects, concerts and many awards while making his way to the state-of-the art kitchen.

The kitchen has hanging refrigerators that look like cabinets, two ovens, and a deep freeze, all complete with perfectly staged clutter and baking pizzas. The patio is directly outside of the kitchen. Sinatra tells the audience that it would be the perfect place for dinners on warm nights, overlooking all of Beverly Hills. The next room on the tour is the dining room. Sinatra enters the room through a sliding glass door and is greeted with a large black marble fireplace to his right with dark paneling on the walls and furniture “finished in teak.” Murrow calls the room “very striking” and in the high contrast of black and white, one cannot help but agree. After showing the viewers a few paintings from his art collection, Sinatra reveals a full bar hidden sleek in wood paneled cabinets. Right beside the hidden bar is a Japanese mural painted in warm colors by an artist referred to as “Mrs. Patton” anchors the sitting room. Another built-in cabinet reveals a cutting-edge entertainment center complete with a television on swivel platform to allow for easy rotation for optimal viewing from anywhere in the room. Sinatra says, “This is a very physical house you notice. I’m going to really have to get in shape to operate it.” The sound of a car horn blares in the background and Sinatra announces that he must be going so he can catch a flight to

Vegas for his famous show at The Sands. The camera pans around the room revealing a stone fireplace and thoughtful screen detailing before fading to black as Sinatra runs out the door.xlvi

- 81 - The home was seamlessly mechanical in its inception and execution. Sinatra was fascinated by technology. He wanted his home to be equipped with the latest “gadgets and mechanical toys.”

According to Williams, “Frank Sinatra wanted a bedroom; press a button and the doors open to the patio. Press another button and the bed rolls out into the patio.”xlvii Custom built-in cabinetry housed the hi-fi stereo system while acoustical gravel and loud speakers camouflaged by sheetrock provided excellent sound quality. The design truly adhered to the modernist philosophy that a home should be a “machine for living.”xlviii Guests recalled the excellent impression the home left on them through their various memoirs. They recalled the “sweep of the drive, steps cut into the rock that led to an illuminated kidney-shaped swimming pool and a private cinema” – all of which have come to symbolize Sinatra in the public imagination and the Southern California playboy- cool aesthetic.xlix

Fig. 15: The Home that Replaced the Frank Sinatra Residence at 2600-2666 Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates, Beverly Hills, California. Trulia.

It is not surprising that the Frank Sinatra Residence was demolished (Fig. 15). The home was extremely modern in style and quite small by contemporary standards. The home’s placement on a large piece of extremely desirable hilltop land with beautiful slopes and sweeping views of

Hollywood and the San Fernando Valley in Trousdale Estates only compounded the home’s likelihood of destruction. When the home was demolished in 2006, there were no significant

- 82 - protests from preservationists. In 2007, David Kelly of California State University put together a short documentary titled Paul Revere Williams – A Legend in Architecture about Williams’ career and focusing on his contributions to the Long Beach area in particular.l Images of the Sinatra

Residence are included, but not discussed in detail. While the documentary asserts that Williams was the most successful African American architect of the 20th century, it ends with the passive statement: “as time marches on some structures designed by Paul Revere Williams will inevitably be torn down.”li The documentary makes no mention of the great losses of Paul Revere Williams works, and offers no call to action for its audience to advocate for the preservation of Williams’ homes. Beginning with a 2012 LA Curbed post about the Frank Sinatra Person to Person episode, news reports about the lamentation of the loss the Frank Sinatra Home and other modern residences in Beverly Hills began to increase.lii In 2012, Beverly Hills created a landmark designation process and five-person Cultural Heritage Commission in response to demolition threats to John Lautner and Richard Neutra designed homes.liii While the adoption of this preservation policy is encouraging, it is disappointing that the loss of Paul R. Williams designed homes, despite his influence on the look and feel of Beverly Hills, were not deemed significant enough to take action.

Paul Revere Williams was posthumously awarded the 2017 AIA Gold Medal. Frank Lloyd

Wright (1949), Louis Sullivan (1944), Le Corbusier (1961), Louis I. Kahn (1971), I.M. Pei (1979),

Thom Mayne (2013), Julia Morgan (2014), Moshe Safdie (2015) and Denise Scott Brown &

Robert Venturi (2016) are among the architects alongside Williams to have been awarded the AIA

Gold Medal. The award is truly an induction to the official canon of architectural history.liv Since the announcement of this award, an onslaught of editorials have been published about Paul Revere

Williams’ incomparable role in the creation of the Los Angeles landscape and the negligent oversight of historians who omitted him from architectural history. On April 10, 2017, 99%

- 83 - Invisible, one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, released an episode about Williams, his incredible role in the creation of the Los Angeles aesthetic, and his importance in American architectural history.lv Later that month, the Los Angeles Times published an editorial about

Williams’ work and the tragic loss of his archives during the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.lvi The Paul

Revere Williams news cycle then shifted to the effect of the architect’s new found visibility on the market for his homes. In June 2017, published a piece with a video component about the rising desirability of Williams-designed homes.lvii This is one of the few pieces to contain a description of the number of Williams homes that have likely been demolished and lamentation of their loss. Thankfully, the Los Angeles Conservancy architect entry for Paul R.

Williams does not shy away from the threat to Williams’ buildings. It states, “Despite his legendary status and prolific output, examples of Williams’ work face increasing threats of demolition or excessive alteration.”lviii Renewed interest in the oeuvre of Paul R. Williams after he was awarded the AIA Gold Medal supports the assertion that the acceptance and inclusion of architects in the

“official” architectural history canon increases the likelihood of their work being preserved.

Fig. 16: Paul Revere Williams. Carver Manor House, Stanford Avenue, Los Angeles, California, 1946-1949. The Shades of LA Archives, Los Angeles Public Library.

- 84 -

While the new interest in Paul Revere Williams’ career is focused primarily on the palatial estates he built for celebrities or his large scale public projects, Williams was dedicated to building affordable housing for people of all economic backgrounds – from public housing to fairly priced idyllic suburban homes. Interestingly, communities like the Paul Revere Williams designed Carver

Manor (Fig. 16) in the Willowbrook neighborhood of Los Angeles, are much more invested in the preservation and proper historical documentation of their neighborhood than their more affluent counterparts in Beverly Hills. The Carver Manor project was spearheaded by Velma Grant, an

African American real estate broker, and consisted of subdivision of 250 affordable, single-family homes intended for African American servicemen returning from World War II and their families.lix With the influx of Veterans Administration insured mortgage programs, middle-class

African American veterans intended to purchase homes at greater rates than ever before. There was a void in the real estate market for high quality, affordable homes for African Americans and

Carver Manor was one of the few quality developments open to people of all racial backgrounds.lx

In 1946, the first phase of single-family homes at Carver Manor were listed on the market at

$11,400. People lined up around the block to view the model homes and over 110 homes in Carver

Manor were immediately put under contract.lxi Williams’ designs for the Carver Manor homes were by no means identical cookie cutter tract homes. With off-set faces and broken rooflines, the homes coordinated to create a cohesive neighborhood look with the benefit of individual flair.

Each home had a single car garage and a landscaped front lawn.lxii In addition to the Carver Manor homes, Williams released two architectural pattern books, The Small Home of Tomorrow (1945) and New Homes for Today (1946), with the goal of providing quality architectural plans “not only for young families, particularly those of war veterans, but for anyone who wanted to build a home.”lxiii

- 85 - The Carver Manor development aligns with trends of various modern housing developments in response to the post-war housing shortage. Like Six Moon Hill designed by The

Architects Collaborative in 1948, Carver Manor developed a natural collaborative living environment. Many of the original residents retained their homes until the end of their lives. James

Carter, an original resident of Carver Manor along with his wife, Volue Carter, told the Los Angeles

Times in 1992, “People along our street know each other through the block club that meets monthly. This is still a quiet neighborhood."lxiv The cooperative culture of the neighborhood was solidified in 2003 when Randy A. Hughes founded the Carver Manor Friends and Neighbors

Community Association.lxv The purpose of the organization is to:

“Work with city and county agencies to foster a sense of community for the perseverance

and character of our neighborhood;

Voice concerns about new issues that are not appropriate to the well-being of our

neighbors, giving resident's a voice in the community;

Help residents preserve landmark/historic homes and buildings (Carver Manor);

Keep residents updated on relevant issues related to crime in our neighborhood;

Tree canopy upkeep and trimming;

Coalesce with other neighborhood organizations, advocating for a dynamically changing

demographic, for our neighborhood and city; and

Work with others to foster community and preserve the neighborhood.”lxvi

These values create the perfect environment for community powered preservation. The Carver

Manor “pride of ownership” is oft cited as a characteristic of the neighborhood in articles and surveys about the Willowbrook community.lxvii

- 86 - Fig. 17: Well Preserved Examples of Carver Manor Homes circa 2017. Zillow.

Fig. 18: Well Preserved Examples of Carver Manor Homes circa 2017. Zillow.

The Carver Manor development is situated on Stanford Avenue and McKinley Avenue between East El Segundo Boulevard and East 135th Street. While an official survey of the neighborhood has not been performed, an examination of the neighborhood via Google Maps shows that the vast majority of original Carver Manor homes remain, with minimal architectural changes (Fig. 17-18). Overall, the homes are well maintained and preserved, without sacrificing the homeowner’s ability to personalize the property. The architectural integrity preserved in Carver

Manor is astounding. Each home retains the thoughtful qualities that distinguish it as a Paul Revere

Wiliams – the rooflines, massing, and window placement. The careful preservation of Carver

- 87 - Manor acts as a foil to the general disregard of Williams architecture in wealthier parts of Los

Angeles.lxviii While interest in Williams’ work is growing nationwide, there are still many preservation lessons to be learned from the Carver Manor community. The first is that the best preservation initiatives start from the bottom-up, not the top-down. Essentially, this means that successful preservation begins with a thoughtful community network, not necessarily official preservation policy changes and regulatory agencies. The second is that cultural awareness is a major factor in preservation success. In Structural Inequality, architect Nelson Norton provided the following quote on the pride black architects have for the early pioneers of black architecture:

“All architects are aware of their heritage, but I find for black architects the history takes

on an added meaning. It’s about the ‘history of the race,’ about the accomplishments their

ancestors were able to make during a time when blacks in many parts of this country were

not allowed to own businesses, and following close on a time when they were not allowed

to learn to read.”lxix

A similar reverence for Paul Revere Williams is found among the residents of Carver Manor, a neighborhood that remains majority black today. The Carver Manor Friends and Neighbors

Community Association’s website prominently displays a lengthy description of Williams accomplishments along with a detailed history of the design and development of the neighborhood.lxx Local awareness of the cultural value of these homes was an invaluable tool in their successful and sustained preservation.

Flaws in the canon of architectural history are a detriment to all preservation endeavors.

Modern residences are particularly impacted by these flaws as the history of the modern movement is in the process of being written. Not only are modern residences undervalued as architectural works because of their association with the “feminine,” the most well-known modern architects

- 88 - are white men who frequently dismissed the value their residential work in favor of large scale commercial projects. This bias negatively impacts the preservation of residences, specifically residences designed by architects who fall outside of the prototypical white male architect mold.

Both Eleanor Raymond and Paul Revere Williams were uncannily attuned to the way that people actually lived in their homes. While they both had high minded philosophies of modern architecture, each seriously considered their client’s lifestyles and desires in the creation of their designs. One could certainly argue that this was a skill Raymond and Williams developed because they were not in a position of privilege where they could openly challenge a client’s desires.

However, it is an admirable skill that Raymond and Williams were able to take into account a client’s needs while still creating beautifully designed, innovative buildings. The idea of a “great” architect as someone who is unflinchingly loyal to their own aesthetics is a harmful myth perpetuated by the ego of Frank Lloyd Wright and Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead.

Both Eleanor Raymond and Paul Revere Williams have designed outstanding modern residences that are worthy of preservation. While some of their best works have survived,

Raymond’s Peabody Sculpture Studio and Williams’ home for his own family, many others have been thoughtlessly destroyed. To prevent further unnecessary loss, the canon of architectural history must be amended to increase awareness of the contributions of female architects and architects of color.

- 89 - Notes i Linda Nochlin, “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?” ARTNews (1971), 22-39 and 67- 71, http://www.artnews.com/2015/05/30/why-have-there-been-no-great-women-artists/. ii Ibid. iii Ibid. iv Doris Cole, Eleanor Raymond, Architect (Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, 1981), 17-19. v Ibid., 19. vi Lucy R. Lippard, From the Center: Feminist Essays on Women's Art (New York: Dutton, 1976). vii Sally Zimmerman (Senior Preservation Services Manager at Historic New England) in discussion with the author, July 2017. viii Nancy Beth Gruskin, "Building Context: The Personal and Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989)" (Order No. 9809107, Boston University, 1998), 217. https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/304457587?accountid=14437. ix Doris Cole, Eleanor Raymond, Architect (Philadelphia: Art Alliance Press, 1981), 40-41. x Nancy Beth Gruskin, "Building Context: The Personal and Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989)" (Order No. 9809107, Boston University, 1998),105-106. https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/304457587?accountid=14437. xi Ibid., 105. xii Linn Hobbs, “Belmont Historic District Commission – Meeting Minutes December 13, 2006,” Belmont Historic District (December 13, 2006), http://www.belmont-ma.gov/sites/belmontma/files/minutes/minutes-file/12-13- 06.pdf. xiii Ted Smalley Bowen, “New England’s First Modernist House Destroyed,” Architectural Record (January 9, 2007) via archBOSTON.org (January 15, 2007), http://www.archboston.org/community/showthread.php?t=1451. xiv Linn Hobbs, “Belmont Historic District Commission – Meeting Minutes December 13, 2006,” Belmont Historic District (December 13, 2006), http://www.belmont-ma.gov/sites/belmontma/files/minutes/minutes-file/12-13- 06.pdf. xv Nancy Beth Gruskin, "Building Context: The Personal and Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989)" (Order No. 9809107, Boston University, 1998), 102. https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/304457587?accountid=14437. xvi Kevin D. Murphy, Carol Willis, Daniel Bluestone, Kerry Traynor, and Sally Levine, “Remembering America’s Lost Buildings,” The Conversation (August 31, 2017), https://theconversation.com/remembering-americas-lost- buildings-82342. xvii Vincze Miklós, “These incredible, reflective buildings look almost invisible,” io9 Gizmodo (February 18, 2014), https://io9.gizmodo.com/these-incredible-reflective-buildings-look-almost-invi-1524967693; Delia Reyes, “Featured Works From The Gallery: Week 32,” Creators – Vice (February 16, 2012), https://creators.vice.com/en_us/article/qkzqy3/featured-works-from-the-gallery-week-32; Pedro Joel Costa, “MIRROR HOUSE - AIA 2009 Committee on Design Ideas Competition (COD),” Architizer (2009), https://architizer.com/projects/mirror-house-aia-2009-committee-on-design-ideas-competition-cod/.

- 90 -

xviii Nancy Beth Gruskin, "Building Context: The Personal and Professional Life of Eleanor Raymond, Architect (1887-1989)" (Order No. 9809107, Boston University, 1998), 166. https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/304457587?accountid=14437. xix Ibid., 169. xx “About Powisset Farm,” The Trustees (2017), http://www.thetrustees.org/places-to-visit/greater-boston/powisset- farm.html. xxi Scott Driscoll, “49 POWISSETT St Dover, MA 02030,” Redfin (December 20, 2012), https://www.redfin.com/MA/Dover/49-Powisset-St-02030/home/11708788. xxii Eleanor Tedesco, “Amelia Peabody’s sundial finds a new home in Dover,” Wicked Local: Dover (September 13, 2014), http://dover.wickedlocal.com/article/20140913/NEWS/140906871. xxiii Despina Stratigakos, Where Are the Women Architects? (Princeton: Princeton University Press, in Association with Places Journal, 2016). xxiv Ibid., 66. xxv Victoria Kaplan, Structural Inequality: Black Architects in the United States (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 2. xxvi Ibid., 23. xxvii Ibid., 24. xxviii Avery Trufelman, “The Architect of Hollywood,” 99% Invisible (April 10, 2017), https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-architect-of-hollywood/. xxix Victoria Kaplan, Structural Inequality: Black Architects in the United States (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 24-25. xxx Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 20-21. xxxi Ibid. xxxii Ibid., 33. xxxiii “Beverly Hills Hotel, Beverly Hills, CA,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009-2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/beverly-hills-hotel-beverly-hills-ca/. xxxiv Avery Trufelman, “The Architect of Hollywood,” 99% Invisible (April 10, 2017), https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-architect-of-hollywood/. xxxv Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 14. xxxvi Avery Trufelman, “The Architect of Hollywood,” 99% Invisible (April 10, 2017), https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-architect-of-hollywood/. xxxvii Paul R. Williams, “The Small Home of Tomorrow – 1945,” Paul R. Williams : A Collection of House Plans (California Architecture and Architects; No. 29, 30. Santa Monica, CA: Hennessey & Ingalls, 2006), 6.

