Kiki, here..
To say I dig midcentury modern design from clothes to architecture is to say I dig breathing. It's a big part of who I am. It's no wonder I gave birth to iCafe Woman Moderne in an Art Moderne Midcentury home from architecture, decor to entertainment.
The Ontario Tweed Home above is the kind of architecture you'll see in areas throughout the U.S. and in Canada.
Midcentury Modern is a simple, geometric and linear design with a hint of mystery. It also has a close connection to the outdoors through atriums and extended patios. That's the mystery of it all, why this simple design has such a cool effect on people. My favorite is the architecture. I love the flat and angled roof designs. Architect Joseph Eichler is one of the masters of the latter.
Marin Modern Real Estate Blog - Eichler Homes in Northern California
In the 1950s, you could buy an Eicher home for $3,000 now they cost over $500,000 and are mostly found in the San Francisco, Northern California regions.
Eichler Homes History
Developer Joseph Eichler and his Eichler Homes, Inc. built nearly 11,000 single-family homes in California, beginning in the late 1940s. Eichler became engrossed with building communities of homes characterized by both flair and affordability.
Their house designs confused the traditional masses -- emphasizing boldness, change, and optimism through indoor-outdoor living, walls of glass, atriums, and radiant-heat floors.
A strong proponent of fair housing and deeply opposed to racial
discrimination, the liberal Eichler was the first large, tract builder to sell
to minorities, and even built a home on his own lot for an NAACP leader.
He resigned from the National Association of Home Builders in 1958 in protest of
racial discrimination policies and, according to reports from long-time Eichler
owners, offered to buy back homes from those who had trouble accepting their
neighbors.
"If, as you claim, this will destroy property values," Joe once told some
disgruntled Eichler owners, "I could lose millions...You should be ashamed of
yourselves for wasting your time and mine with such pettiness."
It was HGTV that first turned me on to midcentury design when I first started watching the network over ten years ago. Before then, I was more into Art Deco design.
This year, HGTV aired a new series called, Sara's House. Sara, a successful Canadian interior designer purchased a midcentury home, where each week she invites viewers inside to watch her renovate one room at a time. I love it! This is my someday dream.
But I'm not the only one in this fan club. Most of our iCafe Woman Moderne divas dig midcentury modern design. Since I'm the president, I've got dibs on showing off my favorites.
Willie Mays Hillside Home
Before and After 1956 Dallas Home
Moderne Philadelphia
Louis Kahn
Architecture from Louis Kahn -
homes in Montgomery County, PA
1947-1950 AIA gold medal winner (above)
This home is at the
beginning of Kahn's use of materials to help define the structure. The
checkerboard window pattern could be adjusted with the large panels
sliding up and down in the living room wing. The home has a 'bi
nuclear' floor plan with the bedrooms well segregated from the
entertaining wingCliff May Architecture - Below
"Cliff May and the Modern Ranch House" (Rizzoli; $60) charts the
career of the designer and builder who popularized the postwar Western
ranch house and its influence on California's penchant for indoor and
outdoor living.
It shows how May expanded the building lexicon for home developers
who relied on stock house plans that were old-fashioned and rigid, and
also comes at a time when contemporary prefabricated, greener versions
of the ranch house are on the rise.
"Cliff May was the master of reshaping the suburban lot into a private
outdoor world," he writes in the book.
May's flexible soft-modern designs for suburban tract homes, made of prefabricated panels and usually constructed in organic U- or L-shaped plans wrapped around private courtyards, were published in Sunset magazine for a Western audience beginning in 1936, and also in House Beautiful magazine, which presented the material nationwide until May's work peaked in the late 1960s.
Modern 1960s Kitchen
Modern 2010 Kitchen
1950s The Little Black Dress
