Learn why stylish mid-century modern architecture is truly at home in America’s suburbs.
Mid century modern architecture - characterized by flat planes, floor-to-ceiling windows and seamless integration with the outdoors - materialized in the late 1930s. It was around this time that the suburb emerged as a solution to the United States’ post-World War II housing shortage and population boom.
At first, architects responded to the crisis by designing prefabricated homes in the Salt Box, Ranch and Cape Cod styles. These prefab tract houses - shipped from an assembly or warehouse and easily assembled in days on site - quickly filled neighborhoods across the US. (It could be argued that the archetypical suburban home is a prefab house!)
In fact, the prefab home has a long history in the United States as a solution to housing shortages.
It began with the Gold Rush in the mid-1800s. In the next century, prefab homes got the mid-century modern treatment with John Entenza’s Case Study House Program, which was designed to respond to the housing shortages. Thus began a decades-long relationship between mid-century modern architecture and the suburbs.
Follow below to learn more about how mid century modern homes emerged from tract housing projects to become America’s quintessential form of suburban architecture.
Late 1800s: The Origins of American Suburbia
Prefab Homes Create New Communities in the Late 19th Century
In his article about prefab homes for the National Park Service, Mark Chavez retells the history of modular home building. Chavez notes that American architects and designers have pursued prefabrication as a solution to housing shortages for almost two hundred years.
First invented by London carpenter H. John Manning around 1830, prefab houses (sometimes referred to as “kit houses”) quickly crossed the pond. For those unfamiliar, prefabricated homes are crafted from pre-cut pieces purchased from a catalog and mailed to the buyer’s building site. Many prefabricated homes were produced and dispersed amid the Gold Rush, in response to rapidly changing housing needs. These prefab homes allowed California’s gold prospectors to build homes quickly and affordably.
In the late 19th and early 20th century, even Frank Lloyd Wright designed a line of modern prefab homes.
Under his American System Built Homes project, Frank Lloyd Wright designed more than 36 housing units, including everything from small bungalows to two-story single-family homes. Frank Lloyd Wright's ASB homes were created from standardized designs, seven of which were available for customers to choose from. These were quasi-prefab homes. According to Chavez, the lumber and other components for these homes were cut and packaged at the factory, and shipped to site for construction.
Sears Kit Homes Popularize Pre-War Suburban Living
Beginning in 1908, Sears Roebuck began marketing prefab house kits that could be purchased through the company’s catalog. In his article “How Sears Kit Homes changed housing” for Curbed LA, Patrick Sisson writes about Sears Modern Homes.
He writes that “from 1908 to 1940, Chicago-based Sears sold between 70,000 to 75,000 homes.” These homes ranged in style from Cape Cod to Craftsman. They were available in a number of budgets and sizes, and designed to be suitable for any type of family. Perhaps most significantly, “Sears’ more simplistic home system also shifted social views on housing.”
Prior to the early 20th century, American families typically lived with multiple generations under one roof, with different rooms for different family members. Sears’ order and delivery system - complete with mortgages - “helped popularize new homes for newlyweds." It also "helped kick-start the rise in single-family living." Although this trend dipped briefly during the Great Depression, it rapidly gained momentum after WWII.
One might argue that Sears’ prefab homes normalized suburban living, encouraging Americans to move out of multigenerational urban housing and into modern homes. A new system of highways and a series of inexpensive family cars made suburban living possible. However, prefab housing made the suburb attractive and affordable.
1940s: Tract Housing Gains Steam Across the US
Planned communities outside urban centers transformed housing, offering homeowners more space and a different type of lifestyle in the 20th century.
In “15 Milestones That Changed Housing” for ThisOldHouse.com, Dan Cray identifies the emergence of tract housing projects as one of the most important moments in housing history. In fact, he identifies them as the 20th century’s “most notable contributions to housing's legacy.” Cray writes that even in the 19th century, “elements of housing we consider commonplace...were equally foreign concepts to all but the wealthiest.”
Levittown’s Cheap Tract Houses Made Suburban Living Affordable
One of the most famous tract housing developments in the United States is the Long Island suburb of Levittown, developed from 1947 to 1951. Levittown was created by developer William J. Levitt to house New York’s growing families. Originally, Levittown was a 6,000-acre tract of more than 17,000 homes. It remains the premier example of tract-home communities in the US.
Levitt and his company would later produce seven additional tract housing developments up and down the East Coast. They also developed a community in Puerto Rico. The post-war Levittown homes have since been added to the National Register of Historic places.
Quoting Bill Yeingst from the National Museum of American History, Cray writes that Levittown “‘really stands as the icon of postwar suburban lifestyle." It also transformed residential architecture in America. Levittown “‘brought us the whole concept of the inverted assembly line.'" In these new tract housing projects, "'the sites remained fixed but the crews moved from site to site, which kept costs down.’" Because each home used the same materials to create the same design, workers could produce as many as 35 houses in a single day.