- 91 - xxxviii Stefanos Chen, "MANSION – The Paul Williams Premium: A Surge of Interest in the Late African-American Architect Means Top Dollar for His Southern California Homes; the Former Home of Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn," Wall Street Journal (June 30, 2017, Eastern edition), https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/1914738404?accountid=14437. xxxix Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 13. xl Adrian Glick Kudler, “Frank Sinatra Gives You (and Edward R. Murrow) a Tour of His Trousdale Estates Paul Williams House,” Curbed Los Angeles (February 14, 2012), https://la.curbed.com/2012/2/14/10396550/frank- sinatra-gives-you-and-edward-r-murrow-a-tour-of-his-trousdale. xli “2600-2666 Bowmont Dr, Beverly Hills, CA 90210,” Trulia (2017), https://www.trulia.com/property/3047783828-2600-2666-Bowmont-Dr-Beverly-Hills-CA-90210. xlii Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 172. xliii “Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009- 2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/frank-sinatra-residence-bowmont-drive-/. xliv Ibid. xlv Edward R. Murrow, “Frank Sinatra,” Person to Person, performed by Edward R. Murrow and Frank Sinatra (September 14, 1956; series run 1953-1959), digital video, https://youtu.be/vhsVVGZ5S2c. xlvi Ibid. xlvii “Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009-2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/frank-sinatra-residence-bowmont-drive-/. xlviii Jacque Sbriglio, Le Corbusier : La Villa Savoye = the Villa Savoye (Paris: Basel; Boston: Fondation Le Corbusier; Birkhäuser Publishers, 1999). xlix “Frank Sinatra Residence, Bowmont Drive, Trousdale Estates,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009- 2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/frank-sinatra-residence-bowmont-drive-/. l Kelly, David. Paul Revere Williams – A Legend in Architecture. Advanced Media Production Center, College of Continuing and Professional Education, California State University Long Beach: 2006-2007. 24:54. https://youtu.be/N-EMQdkRD7o. li Ibid. lii Adrian Glick Kudler, “Frank Sinatra Gives You (and Edward R. Murrow) a Tour of His Trousdale Estates Paul Williams House,” Curbed Los Angeles (February 14, 2012), https://la.curbed.com/2012/2/14/10396550/frank- sinatra-gives-you-and-edward-r-murrow-a-tour-of-his-trousdale. liii Martha Groves, “Beverly Hills historic homes at risk of demolition, preservationists say,” Los Angeles Times (June 17, 2015), http://www.latimes.com/local/westside/la-me-beverly-hills-preservation-20150618-story.html. liv Matt Tinder, “Press Release: 2017 AIA Gold Medal Awarded to Paul Revere Williams, FAIA,” The American Institute of Architects (December 6, 2016), https://www.aia.org/press-releases/24536-2017-aia-gold-medal-awarded- to-paul-revere-w. lv Avery Trufelman, “The Architect of Hollywood,” 99% Invisible (April 10, 2017), https://99percentinvisible.org/episode/the-architect-of-hollywood/.

- 92 -

lvi Christopher Hawthorne, “For the late L.A. architect Paul R. Williams, national honor overlaps with a bleak anniversary,” Los Angeles Times (April 28, 2017), http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/museums/la-et-cm- paul-r-williams-gold-medal-20170428-story.html. lvii Stefanos Chen, "MANSION – The Paul Williams Premium: A Surge of Interest in the Late African-American Architect Means Top Dollar for His Southern California Homes; the Former Home of Frank Sinatra and Audrey Hepburn," Wall Street Journal (June 30, 2017, Eastern edition), https://search-proquest- com.libproxy.tulane.edu/docview/1914738404?accountid=14437. lviii “Paul R. Williams,” Los Angeles Conservancy (2017), https://www.laconservancy.org/architects/paul-r-williams. lix “Carver Manor, Los Angeles, CA,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009-2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/1940s-houses/. lx “Housing: Decent and Profitable,” TIME Magazine (July 25, 1949), 69-70, http://time.com/vault/issue/1949-07- 25/page/71/. lxi “History – Paul Revere Williams, Carver Manor Architect,” Friends & Neighbors Community Association (2017), http://www.fnccla.com/history.html. lxii “Carver Manor, Los Angeles, CA,” Paul Revere Williams American Architect (2009-2017), http://www.paulrwilliamsproject.org/gallery/1940s-houses/. lxiii Karen E. Hudson and Paul R. Williams, Paul R. Williams, Architect : A Legacy of Style (New York: Rizzoli, 1993), 154. lxiv Marilyn Tower Oliver, “At Home: Quiet L.A. Neighborhood in Eye of the Storm: Willowbrook,” Los Angeles Times (August 30, 1992), http://articles.latimes.com/1992-08-30/realestate/re-8297_1_quiet-neighborhood. lxv “Randy A. Hughes, CEO & Founder,” Friends & Neighbors Community Association (2017), http://www.fnccla.com/randy.html. lxvi “Our Purpose,” Friends & Neighbors Community Association (2017), http://www.fnccla.com/our-purpose.html. lxvii Los Angeles County Arts Commission, LA Commons, and Rosten Woo, Project Willowbrook: Cultivating a Healthy Community through Arts and Culture Cultural Asset Mapping Report (Los Angeles County Arts Commission Civic Art Program, National Endowment for the Arts, 2013), https://www.lacountyarts.org/willowbrook/downloads/CulturalAssetMappingReportWillowbrookFinal.pdf. lxviii In the 21st century Williams residential architecture has come back into visibility in wealthier areas, particularly because of posthumous awards like the 2017 AIA Gold Medal. Essentially, the “white” establishment had to validate Williams’ significant accomplishments before homeowners, preservationists, and architects could become aware of his work. lxix Victoria Kaplan, Structural Inequality: Black Architects in the United States (Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), 22-23. lxx “History – Paul Revere Williams, Carver Manor Architect,” Friends & Neighbors Community Association (2017), http://www.fnccla.com/history.html.

- 93 -

- 94 - Chapter 5: New Ethics and Methodology for the Preservation of Modern Residential Architecture

The preservation of modern residential architecture could be more accessible to the general public through a flexible approach to modern preservation. Many homeowners who want to thoughtfully preserve modern residences are overwhelmed with the burden of rehabilitating materials as opposed to replacing them with a material that bears the same aesthetic qualities but is more practical and suitable to contemporary life. While standard preservation ethos urges us to retain the material at all costs, it is apparent that in the preservation of modern homes a certain flexibility should be exercised to maintain the aesthetic and functionality of the structure in accordance with the hallmarks of modernism:

1) an interest in exploring new materials.

2) a rejection of historical precedents.

3) simplification of forms by a reduction of ornament.

For decades, preservationists have attempted to apply the methods and ethics of preservation traditionally used for Colonial barns and Victorian homes to modern architecture. This is a dead end. Modern materials were experimental and more sustainable, contemporary materials often adequately reflect the architect’s aesthetic choice. Exhausting financial and intellectual resources solely to maintain the material integrity of a structure, which is the top priority of many preservationists, makes the preservation of modern architecture, appear to be arbitrarily complex.

The aesthetics, functionality, and overall visual experience of modern structures take precedence over the materials and craftsmanship of the building. Carol Krinsky, Architectural Historian and former president of the Society of Architectural Historians, made an excellent point about the

- 95 - arbitrary use of certain materials when weighing in on the debate over whether or not to completely replace the curtain wall at Lever House:

“Skidmore, Owings & Merrill did what it could with materials then available. It’s not that

anyone particularly wanted greenish glass or certain metals or certain spandrel material;

it’s rather that SOM used what was available at the time...The essential features of Lever

House are, in my opinion, the proportions, the elevation of much of the building on slender,

free standing supports, and the glazed surface.”i

Krinsky’s argument that the proportions of Lever House are the character defining feature of the structure as opposed to the greenish glass materials used to clad the building are a huge departure from traditional preservation practice. Aesthetic is traditionally included in the evaluation of character defining features and the material is viewed as inextricable from the aesthetic. It is only to be replaced is the entire feature is destroyed. The preservation of modern architecture should be approached differently because the proportions, aesthetics, clean lines, and harmonious design elements are the character defining features of modernism; materials are not paramount.

Replacement of features in materials that are similar to the original do not detract from these features. In addition, the clean lines and harmonious proportions of modernism do not patina well like natural materials used in earlier American architectural styles. The materials of modernism were frequently experimental and many of those materials failed. However, the most important aspect of modernism, the aesthetic, can be preserved with a little pragmatism. Modernism is completely unlike any preceding form of architecture; preservation of modernism must be as revolutionary as the architecture itself to be effective. The following is a malleable methodology and detailed guide for the pragmatic and proactive preservation of modern residential architecture.

- 96 - It has been created to provide guidance in locating, documenting, and advocating for threatened works of significant architectural importance.

METHODOLOGY

These guidelines have been created to support the development of modern residential property surveys and encourage proactive advocacy in local preservation organizations throughout the

United States. These guidelines will provide assistance in performing a building-by-building intensive level survey to determine historical significance, architectural integrity, current condition, ownership, historic designations or protections, and potential threats to modern residential properties. These criteria are a staring point for creating a methodology for a local modern residential property survey:

1) Built between 1930 and 1975;

2) Designed by a noted mid-century modern architect, developer, builder, or prefabricated

home company; OR is designed by an underrepresented architect, female architect, or

architect of color; OR is a well-designed modern home that adheres to the tenants of

modernism; OR is a vernacular modern building of local importance;

3) Retains integrity of location, design, setting, some materials (or documentation of

original materials), workmanship, feeling, and association;

4) Has no protective preservation designation (local historic district, neighborhood

covenant, easement protection, etc.) currently in place; and

5) Is or appears to be in an area that is frequently threatened with demolition subdivision

or insensitive alteration.

- 97 - Properties that lack integrity of material or have undergone extensive interior renovations should be considered on a case-by-case basis through evaluation of the effectiveness of the replacement material and renovations that adhere to the tenants of mid-century modern architecture.

STEP 1: Compile a comprehensive survey of local modern residential architecture.

A) Select properties and neighborhoods that exhibit the stylistic characteristics of modern

residential architecture and appear to have been constructed between 1930 and 1975.

Determine which properties and neighborhoods appear to be representative of modern

residential architecture for further research.

B) Determine architects, builders, developers, or prefabricated home companies who were

active the area between 1930 and 1975.

Each region has its own stronghold of modern architects, with characteristic adaptations of

the style based on the needs of the local environment The following is a list of selected

American modern residential architects, builders, developers, and prefabricated home

companies. This selection of information exists as a starting point for research. It is by no

means definitive and should be amended as new figures within modern residential

architecture are discovered and studied:

- 98 - Architects, Builders, and Developers Gregory Ain Robert Hammerschmidt Eliot Noyes George and Robert Alexander John C. Harkness Donald Olsen Anshen and Allen Sarah P. Harkness Vladimir Ossipoff Richard Barry Harwell Hamilton Harris Palmer and Krisel, Inc. Fred Bassetti Ralph Haver I.M. Pei Al Beadle Francis J. Heusel Cesar Pelli Gedas Bliudzius Poldi Hirsch G. Holmes Perkins Walter Bogner Henry Hoover Constantin A. Pertzoff Morris Bolter Rem Huygens Walter Pierce Brenner Danforth Rockwell ElizabethWright Ingraham Jeffery Poss Marcel Breuer Richard Isenhour James Bronkema John Johansen Ralph E. Rapson Arthur T. Brown Perry B. Johanson Eleanor Raymond Douglas Byles Phillip Johnson Hilyard Robinson Warren Callister Jones & Emmons H.P. Davis Rockwell Norman F. Carver Jr. A. Quincy Jones Paul Rudolph Eduardo Fernando Catalano Fay Jones Judith Chafee Robert Lawton Jones Rudolph Schindler John S. Chase Louis Kahn Milton Schwartz John Porter Clark Henry Kamphoefner Robert Schwartz, Elizabeth Close Raymond L. Kappe Avriel Shull William Francis Cody Hugh Kaptur Sklarek, Norma Robert Allen Cook George and William Keck Small, Milton Cooper Carry Paul Hayden Kirk Soriano, Raphael S. Jerry Cooper Carl Koch Sparks, Carter Curtis & Davis Pierre Francis Koenig Frederick A. (Tad) Stahl Edward Cushman John Latimer A.D. Stenger Mary Lund Davis John Lautner Robert A.M. Stern Frank DePasquale Albert Ledner Eugene Sternberg Harrison DeSilver John Black Lee Edward Durrell Stone John Desmond Roger Lee Calvin Straub Abrom and Ben Dombar Charles Leofanti Streng Brothers Alden B. Dow Gilbert Leong Rodger Stroop Charles Dubois Edward Loewenstein Hugh Stubbins Joseph Eichler Wendell Lovett John Sweet Craig Ellwood George Matsumoto Benjamin Thompson Jack Feagley May and Choate Beverley David Thorne Earl Flansburgh William May Art Troutner Jean Fletcher Bruce McCarty Tucker & Shields Norman Fletcher Royal McClure Van Horne, John O’Neil Ford John Randal McDonald Venturi, Robert Albert Frey Robert McElroy Walker, Bruce Irving Gill Robert S. McMillan Francis Warner H. Grattan Gill, Jr. Louis A. McMillen Edward Waugh Bruce Goff Lee McRae Eugene Weston III Robert Goodall Richard Meier Donald Wexler Landis Gore Ludwig Mies van der Rohe Emerson Stewart Williams Michael Graves, Willis Mills Paul Revere Williams Beverly Loraine Greene Richard S. Morehouse Russell Barr Williamson Jack Grisdale William N. Morgan Thomas W. Woodman Walter Gropius John Morse Evans Woollen Charles Gwathmey Elda Muir Frank Lloyd Wright Charles Haertling Stanley Myers Frank Lloyd Wright, Jr. David Haid Richard Neutra Early Young Jackson Hallett Matthew Nowicki Saul Zaik

Prefabricated Home Companies Aladdin Company Lincoln Homes Southern Homes Alcoa Care-free Homes Lustron Homes Sterling Homes Capp-Homes Main Line Homes Swift Homes General Panel Corp. National Homes Corp. Techbuilt Homes Gunnison Magichomes Paragon Builders Wingfoot Homes Liberty Homes Pease Homes

- 99 - C) Collect information about each property using state cultural resource inventories,

building permits, tax assessors’ data, architectural archives, local library archives, etc.

It is recommended (but not required) that the following information be obtained during the

survey process:

- The architect of the home.

- The original homeowner.

- The construction date.

- The location of the property.

- The current owners.

- The assessed value of the property.

- Review the condition of the property and record visible alterations.

- Any current designations, easements, National Historic Landmark or National

Register of Historic Places listing, Local Historic District inclusion, or State

Register of Historic Places listing.

- The architectural integrity of the property.

- Important elements of the property’s history, construction, and relationship to

properties in the surrounding area.

- Evaluate the preservation risk for the property.

- Include appropriate images, resources, and documentation of the property.

- Collect an oral history from original owners, friends or family.

- 100 - D) Compile surveyed properties into a master document for use as a baseline for monitoring

modern residential properties.

Based on the findings of the survey, select priority properties as strategic modern

residential properties to continually monitor and assess for demolition threat. The modern

residential properties in the survey should be reevaluated annually. This will allow for

preservation organizations to have a better idea of when to organize and advocate for the

preservation of an important piece of modern residential architecture.

E) Utilize surveyed information to create Individual, District, and Multiple Resource Area

National Register of Historic Places Nominations and to submit nominations for any

local or state level historic distinctions.

The modern survey findings will provide a general frame work for concentrations of

modern residential architecture and architecturally significant individual homes. Since the

National Register of Historic Places is an honorary designation, inclusion will raise

awareness of the importance of modern architecture. In some states, inclusion will also

make the property eligible for residential preservation tax credits or federal preservation

tax credits if the home is going to be a rental property.

STEP 2: Create a local modern preservation committee.

Most preservation organizations were founded in the 1960s and 1970s, when modern architecture was contemporary, relatively new architecture and not in need of preservation protection.

However, as many of the best examples of modern architecture have already surpassed 50 years of age, the standard requirement for consideration for a building to be included on the National

Register of Historic Places, the preservation of modern architecture is now a pressing

- 101 - responsibility for preservation organizations. This responsibility is best managed through an independent committee as the standards and ethics for the preservation of modern architecture should vary from that of older, more traditional architecture. Many communities throughout the

United States have designated modern architecture preservation organizations such as: The Los

Angeles Conservancy’s Modern Committee (ModCom), Los Angeles, CA; Friends of Modern

Architecture (FoMA) Lincoln, MA; Modern House Trust (CCMHT), Cape Cod, MA; the Sarasota Architectural Foundation’s (SAF) Sarasota Modern (SarasotaMOD), Sarasota,

Florida; Ohio History Connection (Ohio State Historic Preservation Office, SHPO) Ohio Modern:

Preserving Our Recent Past, Columbus, OH (statewide); Landmark’s Indiana Modern,

Indianapolis, IN (statewide); Chicago Bauhaus and Beyond, Chicago, IL; Mid-Century Modern

Midland, Midland, MI; a2 modern, Ann Arbor, MI; Utah Heritage Foundation’s Salt Lake Modern,

Salt Lake City, Utah; The University of Arizona School of Architecture’s Modern Architecture

Preservation Project of Tuscon (MAPP), Tuscon, AZ; and many more throughout the country.

