In 1945, with six years of World War II finally in the rear-view mirror, nobody was looking backwards, only forward. There was not much taste for ornamentation in architecture as there was plenty of work that needed to be done and fast, rebuilding Europe and building out America. Simplicity and functionality were the touchstones for designers who were embracing new methods of mass production. Windows with plenty of light were important in helping escape the bygone dark days. And splashes of color fit the optimistic mood of the times.
It was not until 1963 in an article in the the Salt Lake Tribune that the two decades following World War II would receive its popular name – the Baby Boom Generation. It would not be for another 20 years before the work of the architects busily designing all the houses for those new arrivals would get their label. In 1984 a young journalist named Cara Greenberg published a book called Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s and the design world collectively went, “Bingo.” For her part, Greenberg said she was just putting words together. If Greenberg herself was ever enamored by Mid-century modern that wave has mostly subsided. Her passion is old houses, including two Antebellum properties she owns in Philadelphia in Queens Village and South Kensington.
Mid-century modern (MCM) houses were popular everywhere but no place like California, an American Eden built on the dream of starting anew. Joseph Eichler constructed 11,000 tract homes in the state alone between 1949 and 1966. The
“Eichlers” boasted floor-to-ceiling windows, skylights, atriums, and patios – anything to “bring the outside in.” In the California desert the city of Palm Springs became to Mid-century modern what Miami Beach is to Art Deco. Altogether the work of Golden State architects was dubbed “California Modern,” an influential movement within the style. Inside MCM homes Scandinavian design, where simplicity and function always triumphed, flourished. Nordic furniture featured materials that meshed with the times such as metal and fiberglass and plywood. The minimalist pieces also lent itself to easy replication to satisfy a hungry market.
Like bobby socks and crewcuts the demand for Mid-century modern design cratered in the 1960s which brought a re- thinking to many norms of American life. While some designs, chairs by Charles Eames for one, never went out of production most MCM furniture was destined for vintage shops and museum exhibits. As with any pervasive design style fans only need for the calendar to flip for a revival to someday arrive. For Mid-century modern that moment was in the late 1990s and today those houses created a half-century earlier are viewed with a covetous eye.
