Modern House Survey Prompted by Rudolph Loss

The Micheels Residence before demolition in 2007
David Hay writes in Protecting New Canaan’s Modernism in yesterday's New York Times about an online survey of modern homes in New Canaan, Connecticut. The New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses Survey was sponsored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation Northeast Office, the New Canaan Historical Society, the Philip Johnson Glass House, and the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation. According to their website,

The New Canaan Mid-Century Modern Houses survey was designed to provide a more complete study of Modern residences in New Canaan and serve as a national model for surveys of other mid-century houses in the United States.

According to Christy MacLear, Executive Director of the Philip Johnson Glass House,

"The Survey of New Canaan homes was prompted by the demolition of the Paul Rudolph home in Westport CT in 2007. A part of the Judge’s decision to allow demolition was the “lack of criteria for significance”. That same year we were opening the Philip Johnson Glass House to the public with great fanfare and interest. How could our Modern assets garner such interest but simultaneously be threatened because of a lack of terminology, criteria or documentation?

As Modernism is our newest entrant into the continuum of architectural movements requiring historic preservation, this tear down was a call to action. The National Trust for Historic Preservation, through the Glass House, partnered with the New Canaan Historical Society to leverage an earlier study done by DoCoMoMo’s Northeast chapter to expand/ enhance, publish and put on-line the survey of the remaining 91 modern homes in New Canaan. Across this site you will see our goals, examples and content to create better tools, common vernacular and greater awareness. Our hope is that other communities embarking on a modern survey will connect to these tools and expand this site to showcase the homes and architects of this newest era of preservation."

The home designed by Paul Rudolph that Ms. MacLear refers to is the Dr. Louis Micheels residence in Westport, Connecticut that was demolished in early 2007.

The Paul Rudolph Foundation joined with the Connecticut Trust for Historic Preservation in the suit to preserve the home from demolition, when a local developer purchased the property and announced plans to tear down the home and build a new one in its place. The Foundation sent representatives to the hearings and was disappointed when the judge ruled in favor of the new owner, who had convinced Dr. Micheels to take the stand and tell the court he did not believe the house had any historical significance. The loss of the residence, the first "modern" structure the Connecticut Trust had tried to save from demolition, was a wake up call regarding threats to other modern architecture both in the state and elsewhere.

In an effort to increase grassroots awareness about the need to preserve modern american architecture (defined as 1935-1975) the Paul Rudolph Foundation established this blog, as well as a flickr group dedicated to posting images of Paul Rudolph structures from around the world. In addition, the Foundation is surveying remaining Rudolph designed structures to ascertain their current conditions and forecast future preservation efforts. To date, the Foundation has a list of 11 threatened buildings, after the recent loss of Riverview High School in Sarasota, Florida.

If you are interested in helping the Paul Rudolph Foundation promote Paul Rudolph's work, please contact us at information@paulrudolph.org. We are always in need of volunteers and donations (which are tax-deductible) to increase our programs and support our preservation efforts.