Each of these organizations have effectively raised awareness about preservation of modern architecture in a manner that is well suited to each specific locale.

A) Develop a relationship with local neighborhood associations in modern

neighborhoods and owners of modern residences.

Local neighborhood associations wield a great deal of influence in the grassroots

preservation ethos of any historic neighborhood, but especially in neighborhoods that

were developed, designed, and constructed in the mid-century. Many modern

neighborhoods were developed with the utopian ideal of collaborative living behind

them. In many instances, this meant that the neighborhoods were imbued with a

regulatory neighborhood organization from their inception. Modern preservation

- 102 - committees should align themselves with these neighborhood organizations as they are essential to successful modern preservation. An interesting example of the importance of neighborhood organizations in preservation can be found in the current levels of preservation in The Architects’ Collaborative (TAC) groundbreaking midcentury developments, Six Moon Hill (1947) and Five Fields (1951). While both of these communities were started by the same group of highly respected modern architects led by Walter Gropius, Five Fields has experienced much greater rates of aesthetic deterioration and insensitive new development. This is because the Five Fields community chose to allow the regulatory power of their neighborhood association, the

Five Fields Association, to expire in 1971.ii Conversely, Six Moon Hill chose to continue renewing the regulatory power of communal governance under Six Moon

Hill, Inc. This neighborhood continues to retain a great deal of architectural integrity, while allowing homeowners to update, expand, and build new homes in a manner that compliments the Six Moon Hill Design Guidelines.iii Given the inherent preservation power of neighborhood organizations, it is crucial that preservation organizations and committees do an appropriate amount of community outreach to show the neighborhood organizations the benefits of practical preservation. It is also important to take a proactive approach to communicating with modern homeowners who may not be a part of a neighborhood association or whose homes are not located in a development. Most homeowners are delighted to learn that their homes are significant and valuable to architectural history. It is important that preservation organizations open the eyes of the community to the value of the architecture in their community’s built environment.

- 103 - B) Initiate a membership program for modern homeowners and people interested in the

preservation of modernism.

Membership programs for cultural organizations are often viewed primarily as a means

for the organization to have a guaranteed source of capital. Preservation organizations

have the opportunity to create membership programs that provide accessible resources

for people who are interested in preserving historic homes. Historic New England has

created the Historic Homeowner membership program, an excellent example of how

membership programs can serve as a venue for practical preservation resources. The

Historic Homeowner membership program provides members with personalized

recommendations for historic properties. The Historic New England Historic

Homeowner membership program assists homeowners in:

“Selecting period exterior or interior paint colors and treatments; evaluating the

design and history of your older home for compatibility with construction

proposals; locating specialty contractors; and providing members-only historic

house workshops, pop-up tours, and other events.”iv

Historic New England’s Historic Homeowner program creates a self-selecting

preservation regulatory organization. This is an especially helpful resource for modern

residential properties as many experts in home renovation do not see the value in mid-

century modern homes and are likely to recommend insensitive alterations or complete

teardown of the properties.

C) Devise a training program on the benefits and challenges of modern residential

architecture for realtors.

- 104 - The riskiest time for modern residential properties is the first time that they are listed on the real estate market. Frequently, many mid-century modern homes will be listed initially as move-in ready homes. However, if the home sits on the market too long, many realtors will recommend reducing the price and listing the property as a teardown to generate interest. This is the worst possible outcome for any modern property on the market. One strategy to combat mid-century modern properties being sold as teardowns is by having realtors in the area who specialize in modern architecture or at least understand its importance. Bill Janovitz and John Tse are two of the most significant realtors who specialize in modernism.v Active in the Boston area real estate market,

Janovitz and Tse are surrounded by perfect examples of mid-century modern residential architecture. While many realtors in the Boston area still list modern properties as teardowns, Janovitz and Tse have carved out a lucrative niche market in modernism.

Their respect and knowledge of modernism also makes them the choice realtors for

Boston area modern properties in the Historic New England Easement Program. Many other cities with great concentrations of modern residential architecture also have realtors that market themselves as modern experts. To successfully preserve more examples of modern residential architecture, it is crucial that preservation organizations offer training courses to realtors in the significance of historic and modern residential properties. The Preservation Resource Center in New Orleans does an excellent job of training local realtors in the art of selling historic local homes in a responsible manner.

The Preservation Resource Center offers the Historic House Specialist Seminar for

Real Estate Agents annually which “provides detailed information about the historic house types and neighborhoods of New Orleans as well as pertinent information about

- 105 - financial incentives, renovation financing, and permitting that will enable local Real

Estate Agents to better market and sell historic New Orleans homes. This program

provides 4 continuing education credits (by the Louisiana Real Estate Commission)

and by attending 2 additional PRC education programs (First Time Renovator or

Renovators’ Happy Hour), the PRC designation of Historic House Specialist.”vi This

type of training course is an excellent preservation resource because it offers realtors a

career enrichment opportunity and a chance to increase their earnings while

encouraging the best preservation practices for prospective homebuyers.

D) Produce community programming and outreach initiatives to raise awareness of the

importance of modern architecture and create local interest in modern architecture.

Many preservation experts assert that the best preservation initiatives come from the

ground up, not the top down. This means that all effective preservation must start from

the interests and passions of the community. In order incentivize civic pride through

preservation, community members must be aware of the valuable architectural

resources in their community. Public programming initiatives are an excellent way to

spread preservation awareness throughout a community. Many preservation

organizations offer weekly tours and special events showcase the gems of architectural

history in their area. Some public programming initiatives can assist with the grassroots

work necessary for effective preservation. Mid-Century Midland oversees the

community outreach for the significant modern buildings in Midland, Michigan, the

home of Dow Chemical and hundreds of beautiful modern buildings designed by Alden

B. Dow, Jackson Hallett, Francis Warner, Robert Schwartz, Francis Beech, and Robert

Goodall. The density of high style modern architecture that retains its original

- 106 - architectural integrity in Midland is unparalleled in the United States.vii While Mid-

Century Midland does sponsor classic presentations and tours, they also started a

groundbreaking community architectural documentation project. Mid-Century

Midland collects raw data thanks to a team of volunteers. Recently Dwell covered the

innovative program:

“Currently, a team of more than 30 volunteers is combing this collection of mid-

century modern architecture to survey and document the evolution of Dow-inspired

structures in the area. This army of volunteer scanners uses a checklist of

architectural features to track this stylistic cohesion, and then a volunteer-operated

website to upload photos and descriptions to an open source database. That

checklist of defining features includes: ‘a strong horizontal orientation,’ ‘clean lines

without much ornamentation,’ ‘repetition of features,’ ‘a combination of quality

materials,’ ‘a large chimney mass,’ and integration with the site…the Mid-Century

Modern Midland project has trained its volunteers with a Midland architectural

history bootcamp, and has combined efforts to canvass the more than 18,000

residences, religious structures, and business and civic centers across its 35 square

miles. Once the last quarter of the city has been canvassed, a screening team will

cross check the database entries, and then enlist researchers, the city assessor, and

building offices to document the architect appropriately. Mid-Century Modern

Midland will then create walking, biking, and driving tour maps highlighting the

midcentury modern influence throughout the city.”viii

Community sourced documentation programs such as this not only create an awareness and civic pride for a community’s architectural assets, but they also provide a more

- 107 - thorough architectural survey. Many people have personal memories in certain buildings

and their experiences can provide a greater understanding of the history of the building.

Programs such as this would be an asset to any modern committee of a preservation

organization.

STEP 3: Develop a proactive modern residential preservation plan.

Too often, preservationists act as a reactive force as opposed to proactive one. Preservationists only get involved in the fight to save a building once a clear and present threat of demolition is registered. When it comes to creating Neighborhood Conservation Districts or procuring easements, the philosophy of many preservation organizations is to let interested parties come to them instead of actively advocating in the community for such programs. While this trend is beginning to turn, as evidenced by the easement survey performed for Historic New England, there is still work to be done in the field of modern preservation. One of the most prominent modern preservation organizations in the United States, Docomomo US “is dedicated to the preservation of modern architecture, landscape and design. Through advocacy, education and documentation, we provide leadership and knowledge by demonstrating the importance of modern design principles including the social context, technical merits, aesthetics and settings of these important pieces of American history.”ix While Docomomo has documented thousands of buildings and advocated for the significance of the modern movement in American history, the organization’s documentation efforts are futile if a tangible grassroots preservation plan is not forged from their findings. The following are a series of programs and guidelines that could aid in the development of a proactive preservation plan. Since each locale has its own preservation needs, the following are intended to act as a set of suggestions, not requirements.

- 108 - A) Set up a network of alerts for modern properties going on the real estate market.

The moment a mid-century modern home is placed on the real estate market it is at risk

for demolition. Preservation organizations must keep abreast of modern residential

properties coming on the market. One way to accomplish this is by building an

excellent relationship with local neighborhood organizations, modern homeowners,

and realtors which encourages an open dialogue about selling a significant modern

home. If preservation organizations are allowed into the selling process early on in the

proceedings, they can assist the homeowners and realtor in finding a preservation

conscious buyer. Methods of building relationships with neighborhood associations,

modern homeowners, and realtors are outlined in Step 2 of this methodology. These

relationships will be crucial if the building is purchased by someone who either wants

to insensitively alter the home or demolish it. While there are few notable modern

preservation battles, the ones that come to mind are in response to threats to public

buildings such as the fight to preserve the façade of Edward Durrell Stone’s 2

Columbus Circle Building and the impending struggle to save Philip Johnson’s AT&T

Building from being glasswashed. Rallying community support to save an endangered

house is much more difficult. In general, Americans hold a sincere belief in private

property and one’s right to do with their property what they wish. While the community

might disapprove of the demolition of the home, many community activists do not feel

compelled to intercede on behalf of the building because there is no sense of public

ownership or civic pride in a private home.

Despite the obstacles, there are a few lesser known examples of communities

coming together in an effort to save significant works of modern residential architecture

- 109 - from demolition. For instance, there was a national media outcry when Phil Donahue decided to demolish John Johansen’s iconic 1966 Labyrinth House in 1988. When

Philip Johnson’s “jewel box” 1953 Alice Ball Home, was threatened with demolition in 2014, the design community rallied around the home and convinced the owner to abandon plans for demolition. It is important to note that both of these cases involve very public, famous personalities. Would the public have felt as entitled to advocate for preservation of these homes if they’d been built by lesser-known architects or owned by an everyday person? Since it is difficult to gauge how comfortable the public will feel in advocating for the preservation of a private modern residence, it is crucial that preservation organizations work with homeowners, realtors, and prospective buyers to make sure that demolition never looks like an acceptable option.

Another method of tracking the modern residential real estate market is to set up alerts on real estate websites such as Zillow, Redfin, Trulia, Realtor.com, and the

Master Listing Service. The sites allow visitors to create alerts for specific neighborhoods, addresses, and styles. The survey will be of great assistance in setting up these alerts. Tracking the local modern real estate market through connections with realtors and homeowners coupled with alerts from real estate websites provide a holistic view of modern residential properties that might be at risk of demolition in the near future. A system of alerts affords preservationists the opportunity to be one step ahead of developers and homebuyers who might want to demolish and redevelop the property.

- 110 - B) Hold a preservation forum with developers, community leaders, etc. to assess the

community’s perception of preservation, in particular the preservation of modern

residential architecture.

Preservation is most effective when it takes into account the needs and desires of the

community, even when some people may not be preservationist allies. Community

forums and symposia can provide a diverse collection of opinions on the pros and cons

of local preservation. Even if some of the information gathered is not necessarily in

line with what preservationists believe, it provides the opportunity to understand the

apprehensions of the opposition. A successful model of such a community

forum/symposium is Preservation Matters, a biennial symposium organized by the

Preservation Resource Center, New Orleans and the Master of Preservation Studies

program in the School of Architecture at Tulane University, in partnership with the

Louisiana State Department of Culture Recreation and Tourism.x The theme of the

2017 symposium was “Preservation Pays: How Everyone Benefits.” This forum

succeeded in bringing together people from all different kinds of backgrounds, from

politicians to community advocates to developers. A variety of presentations put forth

the various manners in which preservation had positively impacted the community.

Developers spoke about the economic benefits of preservation incentives, politicians

discussed how preservation positively impacted property values, and business leaders

spoke about how preservation increased tourism revenue. The symposium also heard

from neighborhood associations and residents who were fed up with the negative

effects of increased tourism and the negative impact of AirBNB on local communities.

Preservation Matters did an excellent job of bringing together various perspectives on

- 111 - preservation and presenting the pros and cons of each point. Community forums such

as Preservation Matters are an excellent tool for obtaining a wide variety of opinions

regarding preservation and educating the community on the importance of the

preservation of modern architecture. The symposium or forum does not need to be a

huge event. It could be just as effective if planned as a small series of casual gatherings

or a day of informal presentations and discussions.

C) Expand Neighborhood Conservation District zoning designations for areas with

large concentrations of modern residential architecture.

In the early 2000s, the Preservation Law Reporter published an article about the

increase in popularity of preserving the architectural integrity historic neighborhoods

by creating zoning districts called neighborhood conservation districts, which can be

summarized as follows:

“Increasingly, local jurisdictions are turning to conservation districts in an effort to

address neighborhood development concerns — whether mansionization, the

proliferation of vacant parcels and parking lots, disinvestment, or commercial

encroachment. Through the use of a preservation-based design review process

and/or special planning and zoning controls tailored to address specific

development concerns, conservation districts offer an alternative mechanism for

protecting older, residential neighborhoods that may not qualify for historic district

status.”xi

Neighborhood Conservation Districts began to appear in the United States as early as

1975. They are generally administered under the following municipal departments with

varied review processes: zoning department with binding review, zoning department

- 112 - with advisory review, municipal preservation agency with binding review, municipal preservation agency with advisory review, and neighborhood groups. Boston,

Massachusetts; Dallas, Texas; Austin, Texas; Raleigh, North Carolina; and Boise,

Idaho are just a sampling of the cities who have successfully enacted Neighborhood

Conservation Districts.xii Neighborhoods rich with mid-century modern architecture can benefit greatly from the implementation of Neighborhood Conservation Districts.

Turning Mill, a neighborhood of mid-century modern homes in Lexington,

Massachusetts, enacted a Neighborhood Conservation District managed primarily by the residents. In 2016, the Turning Mill Neighborhood Conservation District was created to serve the following purposes:

“A. to recognize the unique and distinctive character of the Turning Mill

neighborhood including the architectural design consistency and modest scale of

its Mid-Century Modern Buildings and their materials, and the careful siting of

Buildings in a woodland landscape that retains the natural topography, augmented

with native trees, shrubs and plantings that help sustain wildlife and provide a

feeling of privacy and seclusion;

B. to conserve and preserve Turning Mill’s existing Buildings and encourage

Construction and Alteration that complements and is compatible with those

Buildings and Structures, and their Setting and character;

C. to provide residents and property owners with the opportunity to participate in

planning the future and dynamic improvement of the Turning Mill neighborhood;

D. to promote wider public knowledge and appreciation for the Turning Mill

neighborhood by serving as an information resource on the history of the

- 113 - neighborhood and on compatible materials, methods, and options for caring for and

maintaining Mid-Century Modern houses and landscapes; and

E. to enhance the public welfare by offering current and future residents of

Lexington the opportunity to live and work in a significant and historic Mid-

Century Modern neighborhood.”xiii

The Neighborhood Conservation District created for the Turning Mill neighborhood

allows for flexibility in updating the existing homes while making sure that the mid-

century modern aesthetic and scale is retained. This is an ideal regulatory mechanism

for modern neighborhoods that are not quite eligible for historic district status.

D) Expand easement opportunities for modern residential properties.

Preservation easements are the most restrictive form of preservation regulation possible

in the United States. Held by a third party preservation organization for perpetuity,

preservation easements can regulate any and all changes to a historic property

depending on the strictness of easement. Most preservation organizations only manage

façade easements, meaning that the easement only regulates changes to the exterior of

the building and functions much in the same way municipal preservation regulatory

organization. While few and far between, there are some organizations that monitor

exterior and interior preservation easements, such as Historic New England, which

require approval from the easement holding preservation organization for any physical

change to home. This is an ideal time in the lifespan of mid-century modern homes to

encourage homeowners to place an easement on their property as many of the original

owners retain these properties and, as many of these homeowners are elderly, are

making plans for the future of their estates. Since donating an easement typically

- 114 - requires a generous endowment, it is a financially restrictive preservation protection.