Most Levittown houses were built in the Ranch style of modern architecture. Other styles included the Jubilee, the Country Clubber, the Pennsylvanian and the Colonial. Though there are many similarities between Ranch-style homes and mid century modern residences, the two do differ significantly.
The first introduction of the midcentury modern architectural style in suburban neighborhoods likely occurred during the Case Study House Program.
1945 to 1966: Entenza's Case Study House Program Responds to the Housing Shortage
Meanwhile on the West Coast, a magazine editor from Los Angeles had determined his own way to respond to the post-war housing crisis.
In her article “The Case Study Houses Forever Changed American Architecture” for Forbes, Michelle Hoffman explains editor John Entenza’s influence on suburban mid century modern architecture.
During the early 1940s, Arts & Architecture Magazine editor John Entenza “sponsored and publicized some design competitions in the magazine." Through these, he emphasized "modern, affordable, easily built houses” as a possible solution to the housing shortage.
In January of 1945, Entenza “announced the Case Study House Program's launch.” In his announcement, Entenza called each participating architect to design a house “‘capable of duplication and in no sense being an individual performance.’"
Entenza intended the Case Study House Program to result in easily replicated, uniform housing projects. However, it produced some of the earliest and most exciting examples of mid-century modern suburban homes. Architects inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and other modernist pioneers joined the contest. Among them were Richard Neutra, Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen and Pierre Koenig. These architects produced stunning examples of mid century modern design.
Entenza Brings Mid-Century Modern Architecture Into the Mainstream
Describing his intentions, Entenza wrote that "’it is important that the best materials available be used in the best possible way.'" They must be used this way "'in order to arrive at a good solution of each problem.’”
Participating architects were expected to produce designs that would “‘be general enough to be of practical assistance to the average American.'" They also had to fit the budget of the average American "'in search of a home in which he can afford to live in.’”
Architects like Richard Neutra, Charles Eames, Eero Saarinen, Pierre Koenig, Thornton Bell, Whitney R. Smith and Rodney Walker quickly got on board.
With their skill and vision, Entenza provided “the public and the building industry an opportunity to access affordable, mid-century modernism and simple designs.”
Most of the single family homes built during the Case Study House Program were constructed in the Greater LA Area. However, some of the twenty houses still standing today can be found in San Diego and Northern California. The project -- which ran until 1966 -- launched the careers of legendary mid century modern architects. It also encouraged developers across the US to embrace mid century modern design in the suburbs.
5 Mid-Century Modern Neighborhoods in the US
#1 Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian Homes
Frank Lloyd Wright’s Usonian homes can be found in the Usonia Historic District in Mount Pleasant, New York.
In her article “This Is the Best-Designed Small Town in the U.S.” for Architectural Digest, Alyssa Giacobbe explains the evolution of Wright’s career. She also delves into his approach to affordable housing. Giacobbe writes that “in the early 1930s, Frank Lloyd Wright offered up a pared-down vision for the American home." This vision was of a home that was "simple, beautiful, affordable, environmentally friendly, and collaboratively maintained.” However, it was a collection of Wright’s students who would eventually realize the iconic architect’s vision. With his plans in hand, they would “set out to create the village of Usonia on 100 acres" an hour north of NYC.
A team of Wright’s students erected nearly fifty houses in Usonia. Each is “heavy in glass and stone with open floor plans, oversized windows, carports, and flat, overhanging roofs.” Embodying Wright’s passion for environmentalism, each home was “designed to coexist with the land on which they were built.” Giacobbe notes that today, Usonia is “ a perfect gallery of mid century modern design, a place almost frozen in time.”
Wright’s Usonia was a different type of suburb: one in which every house was unique in execution but identical in intention. With each home separated from another by woodland, Wright’s Usonia emerged as a different kind of suburban living.
#2 Joseph Eichler’s Mid Century Modern Track Homes
Post war real estate developer Joseph Eichler was one of the most influential supporters of mid century modern architecture in 20th century California. His tract housing projects, which were mostly populated by mid century modern homes, can be found all across Southern and Northern California.
Some of Eichler’s largest Northern Californian projects are the South Land Park neighborhood in Sacramento County and the Monta Loma Neighborhood in Mountain View. Other large projects include the South Land Park neighborhood in Santa Clara and the Greenridge neighborhood in Castro Valley. Significant developments in Southern California include Eichler’s Conejo Village, Balboa Highlands, Fairhaven, Fairmeadow and Palm Springs developments. All but the last of those mentioned above were constructed during Eichler’s lifetime. The Palm Springs, located in the Andreas Hills neighborhood, broke ground in 2015.
