Triangle Modernist Houses.com Announces Architecture Film Series
November 12, 2009 at 2:59 am | In Film, architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: cinema, Film, film series, film series NC, Galaxy Cinema
– Stunning modernist architecture is the star –
November 11, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – George Smart, founder and executive director of Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), has announced the first TMH Architecture Movie Series, four monthly Thursday night events at the Galaxy Cinema in Cary, N.C.
The first film is Thursday, December 10 — “Visual Acoustics,” a documentary on Julius Shulman, arguably the most important architectural photographer of the 20th century. Narrated by Dustin Hoffman and directed by Eric Bricker, “Visual Acoustics” chronicles Shulman’s life and work as he shaped the careers of influential architects including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra,and John Lautner.
On Thursday, January 14, TMH will screen Ayn Rand’s 1949 classic “The Fountainhead,” based on philosopher Rand’s seminal novel by the same name. “Protagonist Howard Roark
Ayn Rand
is a fiercely individualistic young, modernist architect who chooses to struggle in obscurity rather than compromise his artistic and personal vision,” Smart said. “Roark is the embodiment of the human spirit and his struggle represents the triumph of individualism over collectivism.”
“The Lake House,” a 2006 romantic drama starring Keanu Reeves and Sandra Bullock, is TMH’s choice for Valentine’s Day week, February 18. Alex Wyler (Reeves) is an architect living in 2004. Kate Forster (Bullock) is a doctor living in 2006. They share correspondence by leaving letters in a lake house mailbox that somehow transcends time. “A great love story, but the real star of the movie is the house,” Smart says, “and prior to the screening, moviegoers will learn how it was constructed and destroyed just after completion.”
On March 18, the final movie is “Infinite Space,” a new documentary that traces California
From "Infinite Space"
architect John Lautner’s lifelong quest to create “architecture that has no beginning and no end.” Lautner is known for the Sheats-Goldstein Chemosphere and other bold houses that have appeared in movies and on TV. “‘Infinite Space’ is the story of brilliance and a complicated life,” said Smart, “and some of the most sensual architecture of the 20th century.”
“TMH’s ongoing mission is “to draw attention to and to celebrate modernist residential design,” Smart noted. “These four films, besides being entertaining, feature terrific houses from across the country.”
Smart is an unabashed fan of the Galaxy Cinema. “They have the area’s best popcorn, popped fresh right there, not in a factory somewhere,” he said. “Food prices are reasonable, and besides popcorn, sodas, and candy, the theater offers beer, wine, mineral water, coffee and teas, and specialty organic chocolates.”
Galaxy Cinema is located at 770 Cary Towne Boulevard, across the street from Cary Towne Center. All movies in the series start at 7 p.m.
Sponsors include: Nowells Contemporary Furniture, Foundation, LightTech, Tonic Design & Construction, Kontek Systems, Alphin Design Build, Frank Bowman Design Inc., and blueplate pr. Advance tickets are $7.95 each, $23.95 for all four movies, or $9 at the door. There will be door prizes donated by sponsors and gift certificates from the Galaxy Cinema.
For more information on the THM Architecture Movies Series, to buy advance tickets, and to see trailers for each of the featured films, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register.htm.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
Triangle Modernist Houses To Host “ModStock ‘09″
October 19, 2009 at 5:12 pm | In architecture, historic preservation, leisure activity, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: modern architecture, modern houses, preserving modern houses, modern furniture, Young Architects Forum
October 19, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Triangle Modernist Houses, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle, is throwing a party. On Thursday, November 5, from 6-8 p.m. the non-profit and the AIA/Triangle’s Young Architects Forum (YAF) will present “ModStock ‘09” at Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture Gallery in Cary, and the public is invited.
ModStock is the brainchild of TMH founder and director George Smart, who sees the party as a way to introduce more people to modernist architecture while introducing the area’s brightest young architects to the community.
“The Triangle has rediscovered cool architecture through our website,” says Smart, “and now it’s time to bring that community together. Many people who love Modernist design feel they are alone, but we’re tapping into hundreds if not thousands of kindred spirits. If you have a coffee table book on Modernist architecture, we’re your tribe. Come join us!”
George Smart
Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture Gallery is one of the state’s largest modern furniture showrooms. The event will include free beer, wine, sodas and snacks, and door prizes from TMH and Nowell’s, including tickets to TMH’s next Modernist House Tour to be held in West Raleigh on November 7.
Smart will also debut a portion of a new presentation during ModStock spotlighting award-winning architects and Modernist residences from 1951 to today.