Outreach to modern homeowners is essential in making sure that the option to donate

an easement to ensure preservation of the property is available.

STEP 4: Establish a practical set of preservation standards, methods, and theories for private modern residential properties.

Preservation standards, methods, and theories are frequently determined with museum properties in mind as those locations are held up as the best practices of preservation. However, sometimes the best practices of preservation are too rigid to accommodate contemporary life. People do not want to live in a museum where historic single-pane windows are prioritized over safety.

Unfortunately, preservationists are often insistent on museum quality preservation at the expense of the home being in caring hands. Many easements drafted for modern homes require that single- pane glass be retained unless it is destroyed and if it is destroyed it must be replaced in-kind. This level of preservation rigidity can be a deterrent to prospective homeowners, especially since double-pane glass has the same aesthetic as single-pane. While there is validity in preserving these materials in museum properties, it is unrealistic and prohibitive that any preservation organization would advise a homeowner against making updates to their home that would improve the livability and sustainability simply to preserve the materials. Unfortunately, this is often the case when preservationists are approached for advice on renovating and preserving mid-century modern homes. This steadfast stance from preservationists has been questioned within the preservation field for some time as its rigidity frequently deters many prospective homeowners from thoughtfully renovating historic homes. To ensure that architectural integrity isn’t unnecessarily compromised, the building should first be evaluated to see how much of the original fabric can

- 115 - feasibly be retained before rushing into irreversible alterations. If there are parts of the modern residence that are failing beyond repair or would be financially irresponsible to maintain, it would be extremely beneficial for the preservation of the home if a more practical set of preservation standards, methods, and theories were used. The best practices for practical preservation should be decided on a case by case basis keeping in mind that some small changes that improve livability might make the preservation of the building as a whole more viable for the homeowner. The following are common problems that renovators have with their mid-century modern homes with practical preservation recommendations:

A) Environmental and Safety Issues: Asbestos, Lead, and Other Harmful Materials

Many of the experimental materials considered to be a hallmark of the modern movement

have been proven to be harmful in recent years. Asbestos is a term now synonymous with

advertisements for personal injury lawyers and ominous warning signs at construction

sites. However, the material was once widely used in construction before its harmful

properties were discovered. Asbestos was a preferred material because of its heat

resistance, strength, and affordability. It was used in almost every construction project from

1946 to 1980.xiv The material was outlawed in 2003 due to its links to cancer and early

death, but remnants of the asbestos age remain in the built environment all over the United

States, especially in modern residential architecture as it was popularly used as flooring

adhesive, plumbing, on the exterior and insulation of vents, and as ceiling popcorn.xv

Asbestos, if undisturbed, is generally not a clear and present threat to inhabitants.

However, if asbestos is disturbed and particles of the material become airborne, which

happens frequently in a renovation, the material can be extremely harmful and require

immediate professional attention. Asbestos remediation should be taken seriously and

- 116 - performed carefully. Laws for treatment and remediation of asbestos vary greatly from

state to state. It is recommended that homeowners look up their state’s treatment and

remediation laws before beginning any renovation project.

Lead is another prominent poisonous material frequently found in old houses.

Unlike asbestos, however, lead is not exclusive to mid-century modern homes. Lead was

used in many paints, varnishes, and glazes meaning that it can be found on windows, trim,

walls, cabinetry, furniture, plumbing/pipes, faucets/fixtures, ceramic tiles, porcelain

enamel sinks and bathtubs, varnishes on flooring, in old linoleum, and a variety of other

locations.xvi Safety is paramount in the preservation of historic modern residential

architecture. The preservation of a character defining feature or material is not as important

as the health of the residents. Proper containment and removal processes for lead paint

should be followed to ensure that historic features are not toxic. The Environmental

Protection Agency’s Repair and Painting Rule guidelines should be closely followed.

B) Systems Revamp: Updating “Functional Fundamentals”

Many of the electrical, plumbing, insulation, heating, and cooling systems of mid-century

modern homes have not been altered since their original construction. It is important that

new modern homeowners in the process of renovation tend to these updates before turning

their attention to aesthetic problems with the home. Updating these functional systems is

imperative to the preservation of modern residential architecture as the main purpose of a

modern home is that it remain a machine for living. The best way to ensure this is by

properly maintaining the systems that keep a home habitable. Electrical upgrades should

be of the utmost importance as old wiring can be a fire risk. Electrical systems should be

thoroughly inspected and any issues should be addressed as soon as possible. There are

- 117 - some preservationists that will argue that certain functional resources, such as radiant floor

heating, should be preserved to serve their functional purpose. While radiant heat is a viable

option as installing duct work can be quite difficult, restoring modern heating and cooling

systems can be complex and costly solution. Contemporary systems should be selected

with a licensed professional to determine what is most practical for the space and should

be installed in a manner that does not interrupt the integrity of the interior architecture.

C) Window Replacements: Double-Pane Windows

Preservationists and historic windows have an intense relationship. In many older homes,

such as Victorian, Queen Anne, and Craftsman styles, there are feasible ways to preserve

the historic windows of the home through regular maintenance, re-glazing, and window

inserts. There is also more incentive to preserve these windows as they are made of high

quality wood. The muntins, stiles, and rails along with waviness in the panes are a character

defining feature that simply cannot be replicated with contemporary materials. The same

is not true for the windows used in most works of modern residential architecture. Glass in

modern homes is frequently used as a floor to ceiling curtain wall allowing nature to

become a vital feature of the interior of the home. When these homes were built, single-

pane glass was used to create these curtain walls and did not act as a proper insulator. This

causes mid-century modern homes to be exceedingly expensive to heat and cool if the glass

is not replaced. The reluctance of preservationists to endorse the replacement of windows

in modern homes portrays preservationists as being unreasonable aesthetic idealists with

little regard for the environmental impact of massive heating and cooling costs. This also

perpetuates the negative rumors that mid-century modern homes are not environmentally

friendly despite the fact that the greenest home is the home that has already been built. In

- 118 - addition to the concerns about energy cost and sustainability, there are many other downsides to retaining single-pane glass in midcentury modern homes. Large swaths of single-pane glass curtain walls are also a safety hazard since they are not as strong as double-pane glass and frequently are not tempered and are much more prone to cracking at the slightest increase of stress or pressure putting the residents at increased risk for injury from glass shards. Since the notable characteristics of glass curtain walls in mid-century modern homes are their clean lines and blurring of interior and exterior space, not idiosyncratic hand-crafted detail, it can be quite simple to replace single-pane glass with tempered glass and preserve the aesthetics of the home. Fortunately, there are many companies that specialize in producing sustainable, double-pane glass that perfectly mimics the aesthetics of the original single-pane glass without the negative characteristics.

The following are a series of window and door manufacturers recommended by Dwell, a publication that specializes in the preservation and renovation of modern residential architecture:

- Andersen Windows & Doors: andersenwindows.com

- Fleetwood Windows & Doors: fleetwoodusa.com

- Hope’s Windows, Inc.: hopeswindows.com

- Marvin Windows and Doors: marvin.com

- Pella: pella.com

- Western Window Systems: westernwindowsystems.comxvii

Preservationists must loosen their grip on preserving the windows of mid-century modern homes in favor of preserving the aesthetic function of the home with new, yet thoughtful, materials.

- 119 - D) Preserving Natural Materials and Original Fixtures

When modern homes are renovated, one of the first instincts of many homeowners is to

gut the interior and essentially build a new home from within. While the spatial distribution

of many mid-century modern homes is quite different from that of contemporary homes,

people often see the benefits of the modern floorplan after living in the house for a few

months. Many renovators recommend that new homeowners take a few months to live in

the home before making major changes to the interior. One of the primary reasons for this

recommendation is that many precious natural materials are carelessly discarded in

impulsive renovation decisions.xviii Wooden features such as paneled walls and exposed

ceiling beams are crucial to both the renovation and preservation of a modern home as they

are beautifully characteristic of the local materials that are a hallmark of the American

modern movement. Other features that should be seriously considered for preservation are

original doors, cabinetry, and hardware, such as doorknobs, handles, latches, and lighting

fixtures.xix While many of these renovation-centric recommendations may seem

rudimentary to many preservationists with strong academic backgrounds, it is important to

note that the majority modern homes will not be saved by lofty academic preservation

theory, but by the hard work of lay people who are simply interested in restoring their home

to the best of their ability.

- 120 - Notes i Carol Krinsky, Lever House Letters to New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission ii Nancy S. Seasholes, Lexington Historical Commission, Massachusetts Historical Commission, Five Fields Survey Inventory Form, Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, February 1984, MACRIS Database LEX.U, http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=LEX.U. iii National Register of Historic Places, Six Moon Hill Historic District, Lexington, Middlesex County, Massachusetts, MACRIS Database LEX.R, http://mhc-macris.net/Details.aspx?MhcId=LEX.R. iv Preservation Services Team, “Historic Homeowner Membership,” Historic New England (2017), http://shop.historicnewengland.org/MEMB-HIST-HOME-7084/. v Bill Janovitz and John Tse, ModernMass: Real Estate in the Boston Area; Modernism Specialists (2017), http://lexingtonjanovitz.com/. vi Sarina Mohan, “Historic House Specialist Seminar for Real Estate Agents,” Preservation Resource Center New Orleans (2017), https://prcno.org/programs/education-and-outreach/historic-house-specialist-seminar-for-real- estate-agents/. vii “Home,” Mid-Century Modern Midland (2017), https://midcenturymidland.org/. viii Caroline Wallis, “MIDCENTURY HOMES + HOME TOURS: Defining an Architectural Canon from the Ground Up,” dwell (July 31, 2017), https://www.dwell.com/article/defining-an-architectural-canon-from-the- ground-up-cf6770c2. ix “About – Docomomo US,” do_co,mo.mo__us (2017), http://docomomo-us.org/about/docomomo-us. x “Preservation Matters IV Symposium – Preservation Pays: How Everyone Benefits,” Preservation Resource Center New Orleans (2016), https://prcno.org/event/preservation-matters-iv-symposium/. xi Rebecca Lubens and Julia Miller, “Protecting Older Neighborhoods Through Conservation District Programs,” Preservation Law Reporter (Jan.-Mar. 2002-03), http://forum.savingplaces.org/HigherLogic/System/DownloadDocumentFile.ashx?DocumentFileKey=7273cba5- f16a-94ba-0905-1a3d66430805. xii Lori Salganicoff, “Neighborhood Conservation Districts Survey,” Preservation Alliance of Greater Philadelphia (August 2003), http://www.preservationalliance.com/publications/Conservation%20District%20Description.pdf. xiii “Draft: Chapter 78A. Turning Mill Neighborhood Conservation District,” Code of the Town of Lexington (2017), https://www.lexingtonma.gov/sites/lexingtonma/files/uploads/turning_mill_neighborhood_conservation_district_ bylaw_sept192017.pdf. xiv Kristin Dowding, “Asbestos 101: What’s A Nightmare + What’s Reality,” Atomic Ranch (August 10, 2017), https://www.atomic-ranch.com/asbestos-101/. xv Ibid. xvi Pam Kueber, “Be Safe/ Renovate Safe,” Retro Renovation (2017), https://retrorenovation.com/renovate-safe/. xvii Miyoko Ohtake, “Home Tours: Green Is in the Details,” dwell (January 23, 2012), https://www.dwell.com/article/green-is-in-the-details-3b43a60d.

- 121 - xviii Pam Kueber, “Just bought a midcentury house? My 9 tips before you start remodeling + 21 more from readers,” Retro Renovation (September 15, 2014), https://retrorenovation.com/2014/09/15/9-tips-start-remodeling/. xix Emily Patz, “The First Steps to Owning a Mid Century Modern Home,” esurance on: tips & hacks for smarter living (2017), http://blog.esurance.com/the-first-steps-to-owning-a-midcentury-modern-home/.

- 122 - Conclusion

The preservation of modern residential architecture can be a complicated undertaking because its period of significance lies in the very recent past. Ironically, modern residential architecture and demolition are emblematic of the American Dream – destruction must occur to create clean, modern homes. Modern residences are frequently demolished because they are often located in areas with high land value, on large parcels of land, and are relatively small homes less than 2,500 square feet. Some modern homes are demolished because they were designed by an under-recognized architect, usually a female architect or architect of color, or are in an area that has a bias against the aesthetic of modernism rendering modern residential architecture worthless.

To reverse the trend of demolishing modern residential architecture, it is crucial to understand the factors contributing to the increased demolition threat of modern homes.

The key to effective preservation of modern residential architecture is a more proactive and pragmatic approach. Factors that put a modern residence at greater risk for demolition have been clearly laid out so it is possible for preservationists to advocate for the preservation of modern residential architecture before demolition is an imminent threat. It is much more difficult to stop a demolition from happening if the permits have already been procured. If preservationists work to foster a modern preservation ethos in their communities and create an alert system for modern properties are at the greatest risk of demolition, they can stop a demolition from happening before a potential buyer has even begun to consider the idea of a teardown. Since the most valuable resource in preservation is time, preservationists must use proactive preservation advocacy to mitigate the risk demolition; waiting until the demolition permit has been issued to mobilize is too little advocacy too late.

- 123 - Not only is it difficult to convince many people of the historic architectural significance of modern architecture but the endeavor of properly preserving a modern home is frequently portrayed as being too costly an undertaking for the average homeowner. This is not the case, but unfortunately many preservationists have not helped in advocating for more practical preservation guidelines. The methodology presented a precise community engagement plan and starting point for the development of a more pragmatic set of preservation methods, standards, and theories for modern residential architecture. Flexibility and ingenuity are paramount when it comes to the preservation of modern residential architecture. Preservationists should feel empowered to channel the innovative problem solving of modern architects to create a form of preservation as radical as the modern buildings themselves.

- 124 - Case Study #1: Northeast – New York City Suburbs: New Canaan and Darien, Connecticut

The Northeast region of the United States is one of the least affordable places in the country to purchase a home. According to the National Association of Realtors January 2017 Nationwide

Affordability Distribution Score, five of the ten least affordable states to purchase a home in are in the Northeast: Massachusetts, New York, Connecticut, , and New Jersey.i The inflated land value in these states is a huge obstacle for the preservation of modern residential architecture in these areas, particularly in the wealthy Connecticut Suburbs of New York City.

This case study focuses primarily on the towns of New Canaan, Connecticut and Darien,

Connecticut. Both of these communities are under an hour and thirty minutes from via the Metro North Railroad and have become high status addresses for wealthy Manhattan financiers.ii One would think that owning a home designed by a world renowned modern architect would be the ultimate status symbol adding to the modern preservation ethos in the region.

Unfortunately, immense square footage, imposing facades, and other blatant displays of wealth have become the preferred wealth and status indicators for residents of these communities.

William D. Earls’ The Harvard Five in New Canaan masterfully chronicles the creation of one of the most famous groupings of modern houses in the world. Out of the 36 properties featured in the book, it was surprising to read the phrase “The house was demolished,” in the descriptions of 8 significant properties:

1. Noyes House 1, Eliot Noyes, architect. 1947. Included on 1949 Modern House Tour.

2. Kniffin House. Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes, architects. 1947-1949. Included on 1949

Modern House Tour.

3. Johansen House. John Johansen, architect. 1949.

4. Mills House. Marcel Breuer, architect. 1949.

- 125 - 5. Dunham House. John Johansen, architect. 1950. Included on 1952 Modern House Tour.

6. Stackpole House. Eliot Noyes, architect. 1951. Included on 1952 Modern House Tour.

7. Chauncey Riley. Riley House, architect. 1952.

8. Dickenson House. John Johansen, architect. 1953.

Fig. 1: Eliot Noyes, Noyes House 1, 1947. Photo by Nina Bremer. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

Fig. 2: Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes, New Canaan, Conn.: Kniffin House: general view, 1947-48. ARTstor Slide Gallery. University of California, San Diego.

- 126 - Fig. 3: John Johansen, Johansen House, 1949. Photo by Wayne Andrews/Esto. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

Fig. 4: Marcel Breuer, Mills House, 1949. Photo by Wayne Andrews/Esto. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

- 127 - Fig. 5: John Johansen, Dunham House, 1950. Avery Library, Columbia University. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

Fig. 6: Eliot Noyes, Stackpole House, 1951. Photo by William Earls. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

- 128 - Fig. 7: Chauncey Riley, Riley House, 1952. Photo by William Earls. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

Fig. 8: John Johansen, Dickenson House, 1953. Photo by E.J. Cyr. The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others by William D. Earls, 2006.

