Mid-Century Modern
Mid-century architecture is a special passion of mine. I see them occasionally, but in Portland, true mid-century homes are a rare and treasured experience. Architects such as Pietro Belluschi, John Yeon, Saul Zaik, Van Evera Bailey, Henry Brookman, Richard Sundeleaf and John Storrs designed most of Portland’s best modern homes of that age. (Robert H. Oshatz has been creating modern Portland homes of distinction since 1971.) You don’t have to find one designed by these architects to find a good mid-century home, but it helps. I have seen some incredible mid-century homes in Portland designed by architects who are unknown or forgotten.
The driving force behind mid-century was a blend of consumer passion for a new way of living and emerging technologies that gave architects more choices. The typical ranch wasn’t quite exciting enough for many home buyers anymore. Whole communities were created and home buyers bought into a lifestyle as well as a subdivision. Some of the best architects were hired to realize the modern dream in a new home.
Modern homes often reflected the era’s cultural fascination with science and all things high tech. It was the dawning of the space age, TV and “I Love Lucy.”
Post World War II technologies enabled architects to experiment with a materials palette previously unavailable. Modern buildings constructed between 1940 and 1965 tend to have clean simple lines, a minimum of decoration, lots of glass, flat or angled roofline and use materials such as Formica, aluminum, stainless steel, flagstone, or terrazzo. Signage often used neon and plastics with unique typefaces that spelled out ‘M O D E R N!’ It was a time of innovation. Designers merged resins, plastics, metal alloys, laminates, and other new materials for the first time, creating some of the most astonishing and innovative design and architecture ever.
Modern architects designed revolutionary buildings that boldly rejected applied ornamentation and took their inspiration from the organic world and the machine age. Los Angeles attracted many of these visionaries. Vacationers and retirees in Palm Springs took the modern ideal to a whole new level in a desert setting.
In the Northwest, architects experimented and used natural materials in an extravagant way, creating wood and glass residential masterpieces. When Seattle hosted the World’s Fair in 1962, the Space Needle centerpiece was a futuristic beacon. The mid-century boom of Seattle trickled down to the hills of Portland.
The new technologies and design changes worked their way into modern American life and reinvented the idea of the new home. Parking their automobiles in sleek carports, modern postwar families moved into tract homes and high art model homes with indoor/outdoor living spaces, open floor plans, exotic landscaping, and abstract furnishings. Using obscured glass in homes was common. Widespread optimism after World War II prompted consumerism. New manufacturing techniques allowed homes to be built faster and more creatively, leaving the legacy we treasure today.
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