Finding Treasures in your own backyard

Mid-Century modern is an architectural, interior and product design form that generally describes mid-20th century developments in modern design, architecture, and urban development from roughly 1933 to 1965. The term, employed as a style descriptor as early as the mid-1950s, was reaffirmed in 1983 by Cara Greenberg in the title of her book, Mid-Century Modern: Furniture of the 1950s (Random House), celebrating the style which is now recognized by scholars and museums worldwide as a significant design movement.

   Mid-century architecture was a further development of Frank Lloyd Wright's principles of organic architecture combined with many elements reflected in the International and Bauhausmovements - including the work of Gropius, Le Corbusier, and Mies van der Rohe. Mid-century modernism, however, was much more organic in form and less formal than the International Style. Scandinavian architects were very influential at this time, with a style characterized by clean simplicity and integration with nature. Like many of Wright's designs, Mid-Century architecture was frequently employed in residential structures with the goal of bringing modernism into America's post-war suburbs. This style emphasized creating structures with ample windows and open floor-plans with the intention of opening up interior spaces and bringing the outdoors in. Many Mid-century houses utilized then-groundbreaking post and beam architectural design that eliminated bulky support walls in favor of walls seemingly made of glass. Function was as important as form in Mid-Century designs, with an emphasis placed specifically on targeting the needs of the average American family. Examples of residential Mid-Century modern architecture are frequently referred to as the California Modern style.

In Europe the influence of Le Corbusier and the CIAM resulted in an architectural orthodoxy manifest across most parts of Post War Europe that was ultimately challenged by the radical agendas of the architectural wings of the avant-garde Situationist International, COBRA , as well as Archigram in London. A critical but sympathetic reappraisal of the internationalist oeuvre, inspired by Scandinavian Moderns such as Alvar Aalto, Sigurd Lewerentz andArne Jacobsen and the late work of Le Corbusier himself was reinterpreted by groups such as Team X including structuralism(architecture) architects such as Aldo van Eyck, Ralph Erskine, Denys Lasdun, Jorn Utzon and the movement known in the UK as New Brutalism.

Pioneering builder and real estate developer Joseph Eichler was instrumental in bringing Mid-Century Modern architecture ("Eichler Homes") to subdivisions in the Los Angeles area and the San Francisco Bay region of Californiaand select housing developments on the east coast. George Fred Keck, Henry P. Glass and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe created Mid-Century Modern residences in the Chicago area. Mies van der Rohe's Farnsworth House is extremely difficult to heat or cool, while Keck and Keck were pioneers in the incorporation of passive solar features in their houses to compensate for their large glass windows

(reposted from Wikipedia)

Now with all that said we all know what we will be finding on this page.  I will document and present all of my finds here on this blog. I will include furniture, housewares, artwork, fabric, gadgets and anything else I find in my travels and almost daily search for that which is modern and most specifically Mid-Century.  I may stray from the path at times with other finds just because they are too fab to pass on letting you know what is out there.  There is a lot out there for all of us to find if we just look. I don't buy retail.  All of the items you will see  in this blog have be attained through purchases at Flea Markets, Thrift Stores, CL, Trades, or any where else I might find a deal or a situation I can not pass up, like finding two wire chairs from Knoll for $20 bucks stretched out on a blanket on a curb in LA. You just never know where these items will pop up. There are a lot of Mid-Century Modern Furniture stores here in the Bay Area and all are rather pricey.  I don't really venture into these venues unless I really need a piece to finish off a collection I have started.