Health & Fitness
Mid-Century Modern and the Sarasota School
Take a short ride to Sarasota and Venice to see how mid-century modern and the Sarasota School reflected the optimism of 1950's America.
The last few years has seen a resurgence of the design style known as mid-century modern (MCM). Television programs such as “Mad Men” and “Pan Am” have certainly helped bring MCM into the forefront. But I think that what is really making this style popular today is that it reminds us of a simpler, more optimistic time. It’s no wonder that in our troubled times we would look nostalgically back to a time of less debt, smaller houses and less “irrational exuberance.” After almost three decades of ever bigger homes and overdone faux styles it shouldn’t be a surprise that we are rediscovering and falling in love again with the America that built the interstate highway system and put a man on the moon. And mid-century modern is certainly the style that epitomizes that spirit.
Given that backdrop, mid-century modern was born of the Jet Age and America's preeminence on the international scene. Manufacturers were using new materials and new technologies to satisfy the demands of a growing and insatiable middle class. In response, architects and designers like Charles and Ray Eames were defining a new aesthetic while builders like Joseph Eichler in California and Philip Hiss in Florida were redefining the American life style. The stuffy and dark colonial and other traditional styles were giving way to the ranch house, informal living, walls of glass and brightly lit interiors. The inside and outside were being blended together and we were on our way to the barefoot life style that we enjoy today. We were at the brink of the American century and mid-century modern's simplicity and lightness would lead us forward to an ever brighter future.
We here in the Bloomingdale-Riverview area are really lucky as just down the road in Sarasota and Venice are some really wonderful examples of mid-modern century homes. Designed by such notable architects as Paul Rudolph, who went on to become the dean of the Yale School of Architecture, the Sarasota School of Modernism includes some of the finest examples of mid-century modern to be found anywhere.
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One such home is the Umbrella House on Lido Key designed by Paul Rudolph. The current owners, Vincent and Julie Ciulla of Ciulla Design, are lovingly restoring this prime example of mid century modernism. One of the major undertakings of the project has been the restoration of the home's famous shading device, it's "umbrella". Though originally built of wood and destroyed by a hurricane, the new umbrella is of aluminum, which should give it quite a long life. Central to Rudolph's idea of the house, the shade provided by the umbrella kept the home’s interior much cooler. In fact, the CIA as have remarked that the homes cooling cost has been reduced 30% since the umbrella.
More about the Umbrella House can be learned by clicking here.
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Another wonderful example of MCM style is the Victor Lundy designed Herron house in Venice. And if you're interested, a wonderful Paul Rudolph designed home at 324 Tarpon Street in Venice is on the market. If you’re ready to restore a classic mid-century modern home, you can’t do much better than this. Located at the end of a canal, the home has glass walls front and back that afford wonderful views down the waterway. These views make the home seem much larger than it is, a wonderful testament to the benefits of mid-century modern.