raleigh modernism
Chris Calloway
raleigh that was abandoned and falling down? it may
have already been demolished. it was on a wooded lot
and the roof had caved in. i think it was designed by
some ncsu designo in the 40s or 50s, maybe that polish
guy who designed dorton arena? there was a really nice
website devoted to finding a preservationist for the
house.
there's a matsumoto house in chapel hill off country
club that's practically ready to fall over.
3
-- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
John I
It's the Catalano House (no longer) located on Catalano Drive off of Ridge
Road.
ron thigpen
> help. what was the name of the modernist house in
> raleigh that was abandoned and falling down?
Catalano
<http://www.jetsetmodern.com/catalano.htm>
--rt
grady
more 50s-era NC Design School houses, since they're feeling kinda shitty
about the demise of the Catalano house: http://www.presnc.org/
Did you see the article in Dwell about the moving of the Raleigh
Matsumoto house to Bahama?
(not online, annoyingly)
& actually, you should snap some photos of the one in Chapel Hill &
email them to Dwell. http://www.dwellmag.com
Or contact Nathan Wieler -- He'd probably be interested:
(He's the owner (unless he's managed to sell it already - I heard it was
on the market) of the first Dwell Home, out near Pittsboro. He's now in
business selling similarly-modernist prefab homes.)
Ross
John Iwaniszek
The problem I have with this whole thing is that if these houses served
their function, then they would not be decaying or fallen to disrepair.
My house is vintage 1962 single-family-detached and it is highly
livable, in good repair, and appreciating in value.
I get that the Catalano house, et al. are objets d'arte, but why didn't
they survive as houses? Wouldn't Bucky sigh and concede that form
somehow didn't serve function in these ephemeral dwellings?
Bo Williams
1962. The problem with the Catalano house is that it was empty and not
maintained (or maintained poorly) for quite a long time.
John Iwaniszek
news:469e988e0510111820n47a...@mail.gmail.com:
> On 10/11/05, John Iwaniszek <N...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> gr...@ibiblio.org (grady) wrote in news:434C1921...@ibiblio.org:
>>
>> >
>> > John I wrote:
>> >> Chris Calloway wrote:
>> >>
>> >>> help. what was the name of the modernist house in
>> >>> raleigh that was abandoned and falling down? it may
>> >>> have already been demolished. it was on a wooded lot
>> >>> and the roof had caved in. i think it was designed by
>> >>> some ncsu designo in the 40s or 50s, maybe that polish
>> >>> guy who designed dorton arena? there was a really nice
>> >>> website devoted to finding a preservationist for the
>> >>> house.
>> >>>
>> >>> there's a matsumoto house in chapel hill off country
>> >>> club that's practically ready to fall over.
>> >>>
>> >>>
>> >>
>> >> It's the Catalano House (no longer) located on Catalano Drive off
>> >> of Ridge Road.
>> >>
>> > Preservation NC would want to know about any opportunities to
>> > preserve more 50s-era NC Design School houses, since they're
>> > feeling kinda shitty about the demise of the Catalano house:
>> > http://www.presnc.org/
>> >
>> > Did you see the article in Dwell about the moving of the Raleigh
>> > Matsumoto house to Bahama?
>> >
>> > (not online, annoyingly)
>> >
>> > & actually, you should snap some photos of the one in Chapel Hill &
>> > email them to Dwell. http://www.dwellmag.com
>> >
>> > Or contact Nathan Wieler -- He'd probably be interested:
>> >
>> > http://www.wieler.com/
>> >
>> > (He's the owner (unless he's managed to sell it already - I heard
>> > it was on the market) of the first Dwell Home, out near Pittsboro.
>> > He's now in business selling similarly-modernist prefab homes.)
>> >
>> > Ross
>>
>>
>> The problem I have with this whole thing is that if these houses
>> served their function, then they would not be decaying or fallen to
>> disrepair. My house is vintage 1962 single-family-detached and it is
>> highly livable, in good repair, and appreciating in value.
