George Smart
George Smart, founder and Executive Director of Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), the non-profit organization that archives, preserves, and promotes Modernist residential architecture in North Carolina, has received the 2013 Isosceles Award from the American Institute of Architects Triangle Section. READ MORE..
George Smart
Smart will join host Steven Clipp on “Winning The Dream Home Race.”
December 3, 2012 (Chapel Hill, NC) – George Smart, founder and director of the award-winning non-profit organization Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), will appear live on the Voice America radio show “Winning The Dream Home Race” with host Steven Clipp at 10 a.m. Friday, December 7.
Clipp, principal of Steven Clipp Architecture in Chapel Hill and Blowing Rock, NC, podcasts his show every Friday morning. Its purpose is to help listeners understand what a “dream home” really is and how they can achieve the goal of creating their own while also maximizing their investment.
Smart’s segment of the show is entitled “Modern Homes For A Modern World.” According to Steven Clipp, Smart “will enlighten us on what is the Modern Style, what is Mid-Century Modern,and how is it different from Contemporary.”
Smart founded Triangle Modernist Houses in 2007. Since then, the organization has grown to include the largest single archive of modernist houses and the architects who design them in the nation. TMH is also known statewide for its popular modernist homes tours, its annual architecture movie series and “Thirst4Architecture” happy hour networking events, and a host of other events and efforts designed to raise awareness of modernist houses, especially mid-century houses that are endanger of demolition.
“Winning The Dream Home Race” is podcast on the VoiceAmerica Variety Channel. For more information, go to www.voiceamerica.com/channel/246.
For more information on George Smart and Triangle Modernist Houses, visit www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
The John and Toni Cornelius House off Summer Rest Road near Wrightsville Beach was designed by local architect Scott Ogden. Modernist design is rare in any housing market but especially in the traditional South.
Modernist architecture came to America in the 1920s and blossomed in North Carolina in the early 1950s. Although the heyday lasted until the late 1960s, Modernist buildings, especially houses, continue to be built and are on the rise across the United States.
Modernist houses, those flat-roofed, unconventional homes you’ve remarked about while driving by, are actually an art form from the 1950s worth saving. Seeing these beautiful houses destroyed or deteriorating in the Triangle area, I started a website five years ago dedicated to preserving this unusual style. The website, Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH), has won seven historic preservation awards and gets up to 60,000 hits a month. The organization is a surprising success, despite the fact Modernist fans are vastly outnumbered in this state roughly 1,000:1. READ MORE…
8/23/12
By Al Bredenberg
The George Matsumoto Prize for North Carolina Modernist residential design recently announced its 2012 winners. North Carolina, and particularly the Triangle region (Raleigh, Durham, and Chapel Hill), has become known as an epicenter of modernist architecture in part because of the influence of the North Carolina State University College of Design. READ MORE…
August 18, 2012
DURHAM — Triangle Modernist Houses and Preservation Durham have announced “Modernism In Duke Forest,” a tour of six modernist houses in Durham’s Duke Forest neighborhood, will be September 15 from 1 to 4 p.m.
Duke University originally developed the Duke Forest neighborhood, just south of Duke University’s campus, for faculty and staff. Many homes are still owned by their original occupants.
While Duke Forest includes a mix of architectural styles, there are more mid-century modern homes in the neighborhood than anywhere else in Durham, according to local Realtors.
Triangle Modernist Houses, an award-winning non-profit organization dedicated to documenting, preserving and promoting modernist residential design, has teamed with Preservation Durham, a non-profit organization that promotes the restoration of historic homes and commercial properties, to present the September tour. READ MORE..
August 4, 2012
Tops in modernist home design
First prize: the Banbury House, designed by John Reese of Weinstein Freidlein Architects. Photo by Mark Herboth.
Three Raleigh homes were among winners last week of the inaugural George Matsumoto Prize, recognizing excellence in modernist residential design.
A jury of professional architects chaired by Frank Harmon of Raleigh awarded first prize to the Banbury House, designed by John Reese of Weinstein Freidlein Architects and built in Raleigh by Alphin Design Build. The owners sought a minimalist, private home that integrated modest interior spaces with an open-air exterior, including private courtyard, lap pool and cabana/carport. Second place went to a home at 1804 Pictou Road in Raleigh, designed and built by Mike Rantilla; and third place to GREENville House designed by Vinny Petrarca and built in Greenville by Tonic Construction. READ MORE and to see the Gallery of images…
June 3, 2012
George Smart (N&O photo by Takaaki Iwabu)
by Marti Maguire
The history of architecture is marred with cases of belated appreciation. Think Victorian mansions pushed aside to make way for interstates, or Gothic buildings torn down and replaced with gleaming, tinted-window skyscrapers.
But George Smart, founder of the nonprofit Triangle Modernist Houses, wants to save the state’s little-recognized modernist legacy from the wrecking ball. READ MORE…
By Shelley D. Hutchins
A George Matsumoto-design house.
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) starts accepting entries today, May 15, for its new residential design awards competition. Named after one of the founding professors at North Carolina State University’s architecture school, the George Matsumoto Prize is open to architects and designers from anywhere in the world who have designed a new, single-family modernist house in North Carolina that was completed after Jan. 1, 2006. READ MORE…
By Shelley D. Hutchins, May 2, 2012
Modernism at Risk: Modern Solutions for Saving Modern Landmarks is an exhibition organized by the World Monuments Fund (WMF) to help bring awareness to the Modernist architectural landmarks that are at risk for demolition or decay. The display includes oversized photographs by noted architectural photographer and artist Andrew Moore, as well as panels describing the buildings. The panels also list examples of how designers and students have helped and can continue to help devise solutions for saving the structures…
We were pleased to read on Sunday that George Smart, whose cool modern home we featured in our June
Photo by Briana Brough for Durham Magazine
issue, received one of Preservation Durham‘s first Advocacy Awards.
George was honored for founding the Triangle Modernist Houses website, a comprehensive catalog of the best examples of the spare, sleek architectural style to be found in the area. He joined those ranks last year with his Parkwood home, a modern marvel he designed himself. It’s all the more striking for being situated in the heart of the modest, traditional South Durham neighborhood.