“During 2010, city agencies, historical societies, realtors, design schools, or any group interested in learning about North Carolina’s rich Modernist heritage can engage me to speak. This presentation will be part of those speaking engagements.”
Only 250 tickets are available to ModStock, so Smart suggests anyone interested should go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register soon to make reservations.
Nowell’s is located at 900 East Chatham Street in Cary.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Triangle Modernist Houses 
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Young Architects Forum:
The Young Architects Forum (YAF), a program of the American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the College of Fellows (COF), is organized to address issues of particular importance to recently licensed architects.
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Triangle Modernist Houses’ Raleigh Tour To Spotlight Architects’ Personal Residences
October 1, 2009 at 6:34 pm | In architecture, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture | Leave a CommentTags: modernist homes tour, Raleigh modernism, Triangle Modernist Houses
The Crowder residence
October 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) – Three Modernist houses that architects designed for their own families in West Raleigh will be the focus of Triangle Modernist Houses’ (TMH) Homes Tour to be held Saturday, November 7, from 1-4 p.m.
The tour will spotlight the private residences of architects Thomas Crowder, Raymond Sawyer and Brian Shawcroft.
Thomas Crowder is founder and principal of ARCHITEKTUR and currently serves as a Raleigh City Councilman. His 2400-square-foot residence at 1409 Ashburton Road was completed in 2000, replacing an earlier, more traditional ranch home that burned in 1998. A prime example of fitting modernist design into an established community, it was given an AIA Honor Award in 2004.
“It was almost therapy for me to deal with the loss by absorbing myself in the rebuilding and starting over,” says Crowder.
The house basically doubled in size with an addition on the back, and includes an art gallery at the front to display pieces that have replaced those that were lost. The house has a Japanese-inspired feel and includes large clerestory windows that provide ample light throughout the day.
The Sawyer house.
Raymond Sawyer, the first recipient of the American Society of Beaux Arts medal, designed his house at 1300 Lorimer Road in 1958. Exemplary of mid-century Modernist design, it features extensive glazing that blurs the line between indoors and out. Retired now and living in Brevard, NC, Sawyer lived in the house with his family until 2006. The current owner, Adrienne Joergensen, has done some renovation work, and the house’s Modernist “bones” remain very much intact.
One of Raleigh’s true “deans” of Modern architecture, Brian Shawcroft,
The Shawcroft residence
FAIA, designed almost all of the Modernist home inventory in the Triangle area from the 1970s through the late 1990s. He completed his current 2215-square-foot residence at 5215 Melbourne Road in 2002. In 1991, Shawcroft was awarded the prestigious Henry Kamphoefner Prize for achievement in Modernist architecture.
The November tour will begin at the Western Boulevard Presbyterian Church, 4900 Kaplan Drive, where a free shuttle service will take participants to the three houses.
Advance tickets are $9.95 and are on sale now via the TMH website: www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. TMH director George Smart recommends securing tickets early since TMH homes tours typically sell out quickly. Proceeds benefit future tours, TMH’s cataloging program and research grants, and provide infrastructure as the non-profit organization works to create public awareness for the preservation of modernist design.
Sponsors for the November tour include Element Lighting, Rock & Shop, Humphrey Homes, Bowman Designs, Alphin Design/Build, and Nowell’s Contemporary Furniture.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
About Triangle Modernist Houses
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) is a 501C3 nonprofit established in 2007 to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Its primary public service is the website www.trianglemodernisthouses.com. The award-winning website, now the largest educational and historical archive for modernist residential design in America, continues to catalog, preserve, and advocate for North Carolina modernism. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these “works of art” for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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Raleigh Landscape Architect Restores A Mid-Century Garden at UNC-Greensboro
September 13, 2009 at 9:47 pm | In environmentalism, landscape architecture, mid-century architecture | Leave a CommentTags: garden restoration, historic gardens, mid-century gardens
The Taylor Garden in the 1950s.
September 13, 2009 (GREENSBORO, NC) – “Attention to the outside environment makes a vast difference in people’s experience of [a] campus,” notes the Society for College and University Planning in an introduction to a webcast the SCUP presented on the need for pleasant outdoor spaces in university settings.
Four years ago, Bell/Glazener Design Group, a Raleigh, NC-based landscape architecture firm, helped the University of North Carolina at Greensboro improve how students, faculty and visitors experience that historic campus by restoring and expanding a once vibrant, ca. 1952 outdoor gathering space back to its original intent.
