BIRTH OF MCM
With a career spanning 70 years, Wright (1867–1959) was a pioneer in the proto-modern Prairie School of architecture in the years 1900–1914. Lacking historical ornament and motifs, these houses are low and horizontal with ribbon windows. In the mid-1930s Wright developed the concept of the Usonian house—modern, moderate in size, featuring concrete-slab construction and a nearly flat roof, with open living space and small, sequestered bedrooms. Widely published, and designed for a servant-less middle class, Usonian houses heavily influenced suburban design in the postwar era.
Born in Vienna, architect Richard Neutra (1892–1970) moved to the U.S. in 1923 and worked briefly with Frank Lloyd Wright in Chicago. He partnered with Rudolf Schindler in California, at first as a landscape architect. Neutra developed his own practice and designed buildings in International Style as well as a geometric, West Coast variant of Mid-century Modern residential style. Neutra paid close attention to individual clients; his domestic architecture has been called “a blend of art, landscape, and practical comfort.” House plans are open and flexible as to function. By the 1950s, Neutra was designing commercial and institutional buildings.
California designer Cliff May (1909–1989) is credited with the first modern Ranch, built in San Diego in 1932. This marked a deliberate new style of residential architecture—May’s designs are not the tract houses of a generation later. Consciously interpreting the ranchos of the mid-19th century, May was one of many notable post-Arts & Crafts architectural designers. A prolific promoter, May sold the style that he himself called “the early California ranch house” throughout the West. Working with landscape architects, May designed low houses that followed the contours of the land, enclosing a courtyard or patio with carefully planned views of nature. Floor plans were open, always with a family room. By the mid-‘30s, his Ranch houses had been published by Sunset magazine and nationally. The early Ranch maintained integrity even as the idea spread to other cities and suburban lots.
Traits the Ranch shares with Contemporary-style MCM houses include a low roof and deep eaves, anonymity to the street with more glass on the rear façade, and the inclusion of courts, patios, or atriums.
A developer who left a legacy of integrity, Eichler (1900–1974) was a pioneer. Though his building career began at age 45—significantly, after he and his family rented a house designed by Frank Lloyd Wright—he nevertheless left 11,000 residences in progressive suburbs. Eichler hired architects to design reasonably priced homes that were modern, not traditional. In its day Eichler’s modernist style was embraced more warmly by the architectural press than by average homebuyers. Catherine Munson, Eichler Homes’ first female salesperson in the late 1950s, is quoted as saying that the typical buyer was wary: many house shoppers, she said, “hated our designs.” Although they found avid devotees in the Bay Area, the designs were indisputably different and ahead of their time.
Oregon realestate developer Rummer (born 1927) built about 750 Mid-century Modern residences in the Portland area ca. 1959–1975. His architectural vision, he has said, was “houses that bring the inside out or the outside in,” and indeed they feature expanses of glass, vaulted ceilings, and, often, atriums. Rummer credits Joseph Eichler and his architects, especially Jones & Emmons: Rummer read about Eichler houses in Look, House and Garden, Sunset, and Arts & Architecture magazines. He met with Jones, who explained to Rummer how a modern, post-and-beam grid allowed the standardized use of large panes of glass. Many “Rummers”—now enjoying a cult following—closely resemble Eichler models. After 1975, Rummer turned to more Colonial-style and neoVictorian designs.