The destruction of these masterpieces of modern residential architecture is surprising because the cultural and historical significance of these homes has been noted since their construction. Modern homes in New Canaan have been featured on extremely popular “Modern House Day Tours” since

- 129 - 1949. Of the 6 houses included on the 1949 modern house tour, 2 have been demolished. Of the 8 houses included on the 1952 modern house tour, 2 additional homes were demolished.iii

In 1967 the New Canaan Historical Society acknowledged the importance of New Canaan

Modern by commissioning the essay “New Canaan Modern: The Beginning 1947-1952” for the

New Canaan Historical Society Annual written by Jean Ely. The essay recounts the revolutionary and disruptive nature of the sudden influx of modern homes in New Canaan. There is a delightful visual tension between the characteristic colonial clapboard houses, the rolling landscape, and the sharp lines of the modern homes built by the Harvard Five. Holiday perfectly described the bold juxtaposition in their August 1952 issue:

“What is a house? Most Americans, given this apparently easy question would probably

draw a picture—white clapboards, peaked shingled roof, red brick chimney, flagstone walk

and green shutters—announce comfortably, ‘There. That’s a house.’ But the residents of

New Canaan, Connecticut, a 300-year-old Colonial village with an extremely high

percentage of white clapboard and green-shutter houses, would not be so positive. They

would be more likely to launch into an enthusiastic discussion of Mies van der Rohe,

dropped girders, Thermopane glass, and ‘planned environment,’ or into a disgusted

denunciation of ‘cantilevered crackerboxes.’ Then they would take you out in a car and

show you some of their houses. Because New Canaan, to its considerable surprise, has

become an architects’ battle ground, and everyone talks houses.”iv

The tension extended beyond passionate neighborly discourse and into the local news media after

Philip Johnson gave a lecture at the local Kiwanis Club in March 1952. A series of sharp tongued poems subsequently ran in the New Canaan Advertiser with such venomous phrases as “That wish to hell that Harvard and the Modern Art Museum/ Had provided padded cells for their brilliant

- 130 - graduate architects”v and “I’m modern believe me, in all the/ new fads./ But these architects are the worst/ kind of cads.”vi Ely interprets this tension as an indicator of the truly revolutionary quality of the modern homes constructed in New Canaan. New Canaan Modern: The Beginning

1947-1952 establishes that the modern homes of New Canaan have long been accepted as integral to the narrative of architectural history in the United States while also exposing that the homes were controversial in the community. Bias against the aesthetics of modern architecture is a constant complication in preserving modern homes in New Canaan and several other communities across the United States.

Fig. 9: Gores Pavilion, formerly the John Irwin and Jane Watson Pool House, 1960. Currently cared for by the New Canaan Historical Society. The New Canaan Historical Society.

The New Canaan Historical Society was founded in 1889 and is dedicated to recording the historical events and genealogies of the people of New Canaan; it was the sole historic preservation organization in the town until 2007. Of the eight buildings owned by the New Canaan Historical

Society, seven are 19th century homes and public buildings and one is the 1960 Landis Gores designed pool house, now referred to as the Gores Pavilion (Fig. 9).vii The most recently constructed building on the “historic homes” section of the website is the 1933 Junior High

School.viii While the New Canaan Historical Society has a portion of its website dedicated to mid- century modern architecture, offers an annual “Modern Day House Tour,”ix and provides research resources at its library, the modern homes of New Canaan are not honored by the society in the

- 131 - way that one would expect given their cultural prominence. It is strange that a town known for its groundbreaking modern residential architecture would focus the bulk of its preservation resources on 19th century homes and schoolhouses.

In 2007, the New Canaan Preservation Alliance (NCPA) was founded “in response to rising concerns over the rapid disappearance of the town's historic built and natural environments.”x The timing of the NCPA’s founding is not surprising as 2007 was the height of the housing bubble and teardown trend. The NCPA offers information on the options available to citizens wishing to protect a building and local resources for preservation. Unfortunately, it appears as though modern residential architecture has been included in this organization’s purview as an afterthought.xi Of the 49 preservation awards granted by the New Canaan Preservation Alliance between 2008 and

2015 only 6 of them were given to modern structures.xii While there is value in the Colonial and various 19th century buildings; in New Canaan, they are not the character defining feature of the community in the same way that the Harvard Five modern homes are.

Figure 10: Philip Johnson, the Alice Ball House, 1953. Photo by Ezra Stoller, 1954. The Ezra Stoller Archive (Esto) and ARTstor.

As of 2014 there were 91 remaining significant modern homes; 26 modern homes had been demolished in the 1990s and 2000s and11 of these were homes designed by the famous Harvard

- 132 - Five. The Kniffin House, designed by Marcel Breuer and Eliot Noyes, was one of the original 6 modern homes in New Canaan. It was demolishedxiii The Alice Ball House (Figure 10), designed by Philip Johnson, was threatened with demolition from 2008 through 2014. Cristina Ross, a New

Canaan real estate developer, purchased the home for $1.5 million in 2005 (Figure 13).xiv Ross initially hoped to use the Philip Johnson structure as a pool house for large new construction she described as “an English country house in the style of Lutyens.” Ross’ plans to pave around 3,000 square feet of wetlands coupled with the fact that the new home would be visible from a neighbor’s property resulted in the denial of her plans to build a new home and was replaced with the suggestion that she simply demolish the Alice Ball House instead.xv In 2008, Ross listed the property at $3.1 million (Figure 11). Other homes in the area listed at this price are several thousand square feet larger and much more luxurious than the 1,773 square foot, sparsely equipped

Alice Ball House. While many deemed the home the “livable version of the Glass House” and

Johnson called the home his “little jewel box,” there was great difficulty in selling such a unique property. Of the Alice Ball Home, Christopher Wigren of the Connecticut Trust for Historic

Preservation said, “People in a position to pay $3 million for a house want more than a galley kitchen.” Thankfully, the home narrowly escaped demolition and was purchased by Main Liberty

LLC in April 2015 for $2.3 million after being on the market for nearly 7 years.xvi

- 133 - Figure 11: Philip Johnson, the Alice Ball House, 1953. Photo by Rob Bennett for the New York Times circa 2008. New York Times.

Figure 12: Philip Johnson, Interior of the Alice Ball House, 1953. Photo by Rob Bennett for the New York Times circa 2008. New York Times.

Figure 13: Cristina Ross, Owner of the Alice Ball House by Philip Johnson. Photo by Rob Bennett for the New York Times circa 2008. New York Times.

- 134 - Philip Johnson’s 1953 Alice Ball House meets a number of the criteria that make modern homes more susceptible to demolition. The property has extremely high land value with the land parcel being appraised at $1,263,700 and the house at only $215,500. In addition to high land value, the parcel size is quite large at 2.2 acres.xvii The Alice Ball House is very small at 1,773 square feet compared to other homes at similar price points in the area (Figure 12). Lastly, there is an aesthetic bias against smaller homes in New Canaan. People generally want to purchase a large neo-colonial home that displays their accumulated wealth; the aesthetic opposite of this understated “little jewel box.”xviii While Philip Johnson’s Alice Ball House was ultimately saved, the property was threatened with demolition for 7 years. The above described factors, pinpointed as indicators of demolition threat in previous chapters, heavily contributed to the developer’s desire to demolish the home.

While demolition rates have leveled in New Canaan, they have been steadily increasing in nearby Darien. In 2013, Darien saw a 23% increase in demolition permits post-Hurricane Sandy when a record 57 residential teardowns were completed. In 2014 and 2015 there were 36 residential teardowns per year. In 2016, the most recent year with statistics available, there were at least 30 demolition permits issued by March 2016 and officials estimated that the final teardown rate would be greater than the record 57 from 2013.xix These numbers are indicative of a resurgence of the teardown trend that was so popular in the early 2000s at the peak of the housing bubble. Darien,

Connecticut has long been an area associated with wealth as it is located on Connecticut’s “Gold

Coast” and was one of the top 10 wealthiest communities in the United States in 2012.xx Darien’s seaside location and inherent wealth, exploited by developers since the 1920s, attracted some of the best modern architects during the mid-century including Richard Meier, John Johansen, and

Edward Durell Stone.

- 135 - Figure 14: Edward Durell Stone, the Walter and Betsy Johnson , 1954. Photo by Larry Merz, 2013. Larry Merz Photography and Architizer.

Figure 15: Edward Durell Stone, the Walter and Betsy Johnson Dogtrot House Entrance Hall, 1954. Photo by Larry Merz, 2013. Larry Merz Photography and Architizer.

Figure 16: Edward Durell Stone, the Walter and Betsy Johnson Dogtrot House Living Room, 1954. Photo by Larry Merz, 2013. Larry Merz Photography and Architizer.

- 136 - In 2013, Edward Durell Stone’s Walter and Betsy Johnson Dogtrot House in Darien was listed on the market for the first time in decades. The home was in incredible condition, retaining the original floor plan and interior detailing (Figure 14-16).xxi At only 2,334 square feet, the home was a difficult sale in the area. On multiple occasions the property was nearly purchased by developers hoping to demolish the home and further subdivide the property. Of the tstruggle to advocate for the preservation of modern homes and the real estate market in Darien, Hicks Stone, a practicing architect in New York City and the Northeast and the son of Edward Durell Stone, wrote the following:

“The real estate market in Darien is littered with bloated contemporary neo-colonial homes.

They are owned by commuters who are principally employed by the New York City

financial industry. I have found from my own direct experience, that most of these

homeowners, have neither the imagination or knowledge to look beyond the area’s

suffocating neo-colonial orthodoxy for their design ideas. In fact, one client wondered out

loud what the people at his country club would think and would often show them designs

in progress to garner their approval.”xxii

Hicks Stone attributed the difficulty in finding an owner for the Walter and Betsy Johnson House to the pressure from the community to adhere to a certain set of aesthetic standards:

“Inevitably, a community with oversized neo-colonial homes and a rigid suburban

orthodoxy isn’t going to understand a small mid-century home. Perhaps in the neighboring

community of New Canaan, which is known for its experiments in mid-century housing,

this home would have been appreciated and understood. Moreover, a complicating factor

is that residential standards have changed, bedrooms are larger and kitchens and bathrooms

are more luxurious. Building technology and performance standards, such as mechanical

- 137 - and electrical systems and insulation and weatherproofing, have dramatically evolved. To

live in a house from 1949, the homeowner is inevitably living in a compromised setting

regardless of the skill of the contemporary renovation. One has to also recall the chilling

effect that World War II material shortages had on the post-war building environment. I

found a number of references in Father’s papers to the constraints that materials shortages

placed on his design choices. Because of these basic facts, it was inevitable that the house

site would be eyed by neo-colonial builders as a teardown, so that they could build a much

larger, more luxurious and more profitable neo-colonial home.”xxiii

Thankfully, Hicks Stone advocated to save the home on Architizer, and the owners soon became willing to hang on to the property until they found a buyer who wouldn’t completely destroy the architectural integrity:

“The house had already been on the market for some time when I was alerted to the listing

by a friend who lives in Darien. I contacted the real estate agent who had listed the property,

and she let me tour the home with her on a number of occasions. Ultimately, she introduced

me to the owner. I do think that it is more difficult to rally support for the preservation of

a single-family home, because generally a single-family home has a much lower public

profile, and it is harder to physically access. The community-at-large has less direct

experience with a single-family home.”xxiv

In 2017, after 4 years on the market, the Walter and Betsy Johnson Dogtrot House finally sold. As of July 2017, the home was under extensive renovations. Thankfully the exterior envelope and central entrance hall have been retained in the renovation. Hicks Stone shared that the process of finding an appropriate buyer for the home was a lengthy and difficult one: “Thankfully, the Darien home had a sensitive buyer, who took years to surface I might add. The savior of the house was

- 138 - Mrs. Estelle Buchanan, the prior owner, who was determined to sell the home only to someone who planned to retain it. Three cheers for Mrs. Buchanan.”xxv

Figure 17: Edward Durell Stone, the Wayne V. Brown House, 1936. CMLS and Realtor.com circa 2014.

Figure 18: Edward Durell Stone, the Wayne V. Brown House, 1936. CMLS and Realtor.com circa 2014.

In 2014, Edward Durell Stone’s Wayne V. Brown House was listed on the market (Figure

17-18). At a spacious 4,268 square feet, the home sold after 208 days on the market, despite the fact that the design of this home was less indicative of Stone’s mature architectural aesthetic and that the original integrity had been lost in an interior renovation. Again, this is an example of how home size and land value can impact the likelihood of preservation of a modern residence more so than the actual architectural integrity or significance of the home.

- 139 - Notes i National Association of REALTORS®, “Realtors® Affordability Distribution Score” (January 2017), https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/reports/2017/embargoes/radcs-02-15/2017-02-realtors-affordability- distribution-curve-and-score-02-14-2017.pdf. ii Metropolitan Transit Authority, “Metro North – Schedules & Fares,” MTA.info (November 2017), http://as0.mta.info/mnr/schedules/sched_form.cfm. iii William D. Earls, The Harvard Five in New Canaan: Midcentury Modern Houses by Marcel Breuer, Landis Gores, John Johansen, Philip Johnson, Eliot Noyes & Others (1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2006). iv Ibid., 7. v Ogden Gnash-Teeth, “Cantilever Heaven or Wearing Out Your Welcome” (March 13, 1952). Ibid., 164. vi “A Modern Miss, Lament of a Modern” (April 10, 1952). Ibid., 170. vii “Our Buildings,” New Canaan Historical Society (2017), https://nchistory.org/our-buildings/. viii “Historic Homes,” New Canaan Historical Society (2017), https://nchistory.org/historic-homes/. ix This tradition was revived in 2002 “when it became clear that some of our community’s most beautiful Modern houses were being torn down and replaced by huge, conventional houses, we revived New Canaan’s tradition of Modern house tours, and added an educational symposium, to raise awareness of just how important and threatened the houses are.” Source: https://nchistory.org/midcentury-modern-architecture/ x “About NCPA,” New Canaan Preservation Alliance (2017), http://newcanaanpreservationalliance.org/ncpa_history/. xi “Home,” New Canaan Preservation Alliance (2017), http://newcanaanpreservationalliance.org/. xii “New Canaan Preservation Alliance Awards,” New Canaan Preservation Alliance (2015), http://newcanaanpreservationalliance.org/awards/. xiii Building Conservation Associates Inc., New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses (Building Conservation Associates Inc. and Connecticut Commission on Culture & Tourism 2009), http://www.ncmodernist.org/2009.New.Canaan.Survey.Appendices.pdf. xiv Michael Dinan, “Philip Johnson – Designed Midcentury Modern on Oenoke Ridge Sells for $2.3 Million,” New Canaanite (April 6, 2015), https://newcanaanite.com/philip-johnson-designed-midcentury-modern-on-oenoke-ridge- sells-for-2-3-million-24721. xv Andy Newman, “A Tiny Masterpiece, Unloved, Face Threat,” New York Times (May 25, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25house.html. xvi Michael Dinan, “Philip Johnson – Designed Midcentury Modern on Oenoke Ridge Sells for $2.3 Million,” New Canaanite (April 6, 2015), https://newcanaanite.com/philip-johnson-designed-midcentury-modern-on-oenoke-ridge- sells-for-2-3-million-24721. xvii New Canaan, CT Tax Assesor’s Office, “523 OENOKE RIDGE, 04809, 0033/ 0033/ 0007/,” New Canaan Property Appraisals (2017), http://appraisalonline.newcanaanct.gov/showparcel.php?p=12363. xviii Andy Newman, “A Tiny Masterpiece, Unloved, Face Threat,” New York Times (May 25, 2008), http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/fashion/25house.html.

- 140 - xix Justin Papp,“Tearing down, Building Big,” Darien News (March 25, 2016, 2:01 pm), www.dariennewsonline.com/news/article/Tearing-down-building-big-7014965.php. xx Colleen Kane, “America’s 10 Richest Counties,” CNBC (April 26, 2012), https://www.cnbc.com/2012/04/26/ Americas-10-Richest-Counties.html?view=slideshow&%24DEVICE%24=native-android-tablet. xxi Hicks Stone, “Save This Icon of American Modernism! The Story of Edward Stone’s Walter and Betsy Johnson Home,” Architizer (2013), https://architizer.com/blog/practice/details/edward-stone-darien-house/. xxii Hicks Stone, email message to author, November 14, 2017. xxiii Ibid. xxiv Ibid. xxv Hicks Stone, email message to author, November 15, 2017.

- 141 -

- 142 - Case Study #2: Southeast – Hammond, Louisiana

Southern Louisiana is not a part of the United States known for its modern architecture like the suburbs of New York City and Boston, Palm Springs, or Chicago. Louisiana is more prominently known for its rare examples of , Spanish Colonial, Acadian, Greek

Revival, Italianate, and Creole Vernacular architecture. The French Quarter and the Garden

District of New Orleans embody the architecture of Louisiana in the public imagination. However,

Southern Louisiana is home to a great deal of significant modern architecture. Louisiana modernism differs from modernism on the national scale as it takes into account both the natural setting of a building and the historic built environment. Architects like Curtis and Davis, Albert

Ledner, and John Desmond, all of whom graduated from the Tulane University School of

Architecture in the 1940s, used their intimate experience with the historic architecture of New

Orleans to create works of high modernism that expertly interact with their high density historic built environments through scale, material, and thoughtful siting.i

One of the most notable collections of modernism in the state of Louisiana is in Hammond.

