Design
A Priceless Archive of American Architecture Publishing
Meet George Smart, a Modernism fan now obsessed with assembling the largest open digital archive of 20th century U.S. architecture magazines.
In 1954, Eduardo Catalano designed perhaps the most stunning example of Modernist architecture in the state of North Carolina, the hyperbolic paraboloid wonder known as the Catalano House. It was a work that appeared more like origami than architecture.
More than 50 years later, in 2007, semiretired executive trainer George Smart had been online one night researching design ideas for a new home he wanted to have built for his family in Raleigh, where he was raised. The homes didn’t have to be masterpieces, but rather common residential examples featuring signature Modernist attributes, such as flat, or low-pitched roofs, open floor plans, an abundance of light sources, and distinctive, unusual geometry.