Since then, the Taylor Garden has become a favorite outdoor space for individual study, outdoor dining, and informal student meetings. Occasionally, academic classes meet there as well.
Charles Bell, Superintendent of Grounds back when UNC-G was called the Women’s College, designed the original garden and pool next to Elliot University Center. It was named in honor of the Woman’s College Dean of Students, Katherine Taylor, in 1973. A publication of the time described it as ” a large paved patio planted in flowers and evergreens, with a central fountain.”
According to John Pope, an architect with UNC-G’s Facilities Design and Construction office, the Taylor Garden was once used for student gatherings and afternoon teas. But over the years, the patio area deteriorated. The concrete and slate pavers became cracked and damaged, and the pool so often that the gold fish once living there had to be removed. The planting areas also needed redefinition and updating.
“While the University Grounds Department did the best job they could of maintaining the patio area, the obvious solution was to renovate the garden,” Pope said.
The Taylor Garden today.
Dennis Glazener, ASLA, principal of Bell/Glazener Design Group, maintained the original character of the garden by restoring yet upgrading the original water element and distinctive patio. To bring the pool up to code without the need for a guardrail (the depths was an issue), he built a new shell inside the exiting structure. A contemporary mechanical and UV filtration system allowed aquatic life to return to the pool. For the Garden’s grass and slate patio grid, he added an efficient drip irrigation system for the fescue grass joints.
Where additional paving was needed, Glazener used scored concrete “to differentiate between old and new,” he noted. “This is something the North Carolina Cultural Resources Department’s division of Archives and History prefers so visitors can see where the original design stops and the additions begin.” He also made a point to reuse and restore as much existing slate as possible.
The plant material present when construction began on the garden was relocated to other areas of the campus. For the “new” Taylor Garden, Glazener specified redbud, magnolia, holly, maple and elm trees, and azalea, hawthorn, osmanthus and holly shrubbery. All plant material was obtained locally.
Glazener’s design includes additional pedestrian lighting and a blue light phone for security purposes. The University selected the patio furnishings.
The Taylor Garden restoration coincided with the renovation and expansion of Elliott University Center.
For more information on the project, visit www.bgjdesign.com.
About Bell/Glazener Design Group:
For over 50 years, Bell/Glazener Design Group has provided design services to commercial, residential, and institutional clients in North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia. Projects range from residential landscape architecture to extensive regional planning, urban design, campus planning, land use-master planning and sports-recreational planning. For more information visit www.bgjdesign.com or call 919-787-3515.
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Local Advocate Hopes Good News for Housing Market Means Good News for Modernist Houses
August 25, 2009 at 8:31 pm | In architecture, business, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: modernist houses NC, NC real estate, Triangle housing, Triangle real estate
August 25, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) — After the Associated Press reported last week that “the U.S. housing market is rebounding faster than expected” (News & Observer), George Smart of Durham, NC, the founder and director of Triangle Modernist Archives Inc, (TMA) is hoping some of that momentum will help preserve some of the modern houses currently on the market in the Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill region of North Carolina.
Smart is the founder and director of Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., a non-profit entity that archives and advocates modernist residential design. It’s website, www.trianglemodernisthouses.com, includes a free “For Sale” section that spotlights modernist houses on the market solely for the purpose of helping them find new owners. TMA does not receive a percentage of the sale.
At present, the list includes 45 residences, from a 1949 house in Chapel Hill designed by Jim Webb to Dwell Magazine’s “Next House” in Hillsborough, designed by Joel Turkel and completed in 2007.
“Any Triangle modernist homeowner or real estate agent can participate,” Smart explained. “All they have to do is send an email with the house address, city, owner’s name, year built, square feet, and architect, if known; photos of the front, back, kitchen, and living room; and a link to where readers can get more information. Typically this is a real estate company website or MLS. Submissions, if approved, are generally reviewed, edited, and posted within 48 hours.”
(MLS, or the Multiple Listing Service, is a real estate service that combines listings for all available properties in an area, except For-Sale-By-Owner properties, in one directory or database.)
TriangleModernistHouses.com has helped many homeowners and realtors sell new and mid-century modern residences in the Triangle area and, in some cases, as far away as Charlotte to the west and Rocky Mount to the east, thanks to a growing data base of modernist enthusiasts who sign up for Smart’s email updates or visit the site frequently.
“Our historical content and detail is unrivaled,” Smart said, “which is why devoted modernist-oriented visitors return again and again.”