John Desmond, a nationally recognized architect, designed a large number of buildings in

Hammond, his hometown, from 1953 to the early 1970’s.ii He is responsible for the design of over

80 structures in Hammond, ranging from residential to religious to commercial architecture.iii John

Desmond (1922-2008) was born in Denver, Colorado and raised in Hammond, Louisiana.

Desmond graduated from Hammond High School in 1937 and Tulane University with a degree in architecture in 1941. He earned a Master of Architecture degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where he studied under W.W. Wurster and Alvar Aalto. Desmond worked at

Skidmore, Owings & Merrill in New York City and with A. Hays Town in Baton Rouge before starting his own practice in Hammond in 1953. In the early 1970s, John Desmond closed the

- 143 - Hammond practice and began operating as John Desmond & Associates exclusively out of Baton

Rouge, Louisiana.iv Desmond retired from architectural practice in 2002.v John Desmond was awarded numerous professional honors throughout his career, most significantly the American

Institute of Architects Fellowship for Significant Contribution to Design and the Louisiana

American Institute of Architects Gold Award Lifetime Achievement Award. Desmond is also the author and illustrator of Louisiana’s Antebellum Architecture, published by Claitor’s in 1970.vi

Figure 1: John Desmond, Miller Memorial Library, 1956-1957. Photo by Frank Lotz Miller circa 1957. Miller Memorial Library National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.

Figure 2: John Desmond, First Christian Church, 1958-1960. Photo by Frank Lotz Miller circa 1960. First Christian Church National Register of Historic Places Registration Form.

- 144 - John Desmond built roughly 36 modern residences in Hammond, including his own, and inspired a deluge of developers and draftsman to produce modern homes in the area.vii The

Hammond Historic District Commission is in the early stages of designating the collection of modern Desmond buildings in the city as a multiple resource area on the National Register of

Historic Places. In August 2017, two of Desmond’s public buildings in Hammond, Miller

Memorial Library (1956-1957) (Figure 1) and First Christian Church (1958-1960) (Figure 2), were individually listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The recognition of these two properties incentivized the Hammond Historic District Commission’s in-depth survey of local

John Desmond buildings. The modern residential architecture designed by John Desmond and other local craftspeople has become a significant feature of the project. At this stage in the survey, the Hammond Historic District Commission is attempting to determine how many John Desmond designed residences are still standing in Hammond. Unfortunately, Desmond’s archives do not list the exact addresses of many of the residences he designed in Hammond so preservationists must rely on drawings, photographs, oral histories, building permits, and plans held by original owners to determine which properties were designed by Desmond.

Figure 3: Modern Home in Hammond Louisiana. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

- 145 - Figure 4: Modern Home in Hammond Louisiana. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

Figure 5: Modern Home in Hammond Louisiana. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

Figure 6: Modern Home in Hammond Louisiana. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

- 146 - Figure 7: Modern Home in Hammond Louisiana. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

Even though the significance of modern residential architecture in Hammond has only recently received official recognition, there seems to be a healthy and growing preservation ethos surrounding the modern architecture in the area (Figures 3-7). The majority of residences built in the mid-century are clustered to the west of the campus of Southeastern Louisiana University.

Examples of high style modern residential architecture are located along North General Pershing

Street on West Michigan Street, West Colorado Street, West Dakota Street and Greenlawn Drive with a few outliers to the north on Drive. A concentration of more vernacular, ranch style modern homes are located along Pecan Street on Mauroner Drive and Ford Drive.

- 147 - Figure 8: 39 Whitmar Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2017. Zillow.

Figure 9: Interior of 39 Whitmar Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2017. Zillow.

Throughout Hammond one can spot thoughtfully renovated mid-century modern homes and has become a lucrative outlet of “house flipping.” As of November 1, 2017, there were at least two recently renovated mid-century modern ranch homes in Hammond, Louisiana listed on Zillow.

Neither of these homes are examples of high-style modern residential architecture, but are perfectly characteristic of the style of home building that was popular in the United States during the 1960s. Accent Property Renovations of Bogalusa, Louisiana flipped a 1963 four bedroom, two bathroom, 2,268 square foot home at 39 Whitmar Drive from $134,000 to $205,000 (Figure 8).viii

The renovation appears to have retained the bulk of the character defining features of the façade and important elements on the interior such as the prominent wooden beam and double doors in the great room (Figure 9). Unfortunately, it appears as though the original built-ins, such as kitchen

- 148 - and bathroom cabinets, have been removed and the windows have been replaced. Despite the fact that they are not original to the home, the replacement windows do blend seamlessly with the mid- century modern façade. While the preservation work on this home certainly is not perfect, it is an excellent example of how the aesthetic of modern homes can be preserved in a practical and profitable manner.

Figure 10: 118 Elm Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2017. Zillow.

Figure 11: Interior 118 Elm Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2017. Zillow.

- 149 - Demont Properties of Mandeville, Louisiana’s renovation of a 1964, three bedroom, three bathroom, 1,748 square foot home at 118 Elm Drive, is an example of an even more thoughtful, yet still profitable, renovation of a mid-century modern ranch home (Figure 10). The exterior of the home features an iconic ranch home picture window and carport with precise masonry work.

While the bulk of the interior of the home has been heavily renovated, a prominent mid-century modern masonry hearth distinguishes the living room as the center of the home. The ceiling in that room is constructed of beautiful wood paneling, which was characteristic of modern homes in this area and likely a renovated original feature (Figure 11). The kitchen, bathrooms, and bedrooms have been updated to contemporary standards with colonial farmhouse cabinets, baseboards, and crown moldings. While these elements do not accurately reflect the aesthetic of the home at the time of its construction, they represent what is necessary to make the home appealing to a wider subset of the real estate market. The key character defining features such as the hearth, wood paneling, picture window, and precise masonry work have been preserved. This is a victory in and of itself. Flexibility is key in the preservation of vernacular mid-century modern architecture.

Demont Properties flipped this home from $92,000 to $189,000.ix Both 118 Elm Drive and 39

Whitman Drive are still on the market as of November 30, 2017.

- 150 - Figure 12: John Desmond, the Desmond House, 1960. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

Figure 13: John Desmond, the Desmond House, 1960. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

Figure 14: John Desmond, the Desmond House, 1960. Photo by the author, October 12, 2017.

- 151 - John Desmond’s personal residence, built in 1960 and located on Greenlawn Avenue in

Hammond, has been the center of a local preservation debate for quite some time. The Desmond

Residence is arguably one of John Desmond’s most significant residential works. Shortly after its construction, the home was featured in Architectural Record in an article titled "A Village of

Pavilions for a Home," Record Houses of 1960 (Mid-May 1960). This publication brought the residence national attention and the home is still cited as a significant structure in the course of the evolution of Marcel Breuer’s bifurcated plan.x The Desmond Residence became the centerpiece of a local preservation battle when the parcel, in tandem with over a third of the parcels between

Greenlawn Avenue and West Idaho Street, were purchased by Jefferies and Heather Alston as teardown properties to make room for their gargantuan mansion at 904 West Idaho Street.xi Thanks to the preservation efforts of Melanie Ricketts and others in the community, Alston was convinced to retain the 1960 John Desmond Residence as a pool house (Figure 12-14).xii As of October 12,

2017, the exterior of the home appears to have retained the majority of its architectural integrity.

Unfortunately, the massive Neo-Colonial McMansion on the opposite side of the property facing

West Idaho street overpowers the understated, horizontal bifurcated plan of the John Desmond

House. While the home was saved, many preservationists in Hammond lament the outsized Alston

House in relation to the Desmond House and the remaining mid-century modern homes on nearby lots. This is certainly not the ideal preservation scenario, but it is a much better alternative than outright demolition. As the lot is so large, there is certainly hope that the Desmond House could be sold independently on a subdivided parcel of land in the future.

- 152 - Figure 15: The Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana. Renovation by Ross Downing Builders. Hunter Black and Asset Builders circa 2016.

Figure 16: The Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana. Renovation by Ross Downing Builders. Hunter Black and Asset Builders circa 2016.

Figure 17: The Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2014 prior to renovation. Realtor.com.

- 153 - The residence of Hunter and Charles Black at 2 Mauroner Drive is an excellent example of a thoughtful renovation of a mid-century modern ranch home. The home was designed and built by Kemmler Wainwright, a local builder who had worked with John Desmond earlier in his career.xiii When Hunter and Charles Black purchased the home in 2014, it was the first time the property had changed hands (Figure 16). The home is large for a mid-century modern residence at

4,275 square feet, five bedrooms, and two bathrooms, but was in desperate need of renovation and maintenance. Hunter Black shared that she and her husband initially bought the residence with plans of tearing it down to build a new home, but her son, Ross Downing, Jr., a Hammond based contractor, convinced her to do a renovation instead. Kemmler Wainwright’s daughter, Ann

Rownd, did the plans for the renovation. The renovation of this home was heavy-handed, but extremely thoughtful of the mid-century modern aesthetic (Figure 14-15).xiv The most extreme changes to the home were the addition of two three paneled picture windows to the left and right of the central entrance and original picture windows and the addition of an awning over the main entrance to the home. Modernists generally avoided opening the home with windows on the street facing side, placing the majority of the windows on the back of the house facing nature. While the addition of these windows is not necessarily in accordance to modernist ideology, they thoughtfully blend with the original features of the home.

- 154 - Figure 17: Kitchen and Great Room of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana. Renovation by Ross Downing Builders. Hunter Black and Asset Builders circa 2016.

Figure 18: Foyer of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana. Renovation by Ross Downing Builders. Hunter Black and Asset Builders circa 2016.

Figure 19: Interior of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana. Renovation by Ross Downing Builders. Hunter Black and Asset Builders circa 2016.

- 155 -

Figure 20: Interior of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2014 prior to renovation. Realtor.com.

Figure 21: Interior of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2014 prior to renovation. Realtor.com.

Figure 22: Interior of the Hunter and Charles Black Home at 2 Mauroner Drive, Hammond, Louisiana circa 2014 prior to renovation. Realtor.com.

- 156 - The interior of the home was altered to better meet the needs of contemporary living. The floor plan was opened up with a large open plan kitchen and living area with the historic hearth and cathedral ceilings as the focal point (Figures 17-22). The majority of the original materials were not preserved. While there are few preservationists who would mourn the loss of asbestos ceiling tile and shag carpeting, it is unfortunate that a great deal of original wood paneling was lost in the renovation. Charles and Hunter Black’s renovation of 2 Mauroner Drive shows how livable a mid-century modern residence can be if homeowners are given the flexibility to restore a home to their needs. The modern aesthetic is preserved without causing the homeowner’s any undue trouble in preserving undesirable original materials. While one certainly would not advocate this sort of renovation for a museum quality property, it is perfectly acceptable, even preferable, for vernacular examples of modern residential architecture.

In a meeting with Leah Solomon, Director of the Hammond Historic District Council, she shared a plan to survey all of the modern properties in Hammond for a possible National Register of Historic Places Multiple Resource District nomination with the assistance of Kelly Calhoun of

Calhoun Preservation.xv The city of Hammond is in an early and crucial stage of developing a local modern preservation ethos. At this point in the survey, it is unknown exactly how many John

Desmond Homes remain standing in Hammond let alone whether or not these structures retain a significant amount of architectural integrity. Another difficulty in completing the John Desmond

Survey is that there is not a great deal of scholarship on Desmond’s architectural oeuvre. While

John Desmond’s archive is housed at the Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections in the Louisiana State University Libraries in Baton Rouge, the archive has not been analyzed and studied by many scholars so there is unfortunately a great deal of missing information. Solomon and Calhoun have had to rely a great deal on local oral histories of John Desmond’s architectural

- 157 - practice which are inherently biased, slightly unreliable, and often colored by people’s personal interactions with Desmond. However, the city of Hammond does have an excellent opportunity to collect stories of what it was like to work with Desmond, to live in a Desmond house, or collect a first-person account of how Desmond’s modern buildings shaped the community.

At this moment, Hammond is in the preliminary stages of positioning itself as a mid- century modern mecca of the South. This is a crucial moment in the preservation culture for modern residential architecture in Hammond. Thankfully, many people are already preserving and restoring John Desmond homes and mid-century modern ranch houses. While some preservationists might complain about the loss of interior architectural integrity that occurred during the course of these renovations, the modern aesthetic was preserved in most cases and the exteriors of the homes were very thoughtfully preserved. In the development of Hammond’s modern preservation ethos, it appears as though they will embrace a more fluid approach to the preservation of modern architecture than other areas which will positively impact how many works of modern residential architecture are preserved.

- 158 - Notes i Neil Genzlinger, “Alber Ledner, Architect With a Quirky Sense, Dies at 93,” New York Times (November 21, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/21/obituaries/albert-ledner-architect-with-a-quirky-sense-dies-at-93.html.; J. Michael Desmond, “John Jacob Desmond,” KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010; January 6, 2011), http://www.knowla.org/entry/573/.; Karen Kingsley, “Curtis and Davis Architects,” knowlouisiana.org Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010; March 11, 2011), and http://www.knowlouisiana.org/entry/curtis- and-davis-architects. ii “Preliminary Inventory: January 2004; Revised 2008, 2012,” John Desmond Papers, Mss. 4792, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 4. iii Ibid., 17-42. iv J. Michael Desmond, “John Jacob Desmond,” KnowLA Encyclopedia of Louisiana, edited by David Johnson. (Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, 2010; January 6, 2011), http://www.knowla.org/entry/573/. v “Preliminary Inventory: January 2004; Revised 2008, 2012,” John Desmond Papers, Mss. 4792, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 4. vi “Obituary: John J. Desmond,” The Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA: Mar. 29-30, 2008), http://obits.theadvocate.com/obituaries/theadvocate/obituary.aspx?pid=10651985. vii “Preliminary Inventory: January 2004; Revised 2008, 2012,” John Desmond Papers, Mss. 4792, Louisiana and Lower Mississippi Valley Collections, LSU Libraries, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 17-42. viii Joette Mayeux (REMAX/Alliance – Mandeville Real Estate Agent), “39 Whitmar Dr, Hammond, LA 70401,” Zillow (October 18, 2017), (https://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/Hammond-LA/77731623_zpid/52391_rid/0- 200000_price/0-740_mp/30.536057,-90.434776,30.493614,-90.497776_rect/13_zm/3_p/. Further reductions to the price were taken as the property has been on the market for over 100 days. As of November 30, 2017, the price was $189,000. ix “118 Elm Dr, Hammond, LA 70401,” realtor.com (November 20, 2017), https://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/118-Elm-Dr_Hammond_LA_70401_M82043-06196/. Further reductions to the price were taken as the property has been on the market for over 100 days. As of November 30, 2017, the price was $174,000. The home was taken off the market as of December 13, 2017. x “bifurcated plan,” intypes (Cornell University, 2017), https://intypes.cornell.edu/expanded.cfm?erID=9. xi Tangipahoa Parish Tax Assessor, “904 W IDAHO ST, Assessment No. 01458108,” Tangipahoa Parish Geographic Information System (2017), http://www.tangiassessor.com/assessment01458108.html. xii Melanie Ricketts (Administrative Director of the Hammond Historic District), interview by Anna Marcum, October 4, 2016 xiii Hunter Black (Historic Homeowner), interview by Kelly Calhoun and Anna Marcum, October 12, 2017. xiv Ibid. xv Leah Solomon (Director of the Hammond Historic District Council), interview by Anna Marcum, October 12, 2017.

- 159 -

- 160 - Case Study #3: Midwest – Midland, Michigan

The Midwest and American Modernism have a deeply intertwined relationship. The first iterations of modern architecture in the United States sprung from the Chicago Metropolitan Area beginning with Louis Sullivan’s “form follows function” industrial buildings and crystallizing in

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Prairie Style homes. Wright was influenced by the organic landscape of the

Midwest. Many of the features one associates exclusively with modern residential architecture were mined from the natural setting of the country surrounding Chicago:

“We of the Middle West are living on the prairie. The prairie has a beauty of its own and

we should recognize and accentuate this natural beauty, its quiet level. Hence, gently

sloping roofs, low proportions, quiet sky lines, suppressed heavy-set chimneys and

sheltering overhangs, low terraces and out-reaching walls sequestering private gardens.”i

For this reason, Chicago is viewed as the epicenter of modern architecture in the Midwest.