>>
>> I get that the Catalano house, et al. are objets d'arte, but why
>> didn't they survive as houses? Wouldn't Bucky sigh and concede that
>> form somehow didn't serve function in these ephemeral dwellings?
>>
>>
> Yes, but someone was living in (and maintaining) your house since
> 1962. The problem with the Catalano house is that it was empty and not
> maintained (or maintained poorly) for quite a long time.
I think that is my point. What kept people from living in them? Is it
because they were museum pieces? if so, then why the neglect? If
people were living in them, then maintenance should have been routine
and affordable. At the very least, the houses should have been rented
with a landlord seeing to the repairs and upkeep. If the owners just
let them go, then their function failed in some fundamental way.
Perhaps it was an economic decision balancing the value of the land
against the value of the house - sort of a highest and best use
equation.
It seems like the concept of shelter was ironically sacrificed to some
other ideal. Without the element of livability the houses served no
rational purpose as houses.
grady
well. I take your point about maintenance, but if you saw the pictures
of the state it was in . . . . the roof had come completely delaminated
& was literally falling to pieces.
In any case, had it been a true joy to live in, it wouldn't have sat
vacant to begin with.
Don't get me wrong -- I love insane 20th-century architecture -- I've
tromped all over the country looking at it, including some amazing
Wright houses that are literally falling apart (got in to see the Ennis
house last year just before it was closed due to being unsafe to visit).
But the ones that have sat vacant & are falling apart are by-and-large
the victims of architects who didn't know or didn't care about
engineering. Or, to be more charitable, of people whose ideas were ahead
of the technology's ability to execute them.
Or the victims of clients who couldn't afford to do it right, and so did
it on the cheap. Or some combination of all of those factors.
xo
Ross
p.s. going to see the Farnsworth house next year, hopefully. Fucking
gorgeous, and a royal pain to live in, even when it's *not* 3 feet
underwater.
mi...@mysterycircuits.com
lot in this style around Chapel Hill, and over towards Chatham county
I've seen. They seem to be in random places.
There was one my wife and I looked at that was pretty bizarre. It was
in Graham on 54 right before 40. I'm guessing built in the Seventies,
but possibly just way modified during that time. It was pretty run down
when we looked at it. The entire front of the house was glass, like the
sun rooms at Burger King. There was an indoor swimming pool with a
waterfall, and a twisted fireplace. All the ceilings were silver, and
the walls purple or green. Anyone familiar with it? I guess it sold
eventually.
Has anyone seen these?
http://futuro-house.net/index.html
-Mike
John I
Speaking of Bucky and far-out dwellings, I spent a week at the beach in Waves
this summer at one of the geodesic dome beach houses you occasionallly see
down there. It was very spacious and the floor plan was really efficient and
very welcoming. It was such a nice living space that I am amazed that domes
aren't more popular.
Chris Calloway
my whole reason for asking about the catalano house
was responding to another thread elsewhere about a
modernist house that fell apart and was torn down.
folks were boo-hooing about it. but I knew of so many
of these things that had fallen apart, lived in or
not, it was pretty apparent modernist architects were
more glorified draftsmen than they were any kind of
structural engineers. if you are going to cantilever a
house over a cliff, you'd best know what you are
doing. if you are going to bow a two inch thick roof
and you don't know what you are doing, you can count
on it caving in within a few decades, yep.
these architects were heir to the arts and crafts
movement (william morris), but they inherited more art
than craft. you can even see this in wright-related
architectural monuments like the macintosh tea rooms
in glasgow and the hundertwasserhaus in vienna. i've
visited both (hundertwasserhaus just last month) and
they are fragile beyond belief.
anyway, i think this trend of questionable engineering
competence is being carried forward still in the
currently "popular" (well, talked about, anyway)
modular housing movement. these things are ugly, tiny,
have very unergonomic walkways, and creak like the
dickens. it's nothing more than a way to get us all to
live in gussied-up trailers which will fall apart
before they're paid for. when the new urbanists move
out to the burbs, they still talk affordability, and
still their idea of affordability is different from
mine. the modular idea is, charge as much or more as
well built housing costs, just produce it cheaper and
smaller.