According to Raleigh realtor Ann-Cabell Baum Anderson, the website listing and tour sponsored of the dramatically modern, 3900-square-foot home overlooking Lake Boone Trail in Raleigh helped her sell that property. The house was designed by Jessica Johnson Moore.
TMH.com helped drive interest in the Johnson House overlooking Lake Boone Trial in Raleigh.
“From a realtor’s standpoint, TMH absolutely drives more eyes toward, and more conversation around, the modernist houses we list,” she said. “It is extremely helpful, and George and his board are just dynamic people. I applaud them for their advocacy and thank them for their efforts.”
Smart noted that he frequently receives calls from modern home enthusiasts as far away as California and Maine who have found his website online and seek out his help in matching them with an existing home or connecting them with a local architect who can design one for them. The website also maintains information on modern architects working in the Triangle today as well as an archive of past modernists who contributed to the area’s built environment.
A Raleigh native and the son of an architect, George Smart loves to point out a little known fact: that the Triangle area “is the third largest concentration of modernist houses in America. We have more than anywhere except LA and Chicago,” he said.
He’s hoping the part of that concentration that’s currently for sale will find enthusiastic new owners as buyers return to the housing market.
For more information on Triangle Modernist Houses and to view the list of homes for sale, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com and click on “For Sale.”
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Archive, Inc. (TMA) is a North Carolina nonprofit organization. Established in 2007 by George Smart, the organization became a formal nonprofit in 2009. TMA is committed to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Our primary public service is managing Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these works of art for future generations. Visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
Exemplary Mid-Century Home Endangered In Durham
August 3, 2009 at 7:12 pm | In architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | 2 CommentsTags: George Matsumoto, Kenneth Scott AIA, Lewis Clarke, mid-century architecture, mid-century houses for sale, mid-century houses NC, Milton Small
Carr residence's hidden terrace
August 3, 2009 (DURHAM, NC) – A 1950’s house going on the market isn’t news. When that house is exemplary of its style and period and in danger of demolition, it is.
The 1958 John and Binford Carr residence in Durham, NC, overlooking Hope Valley Golf Course is for sale. Triangle Modernist Houses, an archiving and advocacy organization for mid-century homes in the Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill “Triangle” area of North Carolina, considers it the most endangered house among its listings of modern homes for sale.
As seen from the golf course
“We’re putting out a national alert to find a loving owner for this exquisite, Kenneth Scott-designed home,” said George Smart, executive director. “Its location on a golf course coupled with an available lot next door makes this a prime teardown target.”
Kenneth McCoy Scott, AIA, a member of the first graduating class at the School of Design at North Carolina State University, designed the 2337-square-foot Carr residence. His design recalls a group of middle-income family residences designed by Frank Lloyd Wright’s called “Usonian Homes.” They were relatively small, single-story houses with carports (a term FLW coined) rather than garages and L-shaped footprints that create an inner garden/terrace. Environmentally conscious before the concept entered the general lexicon, Usonian houses featured native materials and flat roofs with large cantilevered overhangs to protect an abundance of windows. The windows accommodated natural ventilation and lighting and blurred the line between indoors and outdoors. Clerestory windows added more natural lighting.
The Carr residence appears to be straight from Wright’s Usonian playbook. From the carport, a door opens onto an enclosed, private terrace and garden. This space as well as the surrounding property features the work of master landscape architect Lewis Clarke, FASLA, who taught at the NCSU School of Design under Dean Henry Kamphoefner.
From the hidden terrace, sliding glass doors open to the interior where large windows at the back of the living space overlooks the golf course. A hall leading to the bedrooms also features a glass wall with exterior views. Natural wood and brick walls that exemplify contractor Frank Walser’s work add warmth to the modern lines and volumes of the interior. Walser (1924-1996) was well-known for his craftsmanship and attention to detail, and as such executed the design concepts of many of the area’s best architects, including George Matsumoto and Milton Small. 
The Carrs have been the only owners of the two-bedroom two-bath house that is listed for $665,000 and has been meticulously maintained. Smart is hoping a buyer who appreciates the beauty and historic importance of Kenneth Scott’s design comes forward before a developer grabs the land and discards the house.
Adds Smart, “By getting the word out now, rather than wait, we dramatically increase the chances of preserving one of the finest examples of Mid-Century modern.”