However, there are many other communities in the Midwest that possess a great concentration of modern architecture because it was a bastion of middle class wealth in the 1950s and 1960s. One of the more well-known “Midwesten Mid-Century Modern Meccas” is Columbus, Indiana, which is the unexpected home to a collection of buildings by I.M. Pei, Richard Meier, Robert Venturi,

Eliel and Eero Saarinen, Harry Weese, and Deborah Berke among many other significant modern architects.ii Columbus, Indiana’s fame as a center of modern architecture has been discussed in numerous articles and immortalized in the 2017 Kogonada film Columbus.iii Midland, Michigan is another notable modernist town in the Midwest that has one of the greatest concentrations of well-preserved modern residential architecture in the United States along with Palm Springs.iv

- 161 - Figure 1: Alden B. Dow and his wife, Vada at their home in Midland, Michigan. Dow’s signature Unit Blocks and commitment to bold color choices are evident in the photo. The Alden B. Dow Archives.

The modernism of Midland, Michigan is the work of Alden B. Dow, a Columbia University trained architect, fellow of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Program, and heir to the Dow Chemical fortune (Figure 1). Dow was born and raised in Midland, Michigan, the headquarters of Dow

Chemical, and felt a great sense of civic duty to the community. He chose to spend his entire career in Midland because of the great sense of kinship he felt with the community. Dow brought several architectural protégés to Midland and encouraged them to start their own firms after learning all they could from him. This created a surplus of exceptionally well-trained architects in the relatively small town of Midland who built hundreds of homes in the modern style. Amazingly, the bulk of these modern homes remain and many are exceptionally well-preserved. Glenn Beach, Jack

Feagley, Robert Goodall, Jackson Hallett (Figures 2-3), Robert Hammerschmidt, Francis Warner, and Robert Schwartz (Figures 4-5) were a few of the more prominent modern architects working in Midland.v Most modern homes in Midland retain their original floorplan and some even retain original carpeting, appliances, and bomb shelters. Despite the fact that Midland has a host of impeccably preserved modern architecture, it still remains an “under the radar mecca of modernism” to most followers of modern architecture.

- 162 - Figure 2: An exceptionally well-preserved 1963 Jackson Hallett Home in Midland, Michigan. The home sold in September 2017. Zillow.

Figure 3: The great room of an exceptionally well-preserved 1963 Jackson Hallett Home in Midland, Michigan. The home sold in September 2017. Zillow.

Figure 4: Robert E. Schwartz, the Robert E. and Barbara V. Schwartz House, 1964-1967 in Midland, Michigan. While receiving his architecture degree at the University of Michigan, Schwartz worked with Buckminster Fuller, whose influence is deeply felt in the design of this home.vi Alden B. Dow Home and Studio and Mid-Century Modern Midland.

Figure 5: Interior of the Robert E. and Barbara V. Schwartz House, 1964-1967 in Midland, Michigan. Alden B. Dow Home and Studio and Mid-Century Modern Midland.

- 163 - Midland, Michigan is about 2 hours away from Detroit and under 5 hours away from

Chicago. The majority of residents are employed by Dow Chemical and all civic discourse revolves around the best interests of the company. The Alden B. Dow Home and Studio is the organization that oversees the preservation of the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio buildings. The organization also offers resources for the preservation of buildings designed by Dow and his protégés who proceeded to open architecture practices in Midland. The Alden B. Dow Home and

Studio created Mid-Century Modern Midland, a volunteer architectural preservation group that documents and advocates for the modern architecture in Midland, Michigan.vii

Figure 6: Students attending the Elementary School the Chemist and the Architect Program at the Dow House. Alden B. Dow Home and Studio.

- 164 - Figure 7: Students attending the 7th Grade Writing Program at the Dow House. Alden B. Dow Home and Studio.

One of the ways that the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio has been able to retain this unbelievable amount of architectural integrity is through their impeccable public programming.

The organization has an excellent program with the Midland Public Schools that incorporates the

Alden B. Dow Home and Studio buildings and their preservation methods into various curricula with various age groups (Figures 6 and 7). The Home and Studio also holds a series of summer camps and seminars to introduce children and teens to the basics of architecture. This instills in every person that goes through the Midland Public School System an appreciation for mid-century modern architecture and design.

- 165 - Figure 8: Online portal for the Mid-Century Modern Midland Architects and Architecture Survey Database as of November 30, 2017. Screenshot by the author.

Figure 9: Mid-Century Modern Midland volunteers Tom and Nancy Wells use a checklist to identify the Mid-Century Modern traits of a home designed by Jackson Hallett located on Livingston Court. Midland Daily News and the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio.

Another way in which Mid-Century Modern Midland engages the community in the preservation of modern residential architecture is through their collaborative modern residence surveying project. Through Mid-Century Modern Midland, the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio created this program not only for the practical purpose of thoroughly documenting every modern home in Midland, but also to engage the community in their built environment (Figure 8). Over

30 people volunteered to document their neighborhoods. In addition to engaging the community in preservation, this allows for varied perspectives of what makes a building important to preserve

- 166 - and what constitutes high modernism. It also allows for preservationists and architectural historians to “discover” buildings that might have previously been thought to be demolished, unbuilt, or unknown.

The survey formally began on March 25, 2017 and eight months into the project it has already received acclaim in Dwell, a preeminent quarterly magazine and online resource for those interested in modern architecture, design, and preservation. The volunteers were trained with a quick course in architectural history and character defining features of modern homes such as horizontality, clean lines, prominent chimneys, minimal ornamentation, high quality innovative materials, and integration into the site (Figure 9).viii Over 18,000 homes, churches, and businesses are expected to be surveyed. At this stage in the survey, three quarters of the city have already been canvassed and documented. Once the survey for the last quarter has been completed, the results will be analyzed by architectural historians and made available to the public online. This information will be useful for a myriad of purposes from academic research to creating tour maps highlighting specific modes of modernism for tourists.ix Mid-Century Modern Midland’s survey project has not only created a vast documentation project that will be valuable to architectural historians for generations to come, but has engaged the community with their built environment.

The survey project is the perfect example of preservation that comes from the bottom up, engaging the community and creating a citywide appreciation for modern architecture.

- 167 - Figure 10: Alden B. Dow, the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio, 1936. Photograph by the author on October 2, 2017

Figure 11: Alden B. Dow, the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio, 1936. Photograph by . Alden B. Dow Archives.

Figure 12: Studio Reception Area of the Alden B. Dow Studio. Alden B. Dow Archive.

- 168 - Figure 13 (left): Drafting room at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. Courtesy of the Alden B. Dow Archives.

Figure 14 (right): Dow’s Office at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. Courtesy of the Alden B. Dow Archives.

- 169 -

Figure 15: Great Room at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. Alden B. Dow Archives.

Figure 16: Porch at the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. Courtesy of the Alden B. Dow Archives.

The Alden B. Dow Home and Studio is a beautifully preserved work of modern architecture and acts as the standard of preservation for other Alden B. Dow homes in Midland (Figures 10-

16). Tours of the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio are an intimate, highly informative, and joyful experience. Tours begin in the consultation office. One of the most striking features of room are

- 170 - the bold magenta and green accents. Dow was a modernist who was not afraid to be playful with color which softens the sharp, geometric lines of the design and Dow’s signature Unit Blocks. The

Home and Studio Tour is unique in that sitting on the furniture, skipping on the Unit Block stones in the lake, and general exploration are encouraged. The space is presented as a livable and active environment, creating a greater personal attachment to the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. From the consultation office, the tour continues through the brightly colored studio spaces. Having both

Dow’s working and living quarters at the same site allows for a holistic appreciation of Dow’s aesthetic and design philosophy. As the tour continues through the Dow family’s living quarters, one begins to get a sense of Dow as a person, not just a distant architectural figure. Dow’s playful aesthetic, welcoming home, and fascinating color philosophy are engaging and thoughtful while also being extremely educational about the modern movement in architecture. The Home and

Studio’s public programming initiatives with the public schools and local children further engrain an appreciation for Alden B. Dow in the collective public memory.

- 171 - Figure 17: Still from Mad Men (2007- 2015). AMC.

Figure 18: Mid-Century Modern inspired furniture in the HAY collaboration with IKEA from the 2018 IKEA Catalog. HAY and IKEA.

Figure 19: M.I.B. Headquarters, Men in Black, 1997. Production design by Bo Welch. Penson.co and Columbia Pictures.

- 172 - In a meeting with Craig McDonald, the Director of the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio,

Carol Neff, of Mid-Century Midland, and Lance Rynearson, an Alden B. Dow homeowner, the

Sheldon Heath House (1934), Midland’s strong preservation ethos and preservation challenges were discussed in detail. McDonald, Neff, and Rynearson are all long-term residents of Midland who came to know and love Dow’s architecture through the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio. In addition to official public programming efforts, McDonald credits increased public awareness of the value of modern architecture and design to the popularity of the critically acclaimed television show Mad Men (2007-2015) (Figure 17) and IKEA’s growing presence in the American furniture market (Figure 18).x While this seems to be an anecdotal observation, this is a sentiment shared by many preservationists who have done work advocating for preservation of modern homes and buildings. Carissa Demore and Sally Zimmerman shared the same sentiment when I began work on the Modern Residences Survey for Historic New England.xi These two regionally diverse preservation groups citing the same pop cultural influence for the resurgence in appreciation for modernism illustrates the power of visual representation in widely consumed popular culture.

Lance Rynearson cites his love for the film Men in Black (1997) as the catalyst for his interest in modernism (Figure 19). Production designer Bo Welch designed the offices featured in the film with Eero Saarinen’s 1962 TWA Flight Center at New York City’s John F. Kennedy Airport as inspiration.xii The Arne Jacobsen egg chairs and Eames tower chairs Welch used in the design inspired Rynearson to begin collecting modern furniture.xiii His interested in modern furniture evolved into an interest in modern architecture which culminated in his purchase and preservation of the Sheldon Heath House (1934) (Figure 20).

- 173 - Figure 20: Alden B. Dow, the Jamie and Lance Rynearson House, formerly the Heath House, 1934. Midland Daily News and Lance Rynearson.

Figure 21: Great Room of the Jamie and Lance Rynearson House, formerly the Heath House, 1934. Photograph by the author. Courtesy of Lance Rynearson.

Figure 22: Kitchen of the Jamie and Lance Rynearson House, formerly the Heath House, 1934. Midland Daily News and Lance Rynearson.

Figure 23: Jamie and Lance Rynearson in the dining room of their home. Midland Daily News and Lance Rynearson.

- 174 - The architectural integrity retained throughout Rynearson’s restoration of the Heath House is exceptionally impressive and enhanced by his enviable collection of modern furniture (Figure

21). Impressively, the home retains its original floor plan and many of the original materials, such as Dow’s trademark Unit Blocks, are still in place and in excellent condition. The Heath House even retains its original kitchen and dining area footprint, which is extremely rare for modern homes. The kitchen is quite large compared to the cramped galley-style kitchens more commonly used in modern homes (Figure 22). Rynearson shared that the kitchen was likely larger as the

Heath Family did not have live-in help like so many other affluent families at the time. The large kitchen is the primary reason that the original floorplan has been so well preserved. Small galley kitchens are a chief complaint among modern homeowners and are often cited as a major reason that mid-century modern homes are difficult to sell. In addition to the livable floor plan, the Heath

House is also constructed from extremely durable materials. Alden B. Dow’s signature Unit

Blocks, made of cinder ash and concrete, are extremely hardy to the elements. While the Unit

Blocks are no longer in production, very few have needed replacement. Rynearson has only had to repaint the Unit Blocks of the Heath House and perform regular maintenance. Rynearson added that he and the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio have been working with the original Unit Block molds to create new, replacement blocks just in case originals fail. The other materials used in the home are common materials such as wood, glass, and metal – all of which can be replaced in-kind easily. The only features of the home that Rynearson found to be faulty were the skylights and flat roof, which with the intensity of Michigan winters, frequently leaked.xiv

- 175 - Figure 24: An immaculately preserved Mid-Century Modern kitchen in Craig McDonald’s 1966 Jackson Hallett home. Photo by the author on October 2, 2017

Figure 25: Beautifully preserved built-in furniture in Craig McDonald’s 1966 Jackson Hallett home. Photo by the author on October 2, 2017

- 176 -

Figure 26: Prominent masonry hearth in Craig McDonald’s 1966 Jackson Hallett home. Photo by the author on October 2, 2017

Figure 27: Interior of Craig McDonald’s 1966 Jackson Hallett home. Photo by the author on October 2, 2017

Craig McDonald also owns a modern home designed by one of Alden B. Dow’s acolytes,

Jackson Hallett that also retains a remarkable level of architectural integrity – down to the mint condition kitchen appliances and basement fallout shelter. While the home has a galley kitchen, it retains its original floorplan (Figure 24). The home has several beautiful wooden features including paneling, built-in furniture, and prominent beams (Figure 25-27). Interestingly, McDonald noted

- 177 - that it has been difficult to find adequate homeowner’s insurance for the home. He cited the fact that the wooden beams throughout the home were of such rare quality and would be extremely difficult to replace in-kind that it was nearly impossible to find affordable home insurance. The difficulty in finding affordable homeowner’s insurance for mid-century modern homes and their character defining materials is understandably a major deterrent for prospective homeowners.

The density of exceptionally well preserved modern architecture in Midland is remarkable.

It is unbelievable that Midland has remained under the architectural radar for so long. Craig

McDonald cited the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio’s presence at Palm Springs Modernism Week as the catalyst for more widespread interest in the architecture of Midland and of Alden B. Dow.

After making several connections with respected modern preservationists at Palm Springs

Modernism Week a couple years ago, McDonald and the Alden B. Dow Home and Studio invited several members of the press, preservationists, and architectural historians to tour the plethora of modern residences, schools, churches, and other public buildings in Midland. This tour resulted in numerous national news stories such as the Chicago Reader’s 2014 article entitled “The Midwest's midcentury-modern mecca is Midland, Michigan: How a sleepy town in central Michigan, famous for chemicals, became a destination for inspiring architecture.”xv The attention from the press helped attract more scholars to the town and has incentivized further preservation of modern residential architecture in the area. The role of Palm Springs Modernism Week in the legitimization of Midland, Michigan as a mecca of modern architecture cannot be underestimated.

The widespread success of the preservation of modern residential architecture in Midland,

Michigan can be attributed to many factors. The most important factor is an engaged community.

This is most readily evidenced by the successful community documentation and survey project in

Midland. Demographics and environmental factors have also positively impacted the preservation

- 178 - of modern residential architecture in Midland, Michigan. The real estate market in Midland is healthy, but not hyper-competitive which keeps land value at a reasonable level. This makes teardowns less of a viable option than in competitive markets. Midland, Michigan has an engaged community, an affordable stock of modern homes, and a plethora of resources to assist in the preservation of modern residential architecture.

- 179 - Notes i Joanne Jacobson, "The Idea of the Midwest," Revue Française D'études Américaines (no. 48/49, 1991), 235-II, http://www.jstor.org/stable/20872195. ii “The Columbus, Indiana Architecture Story,” visit columbus indiana (2017), https://columbus.in.us/architecture- story/. iii “Team,” Columbus (2107), https://www.columbusthemovie.com/team/. iv Craig McDonald (Director, Alden B. Dow Home and Studio), Carol Neff (Coordinator, Mid-Century Modern Midland), and Lance Rynearson (Alden B. Dow Historic Homeowner) in discussion with the author, October 2, 2017. v “List of Architects to Research,” Mid-Century Modern Midland (Excel Document, 2017), https://midcenturymidland.org/list-of-architects-to-research/. vi Michigan Historic Preservation Network, “Midland’s Dome: The Roert E. and Barbara Schwartz House,” American Planning Association (May 16, 2015), https://www.planning.org/events/event/4191896/. vii “Home,” Mid-Century Modern Midland (2017), https://midcenturymidland.org/. viii Caroline Wallis, “MIDCENTURY HOMES + HOME TOURS: Defining an Architectural Canon from the Ground Up,” dwell (July 31, 2017), https://www.dwell.com/article/defining-an-architectural-canon-from-the- ground-up-cf6770c2. ix Ibid. x Craig McDonald (Director, Alden B. Dow Home and Studio), Carol Neff (Coordinator, Mid-Century Modern Midland), and Lance Rynearson (Alden B. Dow Historic Homeowner) in discussion with the author, October 2, 2017. xi Carissa Demore (Team Leader, Preservation Services at Historic New England) and Sally Zimmerman (Senior Preservation Services Manager at Historic New England) in discussion with the author, July 2017. xii Asia Ewart, “10 little known facts about ‘Men in Black’,” New York Daily News (2017) http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/10-little-known-facts-men-black-gallery- 1.3295777?pmSlide=1.3295781. xiii “Memorable Offices On-Screen: Part 1,” PENSON (April 13, 2016), http://penson.co/blog/memorable-office-on- screen/. xiv Lance Rynearson (Alden B. Dow Historic Homeowner) in discussion with the author, October 2, 2017. xv Laura Pearson, “The midwest's midcentury-modern mecca is Midland, Michigan,” Chicago Reader (May 14, 2015), https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/midland-michigan-alden-b-dow-home-summer-guide- 2015/Content?oid=17690706.