housing isn't about the latest fastener technology out
of norway, no doubt accompanied by a website with some
really slick css. so much of modernist construction
seemed tied up in whatever was the latest material of
the time, often appropriated from some other industry
(the toy industry, apparently). i think the world is
still waiting for a truly modern architecture. that
is, one which serves *and pleases* the masses rather
than rich people and foolhardy yuppies.
and i really think pnc has better things to spend
their efforts on than matsumoto houses. the one in
chapel hill has been and is lived in. it's just built
out of crap and looks like it. on the other hand,
there's plenty of 18th century houses in bethania
which, without being lived in, are still standing and
represent a history of nc settlers who refused to own
slaves or participate in wars. that is where pnc needs
to spend their time.
i don't think pnc has to be ashamed of "letting" the
catalano house get demolished. if it was so damn
important, the ncsu design school could have picked it
up. but maybe they'd rather forget about it now that
their students are required to take materials and
structural engineering. these things can live on as
their architectural drawings anyway. they could be
cautionary tales for students even. "hey, lookit this
cool design. but it fell down within fifty years. what
can we learn from this?"
rick sawyer
> seemed tied up in whatever was the latest material of
> the time, often appropriated from some other industry
> (the toy industry, apparently).
*snerk.*
i think the world is
> still waiting for a truly modern architecture. that
> is, one which serves *and pleases* the masses rather
> than rich people and foolhardy yuppies.
there is an International Style house on Dacian (or Markham?) Avenue
in Trinity Park, Durham that is a treat to see nestled among its late
19th century (and Revival) neighbors. it seems to be holding up
pretty well (though i've never been inside).
rick.
John Iwaniszek
news:2edd44c80510120823x61e...@mail.gmail.com:
>> really slick css. so much of modernist construction
>> seemed tied up in whatever was the latest material of
>> the time, often appropriated from some other industry
>> (the toy industry, apparently).
>
> *snerk.*
>
> i think the world is
>> still waiting for a truly modern architecture. that
>> is, one which serves *and pleases* the masses rather
>> than rich people and foolhardy yuppies.
>
> there is an International Style house on Dacian (or Markham?) Avenue
> in Trinity Park, Durham that is a treat to see nestled among its late
> 19th century (and Revival) neighbors. it seems to be holding up
> pretty well (though i've never been inside).
>
> rick.
Isn't there a pre-fab 50's stainless steel house in Durham as well?
(Pre-fab: before Warhol. Post-fab: circa somewhere during the first Reagan
administration.)
Steven Keith
Virginia Ingram
Virginia Ingram
http://www.virginiaingram.com
virg...@virginiaingram.com
c: 919.475.7706
Chris Calloway
> Isn't there a pre-fab 50's stainless steel house in
> Durham as well?
the lustron locator lists one at 2421 perkins rd, as
well as three in chapel hill:
http://home.earthlink.net/~lustronlocator/state.html
here's a picture of one in new bern:
http://home.earthlink.net/~ronusny/PhotoLustron/NCphoto/NCphoto.html
you can rent one for a vacation:
http://www.innlog.com/lodging/NY/9344.html
fema relocated one:
http://www.fema.gov/ehp/lustron.shtm
check out the links section on this site:
http://www.piranhagraphix.com/Lustron/
other lustron resources:
http://lustron.org/
http://home.earthlink.net/~lustronlocator/
http://www.wosu.org/tv/lustron/history.php
http://members.tripod.com/~Strandlund/
http://www.recentpast.org/types/resident/lustron/
http://home.earthlink.net/~ronusny/
http://www.oldhouseweb.com/stories/Detailed/12270.shtml
http://radio.weblogs.com/0119080/stories/2003/03/04/galleryLustronMania.html
another brand of metal house was "general houses,
inc." not much survives about them. i don't think they
were as extreme as lustron homes with all the built in
metal fixtures. lustron homes are currently attracting
the interest of people with extreme environmental
allergies as possibly safe places to live.
