July 1, 2009 (RALEIGH, NC) — Triangle Modernist Houses, an online, nonprofit educational archive for cataloguing, preserving, and advocating modernist residential design in the Triangle area of North Carolina, was honored recently with the 2009 Paul E. Buchanan Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum.
The Buchanan Award was established in 1993 to recognize contributions to the study and preservation of vernacular architecture and the cultural landscape that do not take the form of books or published work.
Triangle Modernist Houses (TMH) provides extensive details on more than 145 architects with over 3300 photographs of 640 rarely seen homes. Information is gleaned from public records, published reports, interviews, and reader contributions.
“Since the 1950s, the Triangle area of the state – Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill — has been one of the most active areas for really cool houses,” said George Smart, founder and executive director TMH. He defines “cool houses” as “contemporary homes characterized by large common areas and windows, extensive use of natural light, and aesthetic geometric forms. Because of Dean Henry Kamphoefner’s vision for a modernist School of Design at North Carolina State University, this area has more modernist houses than anywhere else with the exception of LA and Chicago.“
The Buchanan Award is the third honor TMH has received since its inception. In 2008, TMH won an Award of Merit from the Preservation Society of Chapel Hill and a Gertrude S. Carraway Award of Merit from Preservation North Carolina (www.presnc.org).
Since it was launched in 2007, TMH’s efforts on behalf of modern architecture, which includes tours of modern homes in the area, has received national recognition in Dwell and Metropolis. The website’s work also been featured on WUNC Radio, in the Raleigh News and Observer and Durham Herald-Sun, and in a variety of online media. For complete information, visit the website at www.trianglemodernisthouses.com.
The Vernacular Architecture Forum was formed in 1980 to encourage the study and preservation of these informative and valuable material resources. The Buchanan Award is named for Paul E. Buchanan who served as director of architectural research at Colonial Williamsburg Foundation for over 30 years and set the standard for architectural fieldwork in America. For more information visit www.vernaculararchitectureforum.org.
About Triangle Modernist Houses:
A unique combination of construction and art, modernist houses are being torn down in record numbers as newer, larger houses are built on the valuable land. Through its extensive website and public tours of modern houses in the Triangle, TMH is committed to advocating, protecting, restoring and growing modernist architecture in the Triangle. TMH’s six modernist house tours during 2008 and 2009 attracted over 1500 architecture enthusiasts from North Carolina and beyond. For more information, contact TMH executive director George Smart at (919) 740-8407 or by email: george@trianglemodernisthouses.com.
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