The house is listed with Susan Peak of Peak, Swirles & Cavallito of Durham (919-612-3221. To see more photos of the house, including a collection of black-and-white images from the late 1950’s, go to www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/scott.htm.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
Triangle Modernist Archive, Inc. (TMA) is a North Carolina nonprofit organization. Established in 2007 by George Smart, the organization became a formal nonprofit in 2009. TMA is committed to restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. Our primary public service is managing Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina. TMH also hosts popular modernist house tours several times a year, giving the public access to the Triangle’s most exciting residential architecture, past and present. These tours raise awareness and help preserve these works of art for future generations.
1950s photos by Lewis Clarke, FASLA, courtesy of Triangle Modernist Houses.com
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Putting The Ease in Easements: How To Save Modernist Houses From Future Bulldozers
July 22, 2009 at 9:15 pm | In architecture, education, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news | Leave a CommentTags: historic preservation, mid-century houses NC, modern architecture, Preservation NC, Triangle Modernist Archives
July 22, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — Property easements aren’t sexy, but they are important, especially when they concern property with historic value. Easements protect historic structures by assuring that the property’s intrinsic values will be preserved through subsequent ownership.
To help the general public understand how easements work, what they protect, their advantages and disadvantages, Triangle Modernist Houses.com (TMH) will present a workshop and panel discussion in the new addition to Pullen Memorial Church, 1801 Hillsborough Street in downtown Raleigh, on Saturday, August 15, from 10-11:30 a.m.
Members of the panel will include TMH founder and executive director George Smart; Elizabeth Sappenfield, director of Urban Issues for Preservation North Carolina and the National Trust for Historic Preservation; J. Myrick Howard, executive director, Preservation North Carolina; and Sig Hutchinson, a Wake County insurance agent who is best known for his work in protecting and preserving open space and expanding Raleigh’s greenway system.
TMH’s George Smart is particularly interested in how preservation easements can save mid-century Modernist houses from being razed in the Triangle.
“Many people have a deep personal connection to their house or property,” he said. “It is a part of their family legacy or the cherished result of a life’s work. A preservation easement assures a beloved property will be preserved forever.”
Panelist Elizabeth Sappenfield explained that a preservation easement is “a legal agreement filed with the county register of deeds that protects buildings. Easements are flexible tools and can be custom-designed to meet the personal and financial needs of the property owner. In some cases, the owner may choose only to protect the exterior of the building, but a preservation easement may also protect a building’s interior and important landscape elements.”
Through the panel discussion, Smart hope to make “easements easier!” he said. The group will discuss the role of easements in local historic districts and the National Register of Historic Places, along with the length of easement protection, parties involved and costs required.
"Green" addition, Pullen Memorial Baptist Church, Raleigh.
Special guest Ellen Weinstein of the architectural firm Dixon Weinstein Friedlein in Chapel Hill will also be on hand to discuss her firm’s design of the new modern hall at the historic Pullen Memorial Church, which was built using recycled materials and features a “green” roof, rainwater cistern, geothermal heating/cooling, and natural lighting. The church campus is located at the corner of Hillsborough Street and Cox Avenue.
Advance tickets are $5.95 per person and can be obtained at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com/register.htm.
About Elizabeth Sappenfield:
A Raleigh native, Elizabeth Sappenfield is working on preservation issues in the City of Raleigh, including protecting historic neighborhoods, advocating for preservation in city planning, and working directly to preserve historic properties. She is particularly interested in the preservation of Raleigh’s Modernist architecture, working with owners of Modern homes on their preservation options, including easements, and educating the public on Raleigh’s Modernist architecture legacy.
About J. Myrick Howard:
Myrick Howard and Preservation North Carolina’s revolving fund has protected more than 270 historic properties in 60 counties since 1977. Howard has written numerous articles, including a chapter for an international book on American preservation. Each year he teaches a course on historic preservation planning at UNC-Chapel Hill. He is the 2006 winner of the AIA Triangle Isosceles Award.