buckminster fuller designed a house with an aluminum
skin that looks sort of similar to some hurricane
proof houses you might see at the beach (warning,
ridiculous use of flash):
http://www.hfmgv.org/dymaxion/
this guy is currently making urban tin cans:
http://www.urbanlofts.com/townframe.html
of course, i have in mind a different kind of metal
house for me:
http://www.kodiaksteelhomes.com/default.asp
really slick css! from norway!:
http://www.lovetann.com/en/index.html
(oops. no. it's flash.)
a really good draftsman designs a house:
http://rogerdean.com/architecture/
rick sawyer: i *think* there's more than one
international style house in trinity park, all on
east/west streets south of markham. i think one is on
the south side of watts street school, which is, yep,
on dacian. i spent a day working the polls at the
school once and couldn't stop staring at that house
across the street.
3
Todd Morman
Prom, has just been elected to the Raleigh City Council. I dealt with him
briefly in my past life as a journalist and he seemed like a genuinely nice
guy - someone who just might turn into a fairly sharp left-leaning local
pol.
If he can keep his more kneejerk 'pro-neighborhood' supporters in check,
that is. You remember *them*; they were among the strongest voices a couple
of years ago calling for strict limitations on the number of unrelated
slackers who should be allowed to live together in Raleigh's apparently
'family-only' downtown neighborhoods. Geary at the Indy pooh-poohed the
resulting protest, in which a couple of hundred of us jammed the council
chambers to shoot the idea down, but it's obvious there are still
'neighborhood' advocates who'd like to see the limits happen, and a lot of
us whose antennae still become alert at (cough) 'pro-neighborhood' talk.
todd congratulations but with eyes and ears open morman
Tim Harper
"Todd Morman" <tmo...@nc.rr.com> wrote in message
news:00a201c5cfb0$d2566c00$9f7ba8c0@todd...
Nice mention.
Raleigh is lucky to have him.
Ditto on the 'pro-neighborhood' euphemism group. While I'm apt to believe
that they are more frightened of destructive renters than alternative
lfestyle folks or just people grouping together to afford a nice abode, the
moniker and policy lend themselves to judgmental aspects. Anyhow, everyone
is always welcome here in Carrboro. If we get enough takers maybe Jesse's
crew will finally put up that fence they've always been talking about. I'm
sure the deer would appreciate it.
Tim
James Hepler
about how the dutch are dealing with European flood
issues. Apparently Holland has offered up several low
lying villages as floodwater retaining lakes. So in
order to avoid regular destruction of homes and
businesses, the dutch are designing these really
interesting looking houses that are designed to float
as waters rise.
http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377050,00.html
http://www.ecoboot.nl/artikelen/floating_houses.php
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com
John Iwaniszek
> This all reminds me of a segment on Modern Marvels
> about how the dutch are dealing with European flood
> issues. Apparently Holland has offered up several low
> lying villages as floodwater retaining lakes. So in
> order to avoid regular destruction of homes and
> businesses, the dutch are designing these really
> interesting looking houses that are designed to float
> as waters rise.
>
> http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/spiegel/0,1518,377050,00.
> html
>
> http://www.ecoboot.nl/artikelen/floating_houses.php
>
>
>
Two words: Floating domes.
grady
James Hepler
--- grady <gr...@ibiblio.org> wrote:
__________________________________
Yahoo! Mail - PC Magazine Editors' Choice 2005
http://mail.yahoo.com
Danny Hooley
for more than $2,000, but I'm letting it go for only
$1,100.
The setup was only used for a few band practices and
one Ugly Americans reunion gig. Buy a piece of local
punk rock history at a bargain price!
Call 225-9879 or 829-4728 and ask for Danny
__________________________________
Yahoo! Music Unlimited
Access over 1 million songs. Try it free.
http://music.yahoo.com/unlimited/