- 180 - Case Study #4: West Coast – Palm Springs, California

Figure 1: Richard Neutra, the Kaufmann House, 1946. Photo by Julius Shulman, 1947. The Julius Shulman photography archive and the Getty Research Institute via ARTstor. © J. Paul Getty Trust.

Palm Springs, California is rooted in the collective American imagination as the epitome of mid-century leisurely glamour. The Kaufmann Residence designed by Richard Neutra (1946) was the first modern residence in the United States to blend the tenants of California modernism

– function, image, and leisure – with the bourgeoning middle-class consumer culture that defined the aesthetics of the postwar generation.i In the 1920’s Palm Springs began to develop a reputation as “Hollywood’s Playground” as the small town offered a respite from the chaos of Los Angeles while adhering to the famous “two-hour rule”, a stipulation of studio contracts which required that stars be within two hours of the studio at all times.ii This influx of celebrities often brought with it opportunities to create cutting edge works of modern residential architecture. Local architects such as Albert Frey (Figure 2), Donald Wexler, William F. Cody, and E. Stewart Williams (Figure 3) in tandem with a select few Los Angeles architects Rudolf Schindler, Richard Neutra, and John

- 181 - Lautner (Figure 4) created a built environment that evoked the simple elegance of the modern

California lifestyle, which came to be known as Desert Modernism.iii

Figure 2: Albert Frey, the Frey House I, 1939, additions 1953. Photo by Julius Shulman. The Julius Shulman photography archive and the Getty Research Institute via ARTstor. © J. Paul Getty Trust.

Figure 3: E. Stewart Williams, the Edris House, 1953. Photo by Julius Shulman, 1954. The Julius Shulman photography archive and the Getty Research Institute via ARTstor. © J. Paul Getty Trust.

- 182 - Figure 4: John Lautner, the Elrod House, 1968. Photo circa 1970s. Courtesy of moderndesign.org. The home is famous for its role as the villain’s layer in the James Bond film Diamonds are Forever (1971).

A 1950s Palm Springs tourism video highlights the rapid modern growth of town from a small village in the early 1920s to a resort town with over 300 hosting over 250,000 visitors during the course of the high season. At the time, Palm Springs had only 10,000 permanent residents, putting the tourist population at a staggering 25 times the permanent population.iv Today,

Palm Springs is home to 47,000 permanent residents.v Palm Springs attracts over 1,600,000 million visitors per year; nearly 34 times the amount of the permanent population.vi With its genesis as a resort town for the Hollywood elite, it is not surprising that Palm Springs has continued to be a bourgeoning tourist destination. Since the beginning of the 21st century, Palm Springs has successfully positioned itself not only as a relaxing desert retreat, but also as the epicenter of modern architecture and design.vii

Palm Springs solidified its place as the leading destination for modern architecture, design, and preservation in the United States through the success of Palm Springs Modernism Week.

- 183 - Founded by William Kopelk and Stewart Weiner in 2006 following the success of the Palm

Springs Modernism Show & Sale and the annual symposium organized by the Palm Springs Art

Museum’s Architecture and Design Council, Modernism Week Seeks to celebrate and foster appreciation for mid-century modern architecture, design, education, and preservation.viii Kopelk, an accomplished East Coast landscape architect with The Architects Collaborative (TAC), moved to Palm Springs in 1996 to assist with the preservation of Richard Neutra’s Kaufmann House.ix

Through this project, Kopelk become enamored with the preservation of modern architecture in

Palm Springs and went on to serve as the President of the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation from 2001 to 2008.x Through the creation of Modernism Week, Kopelk and Weiner were able to create over 300 events that promote the preservation of modern architecture and contribute over

$35 million in revenue to the Palm Springs economy (Figure 5).xi

Figure 5: 2017 Modernism Week Opening Night After Dark Party featuring The Dreamboats. Modernism Week.

- 184 - Figure 6: Cocktails at the West Elm House, Modernism Week 2018 Fall Preview, October 19, 2017. The West Elm House is an iconic 1950s Palmer & Krisler design. Modernism Week.

Modernism Week has grown from a single 7-day event to an 11-day event each February, which now includes a Fall Preview each year over the course of 4 days in October (Figure 6).xii

The 2017 Modernism Week drew over 97,000 visitors and the 2017 Modernism Week Fall

Preview Weekend drew over 10,000 visitors; both of which are record setting attendance figures for each event.xiii Modernism Week begins a trifecta of cultural events – the event is followed by

Coachella and Desert X – running from February through April that focus on the architecture, art, and design elements of the region. While Modernism Week is the most culturally prestigious of the three events, the Coachella and Desert X events attract a younger, more social media conscious audience that exposes the importance of modern architecture and its preservation to a broader audience. For instance, the Palm Springs Door Tour has become a must-Instagram experience for the young design and architecture minded set (Figure 7-8).xiv This broadened exposure to the preservation of modern residential architecture creates a stronger preservation ethos nationally and helps solidify Palm Springs’ position as the mecca of mid-century modern residential architecture.

- 185 - Figure 7: The “Pink Door” on Modernism Week’s famous Door Tour is an Instagram coup for many visitors. Modernism Week.

Figure 8: A stop on Modernism Week’s Instagrammable Door Tour. Modernism Week.

Many visitors, scholars, architects, and preservationists are drawn to Modernism Week as the selection of open house tours is unparalleled. A variety of properties, from perfectly preserved modern homes to new contemporary constructions, are on view during the event. Double-decker buses brought in specifically for Modernism Week usher spectators throughout the city allowing excellent vantage points from which to view each property.xv The following are a selection of

- 186 - Modernism Week 2018 events: Rat Pack Playground – Modernist Homes in Vista Las Palmas,

NOD TO MOD, a midcentury, multi-sensory dinner theater experience, Premier Double Decker

Architectural Bus Tour, Paul Revere Williams: Architect to the Stars…and Everyone Else, Steel

& Glass 2018 Home Tour, “Atomic Ranch” Live: Seminars, Workshops + House Tours, Palm

Springs Door Tour, Learning From Los Angeles: Strategies for Saving Modern Buildings,

Modernism and Sustainability, and the Palm Desert Signature Home Tour.xvi Modernism Week adeptly provides programming that appeals to every kind of visitor – from curious layperson to expert preservationist or architectural historian.

Palm Springs’ private oases like Hotel Lautner, Frank Sinatra’s E. Stewart Williams designed estate, Albert Frey’s final rocky hillside residence, and the Kaufmann Residence are gingerly opened to the public during the course of Modernism Week. The care with which the residences are displayed is similar to that which is used handling a museum object. Visitors are only allowed to enter each home wearing shoe covers and signs remind viewers that sitting on the furniture is strictly prohibited. While families do in fact reside in these homes, the interiors are static spaces that appear to be suspended in amber. While this exposure is beneficial to the preservation of modern residences, it reinforces the assumption that modern residences are cold and impersonal.

Even the most unexpected buildings in Palm Springs are informed by the modern aesthetic.

For instance, “the Jetsons-esque Bank of America, the Donald Wexler-designed airport, the sculpture-studded animal sanctuary and even the KFC,” are examples of picturesque modernism influenced by Le Corbusier and .xvii Palm Springs’ roots as a leisurely playground for the rich are apparent in its colorful yet precise preservation: “Built on ideals of fantasy and retreat and a rejection of established ideals of taste, the Palm Springs spirit has, in one sense,

- 187 - shifted only slightly, from playground to amusement park. Modernism Week is akin to a trip to

Colonial Williamsburg, recalibrated for the ultra-fabulous,” (Figure 10).xviii

Figure 9: A Palmer & Krisler Hollywood Regency Style Home featuring a sunken living room and swim-up bar on the 2018 Modernism Week Fall Preview “Framed Spaces” tour. Modernism Week.

Figure 10: A patron on the Cul-de-Sac Experience Tour at 2018 Modernism Week Fall Preview. Modernism Week.

- 188 - While there have been some significant preservation battles in Palm Springs, the City of

Palm Springs Historic Site Preservation Board, the Palm Springs Preservation Foundation, and the

Palm Springs Modern Committee have been extremely successful in preserving the vast majority of modern buildings in Palm Springs. In 2000, the Palm Springs Modernism Committee successfully secured $50,000 in grants to perform a Citywide Historic Resources Survey which was completed in 2004.xix Modern residential architecture in Palm Springs benefitted enormously from creating a preservation ethos for modern architecture before the height of the housing bubble and teardown trend in 2007. Since the community was aware of the significance of these homes, the teardown option was immediately a less desirable option. In the past two decades, the preservation of modern residential architecture has become a major source of economic vitality in

Palm Springs thanks to increased tourism and necessity for architects, preservationists, and craftspeople who are trained in the renovation of modern architecture. Palm Springs’ investment in preserving the modernist built environment of the city has even resulted in new modernist construction in the city. Troy Kudlac secured permission to build five “Desert Eichlers” in Palm

Springs from Monique Lombardelli, who produced a documentary on the cultish following of

Joseph Eichler’s tract homes in the Bay Area and modified the plans to meet contemporary code requirements (Figure 11). Kudlack modified the homes further to be better suited to the desert environment but assures prospective buyers that the homes are still “90% accurate” to original

Eichler designs.xx

- 189 - Figure 11: Desert Eichler A-Frame Atrium at Twilight constructed by KUD Properties, Inc. Photo courtesy of KUD Properties, Inc.

Modern preservation in Palm Springs is primarily incentivized by tourism. In 2017 alone, over 222,000 people visited Palm Springs for Modernism Week and Coachella (Figure 13). During the high season, the average price of hotel room – and an average room at that – is $400 a night.xxi

Permanent residents are fighting the boom in short term rentals facilitated by companies like

Airbnb in order to preserve the fabric of the community for people who actually live in Palm

Springs. While the residents are used to the city being a resort town, the rambunctious partiers that frequently take up residence in Palm Springs during Coachella are thought by many residents to be unnecessarily disrupting neighborhoods and communities.xxii Modernism Week’s oversized double decker buses also disrupt the visual continuity of the community and are certainly a nuisance to permanent residents (Figure 12). While the desirability of Palm Springs has reached a fever pitch and more people are interested in the community’s expert preservation of mid-century modern residential architecture than ever before, preservationists must consider the needs of the permanent population. Preservation should always be focused on the community as tourists actively seek authentic experiences and without a permanent population, an authentic local culture

- 190 - is nearly impossible to attain. The observation that the preservation on display at Modernism Week and the restoration of Colonial Williamsburg are very similar is not unfounded. It is crucial that preservationists remember the permanent residents of Palm Springs in order to retain the dynamic livelihood so important to successful preservation.

Figure 12: Double-Decker Bus at 2016 Modernism Week. Photo by David A. Lee. Modernism Week.

Figure 13: Crowds at Modernism Week 2016. Photo by Jake Holt. Modernism Week.

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Modernism Week in Palm Springs has inspired many similar events such as SarasotaMOD

Weekend and Tucson Modernism Week.xxiii Creating an annual event that celebrates modernism and provides public programming that educates the community about the preservation of modern residential architecture can be an extremely effective tool for any city trying to raise awareness about significant modern architecture in the area. The event has become a networking opportunity for preservationists and architects specializing in modernism. Palm Springs Modernism Week is a rite of passage for any fledgling modern mecca. Midland, Michigan, a community discussed in a later case study, began to receive national attention after representatives from the Alden B. Dow

Home and Studio represented the city at the 2015 Modernism Week in Palm Springs.xxiv

Modernism Week has been featured in publications nationwide and organizations in attendance frequently receive media coverage. The podcast US Modernist: Architecture You Love produces several episodes from the week-long event, collecting oral histories from experts on modernism throughout the United States.xxv The city of Palm Springs has cultivated an ethic of modern residential preservation that is second to none in the United States of America; the only obstacle preservationists face now is ensuring that permanent residents of Palm Springs take priority over tourists.

- 192 - Notes i Alice T. Friedman, American Glamour and the Evolution of Modern Architecture (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2010), 78. ii “About Palm Springs – Hollywood’s Playground,” Visit Palm Springs California – Like No Place Else (2017), http://www.visitpalmsprings.com/hollywoods-playground. iii Janelle Zara, “During Palm Springs Modernism Week, The City Becomes a Playground for the Nostalgic,” Curbed (February 29, 2016), https://www.curbed.com/2016/2/29/11135896/modernism-week-palm-springs- midcentury-architecture. iv Visit Palm Springs, “America’s Desert Oasis,” Green Loomis Productions (Hollywood, CA: 1955), digital video, https://youtu.be/MNu_MY7zwzs. v Nancy Trejos, “Palm Springs finds bright future in modernist past,” USA Today (March 24, 2017), https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2017/03/24/palm-springs-finds-bright-future-modernist- past/99440026/. vi “City Profile,” City of Palm Springs, CA (2017), http://www.palmspringsca.gov/business/city-profile. vii Lauren Weiss Bricker, "History in Motion: A Glance at Historic Preservation in California," Future Anterior: Journal of Historic Preservation, History, Theory, and Criticism (vol. 1, no. 2, 2004), 4-13, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25834942. viii “About Us,” Modernism Week (2017), http://www.modernismweek.com/about-us/. ix Carolyn Horwitz, “New Face of Modernism Week: William Kopelk, the newly minted chairman, brings high passion to his position,” Palm Springs Life (October 2, 2017), https://www.palmspringslife.com/new-face-of- modernism-week/. x “Board of Directors,” Palm Springs Preservation Foundation (2010), http://www.pspreservationfoundation.org/board.html. xi Carolyn Horwitz, “New Face of Modernism Week: William Kopelk, the newly minted chairman, brings high passion to his position,” Palm Springs Life (October 2, 2017), https://www.palmspringslife.com/new-face-of- modernism-week/. xii Jade Conroy, “Design in the Desert: Seeing behind closed doors at Palm Springs Modernism Week,” The Telegraph (November 21, 2017), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/palm-springs-modernism-week-2018- guide-holiday-tickets-events/. xiii Nancy Trejos, “Palm Springs finds bright future in modernist past,” USA Today (March 24, 2017), https://www.usatoday.com/story/travel/destinations/2017/03/24/palm-springs-finds-bright-future-modernist- past/99440026/.; http://www.modernismweekly.com/2017/10/25/weekend-in-review-fall-preview-2017/. xiv Alissa Walker, “How Palm Springs, long a design hot spot, leveled up,” Curbed (April 28, 2017), https://www.curbed.com/2017/4/28/15473714/palm-springs-coachella-art-design-modernism. xv Jade Conroy, “Design in the Desert: Seeing behind closed doors at Palm Springs Modernism Week,” The Telegraph (November 21, 2017), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/palm-springs-modernism-week-2018- guide-holiday-tickets-events/. xvi “Events,” Modernism Week (2017), http://www.modernismweek.com/events/.

- 193 - xvii Jade Conroy, “Design in the Desert: Seeing behind closed doors at Palm Springs Modernism Week,” The Telegraph (November 21, 2017), http://www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/travel/palm-springs-modernism-week-2018- guide-holiday-tickets-events/. xviii Janelle Zara, “During Palm Springs Modernism Week, The City Becomes a Playground for the Nostalgic,” Curbed (February 29, 2016), https://www.curbed.com/2016/2/29/11135896/modernism-week-palm-springs- midcentury-architecture. xix “Preservation History,” ps modcom: Palm Springs Modern Committee (2017), https://psmodcom.org/preservation-history/.; Architectural Resources Group, City of Palm Springs Historic Resources Survey: Final Draft Summary Report (Palm Springs, CA: June 2004), http://www.palmspringsca.gov/home/showdocument?id=235. xx R. Daniel Foster, “A new crop of Eichlers rises in Palm Springs, the mecca of modernism,” Los Angeles Times (February 16, 2017), http://www.latimes.com/business/realestate/hot-property/la-fi-hp-palm-springs-eichler- 20170218-story.html. xxi Alissa Walker, “How Palm Springs, long a design hot spot, leveled up,” Curbed (April 28, 2017), https://www.curbed.com/2017/4/28/15473714/palm-springs-coachella-art-design-modernism. xxii Katherine Rosman, “Palm Springs Is Hot. The Old Guard Is Hot Under the Collar.,” New York Times (March 4, 2017), https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/04/style/palm-springs-hotels-airbnb-vacation-rental-homes.html?_r=0. xxiii “SarasotaMOD Weekend,” Sarasota Modern (2017), https://safsrq.wordpress.com/sarasotamod-weekend/; “Modernism Week,” Tucson Modernism Week (2017), https://preservetucson.org/modernism-week/. xxiv Craig McDonald (Director, Alden B. Dow Home and Studio), Carol Neff (Coordinator, Mid-Century Modern Midland), and Lance Rynearson (Alden B. Dow Historic Homeowner) in discussion with the author, October 2, 2017. xxv “US MODERNIST RADIO: Architecture You Love,” US Modernist (2017), http://www.ncmodernist.org/usmodernistradio.htm.

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- 195 -

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