About Sig Hutchinson:
Sig Hutchingson has worked to promote not only Raleigh’s world-class greenway sytem but also multi-modal transportation options such as connecting sidewalks, bike lanes and greenways to an expanded bus and light rail system. Hutchinson successfully led four bond referendums totaling more than $140 million in Wake County for open space and in the City of Raleigh for parks and greenways.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
TMH is the website for Triangle Modernist Archives, Inc., an award-winning nonprofit founded by George Smart in 2007 that preserves, advocates, and builds community around modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina. Through its online archive and frequent tours of modernist houses in the area, TMA spotlights the beauty and value of modernist residential design and the need for celebrating and preserving the area’s finest examples. www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
Blueplate PR Goes Modern with Triangle Modernist Houses.com
July 8, 2009 at 1:45 am | In architecture, green architecture, historic preservation, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, news, public relations | Leave a CommentTags: Raleigh public relations agency
July 7, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) - The Raleigh/Durham/Chapel Hill “Triangle” region of North Carolina has the third-largest concentration of modernist houses in the nation, bested only by Los Angeles and Chicago. This fact surprises most people, even those who live in the Triangle. But not TriangleModernistHouses.com (TMH), an award-winning nonprofit which
preserves, advocates, and builds community around modernist residential
design in the Triangle area of North Carolina, from mid-century to the
present. To leverage the area’s uniqueness regionally and nationally, TMH has contracted with Blueplate PR in downtown Raleigh.
Blueplate PR is a boutique public relations agency owned and operated by
award-winning journalist Kim Weiss. Blueplate specializes in message
development, media relations, communications, online presence, and website
text development.
Weiss is also a modern architecture enthusiast. For nearly two decades, she
wrote about architecture and historic preservation for the former Spectator
Magazine and North Carolina Architect magazine, and founded the Triangle
Architecture Awards Program through Spectator.
“So I couldn’t have been happier when TMH founder George Smart asked me if I’d be interested in working with TMH,” Weiss said. “Modern architecture is a passion of mine, from Charles Rennie Mackintosh’s groundbreaking work in Scotland in the late 19th century, through the ‘heroic’ period of the 1920s and ’30s, to what we now call mid-century, and on to the cutting-edge “green” architecture of today. And I intend to bring every bit of that
passion to bear on my work with TMH.”
George Smart launched TMH in 2007 to catalog, preserve, and advocate
modernist residential design in the Triangle area. The TMH website maintains
a vast gallery of images and biographies of modernist architects who have
had an impact on residential design in the area, both in the past and
currently. TMH also keeps an up-to-date listing of modernist houses for sale
and sponsors frequent tours of modernist houses throughout the Triangle.
Says Smart, “Kim is the most knowledgeable design marketing professional in
North Carolina. With her drive and expertise, we’re going to put the
Triangle’s extraordinary design on the national radar, right up there with
basketball, barbecue,and Clay Aiken.”
For more information on blueplate pr, visit www.blueplatepr.com.
Triangle Modernist Houses is also available on Facebook and Twitter.
TriangleModernistHouses.com Wins National Architecture Award
July 1, 2009 at 5:56 pm | In architecture, mid-century architecture, modern architecture, vintage | Leave a CommentTags: mid-century architecture, mid-century houses NC, modern architecture, modern houses NC, North Carolina architecture
July 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — Triangle Modernist Houses, an online, nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina, was honored recently with the 2009 Paul E. Buchanan Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum.
The Buchanan Award was established in 1993 to recognize contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work.
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) provides extensive details on more than 145 architects with over 3300 photographs of 640 rarely seen homes. Information is gleaned from public records, published reports, interviews, and reader contributions.
“Since the 1950s, the Triangle area of the state – Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill — has been one of the most active areas for really cool houses,” said George Smart, founder and executive director TMH. He defines “cool houses” as “contemporary homes characterized by large common areas and windows, extensive use of natural light, and aesthetic geometric forms. Because of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s vision for a modernist School of Design at North Carolina State University, this area has more modernist houses than anywhere else with the exception of LA and Chicago.“
The Buchanan Award is the third honor TMH has received since its inception. In 2008, TMH won an Award of Merit from the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill and a Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit from Preservation North Carolina (www.presnc.org).
Since it was launched in 2007, TMH’s efforts on behalf of modern architecture, which includes tours of modern homes in the area, has received national recognition in Dwell and Metropolis. The website’s work also been featured on WUNC Radio, in the Raleigh News and Observer and Durham Herald-Sun, and in a variety of online media. For complete information, visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
The Vernacular Architecture Forum was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of these informative and valuable material resources. The Buchanan Award is named for Paul E. Buchanan who served as director of architectural research at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for over 30 years and set the standard for architectural fieldwork in America. For more information visit www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
A unique combination of construction and art, modernist houses are being torn down in record numbers as newer, larger houses are built on the valuable land. Through its extensive website and public tours of modern houses in the Triangle, TMH is committed to advocating, protecting, restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. TMH’s six modernist house tours during 2008 and 2009 attracted over 1500 architecture enthusiasts from North Carolina and beyond. For more information, contact TMH executive director George Smart at (919) 740-8407 or by email: george@trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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