California Modern

In vogue since the the start of the 20th century, Modernist or Mid-Century homes are famous for their minimalist aesthetic and use of readily available modern materials. Despite the heavy use and glorification of factory-produced materials, modernist buildings embrace an organic sensibility and consciousness that strives to be an integral part of the natural landscape.

Modernist architects adapted contemporary materials and design techniques into their constructions. This style of architecture makes creative use of glass, concrete, masonry blocks, local rock and steel to produce highly utilitarian and beautiful 'space age' designs. In contrast to the ornate and precious buildings produced in the Victorian era and with a nod to the industrial age, modernist homes are characterized by clean lines and spaciousness. Architectural features include the use of large intersecting shapes, slab roofs, post and beam construction, clerestories, floor to ceiling windows, open floor plans with blended living areas that are defined by elevation (sunken living rooms) and varied ceiling heights.

Renowned American architect Frank Lloyd Wright helped define the modernist style and popularized it with his Usonian homes and Prairie house designs. San Raphael boasts one of the most stunning and ambitious examples of his work in the Marin County Civic Center. With its long elegant lines joining the surrounding hills, the Civic Center seems to rise out of the Marin County landscape. This sophisticated relationship between buildings and their natural surroundings typified the work of the modernists, an ideal expressed by Wright in a comment on his design for the Marin County Civic Center:

"We will never have a culture of our own until we have an architecture of our own. An architecture of our own does not mean something that is ours by the way of our own tastes. It is something that we have knowledge concerning. We will have it only when we know what constitutes a good building and when we know that the good building is not one that hurts the landscape, but is one that makes the landscape more beautiful than it was before that building was built. In Marin County you have one of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen, and I am proud to make the buildings of this County characteristic of the beauty of the County."

Architect, Frank Lloyd Wright

The Prairie House

The popular Prairie House was also Wright's invention. These homes were designed to merge with flat prairie panoramas, but were popular all over the country for their efficient and sleek design. Distinguished by flat slab roofs, intersecting rectangular shapes and a glorified boxy design, minimalist prairie houses were often touted as the "houses of the future." Extremely utilitarian and inexpensive to build, the design was in fact Wright's very artful solution to the lack of affordable housing during the depression. Often taller and more spacious than their neighbors, these homes capture the natural luxury and optimism of the modern aesthetic.