Eichler Homes Offered Mid Century Americans Luxury at Affordable Prices
In her article “The Eichler Effect & Legacy” for Old House Online, Patricia Poore describes Eichler’s innovative mid century modern neighborhoods. Poore writes that “no other builder/developer of the time was as prolific as California’s Joseph Eichler.” Poore describes Eichler's modernist homes as “stunning in appearance and efficiency.” These homes were significantly different than the other suburban homes being built at the time.
In the late 1940s, Eichler started buying up land in California to create his own housing developments. In the ‘50s and ‘60s, Eichler patronized mid century modern architects like Claude Oakland, A. Quincy Jones, and Frederick Emmons.
Eichler’s neighborhoods were special and distinctly set apart from the tract housing of the East Coast. Instead of shoddily built, cookie-cutter homes, Eichler offered “innovation, variety, high-quality construction, and livable communities.” Despite how quickly and affordably each structure was erected, “Eichlers were designed with rare attention to detail.”
He was one of the first developers to introduce the concept of a master suite in a single-family home. This element was one that other developers would swiftly adopt. Another signature of his houses was the entryway atrium. Poore writes that by the mid-1960s, that “glazed center gable [had become] an Eichler signature.”
#3 The Alexander Homes in Palm Springs
Joseph Eichler was not the only developer to head to Palm Springs with a vision of mid mod subdivisions for the new American family. George and Robert Alexander, a pair of developers in Los Angeles, sought to do the same in the mid 1950s.
Robert Imber explains how the Alexanders “changed the face of Palm Springs” with their 2,500 homes in “The Alexander Homes” for EichlerNetwork.com. Imber writes that the Alexanders arrived in Palm Springs in 1955 “with an able track record of single-family subdivisions in LA." In addition, they brough with them "a keen interest in pioneering architecture.” The Alexander brothers sought to change Palm Springs for the better, introducing modern architecture and a modern way of living.
Quoting a Desert Sun article, Imber notes that “‘because of the Alexanders, Palm Springs has...grown in a much more balanced and solid way.’" Alexander Homes boast all the hallmarks of modernist design, including “spacious open plans, beguiling modern conveniences, and an underlying sophistication.”
The lead designer for their Palm Springs development was Wiliam Krisel. At the time, Krisel was a well-known modernist architect who designed more than 30,000 homes in Southern California. Toay, Krisel is even better known and revered. Alexander Homes are bright, open and connected to nature -- with little artifice and lots of space.
#4 Arapahoe Acres in Englewood, Colorado
Suburbs in California often get first mention when discussing residential mid century modern architecture. However, there are many modernist subdivisions elsewhere in the country, scattered across the West, MidWest and South. In his article “7 midcentury modern neighborhoods to know” for Curbed LA, Patrick Sisson identifies Arapahoe Acres as one such neighborhood.
The Arapahoe Acres neighborhood of Englewood, Colorado is just south of Denver. It was inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright, designed by Eugene Sternberg and funded by developer Edward Hawkins.
Sisson writes that the development features “a bevy of butterfly roofs and low-slung, horizontal homes." Together, this community of homes showcases a true “high point in postwar residential development.” This subdivision was built up between the late 1940s and the late 1950s as a haven for a new middle class of Denverites. Consisting of over a hundred homes, Arapahoe Acres is “celebrated for its great layout and exceptional planning.” Sisson notes that this neighborhood was the first of its kind to “be added to the National Register of Historic Places.”
#5 Midland Michigan
Michigan was another hotspot of suburban mid century modern design. In fact, the city of Midland, Michigan is home to over four hundred mid century modern buildings. Frank Lloyd Wright spent quite a bit of time in Michigan, designing over thirty houses in the state during his lifetime. It was here that Frank Lloyd Wright worked with architect Alden B Dow. Dow spent the majority of his life in Midland, Michigan, where he would design a series of single family homes, schools and churches.
In her article “Beyond Palm Springs: 7 Other Mid-Century Hotspots That Might Surprise You” for Livability.com, Brittany Anas describes Dow's personal home. She describes the Down home and studio in the Midland suburbs as “the pièce de résistance” of his work in Michigan. She notes that the home and studio Dow designed for himself and his family “looks as though it's floating in a pond.” Engaging roof lines, a mixture of building materials and a stunning homage to the surrounding landscape make the Dow Home truly spectacular. The Alden B Dow Home and Studio was designated a National Historic Landmark in 1989.
Mid century modern architecture remains popular across the United States because of its focus on indoor-outdoor living, functional design and timeless aesthetics.
While interest in mid century modern furniture comes and goes, love of the period's architecture never fades.
Architects working in the US today often tie the success of suburban mid century modern homes to their reflection of everyday American life.
Seamlessly integrated in to nature, mid century modern homes rarely seem out of place. On the other hand, their simple, streamlined designs make them easily updated and well-suited to contemporary interiors.
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