I'm not sure why I've been going so bananas about Modern architecture lately, but it's really been in the forefront of my consciousness. Maybe it's because I've been doing so much work on our house over the past few weeks, or possibly because some friends are in the process of looking for a new house, or maybe it's simply due to the types of articles that have found their way to me recently. In any case, one of the items that has sparked my interest is a fantastic slideshow of vintage photographs by Maynard Parker found at the Huntington Library in San Marino, California. Parker, an architectural photographer for House Beautiful and other mid-twentieth century lifestyle magazines, really seemed to capture the true essence of the modernist interior in his photographs. Not the cold modernism of steel and glass, but the warm modernist interiors typical of suburban Southern California. And after you finish watching the slideshow, head on over to the University of California's "Calisphere," a public repository of digital documents, photographs, illustration, and other unique cultural artifacts, for a large collection of Parker's photographs, including the tremendous California and the Postwar Suburban Home collection.
Bryan commented: Those photos are great! Earlier we kept looking thru the database for houses near us. The Huntington library is around 10 miles from where we live, we go every so often. If you ever visit SoCal, you should check it out, the gardens are pretty nice too.