Modern Florida Homes
  • Home
  • Modern Homes for sale
  • Selling a Home
  • Inquiries
  • Why Tobias Kaiser?
  • Contact
  • "Modernist Angle" Blog
  • Services we offer
  • Intro to Modernism
  • Elements of Modern Architecture
  • Preservation
  • Real Estate FAQ
  • Facebook >
  • Deutsche Seite >
  • Net-Leased Investments >
  • About Tobias Kaiser

THE MODERNIST ANGLE

You know your Youth is officially over when you see Objects from your Childhood in an Antiques Store

25/9/2019

0 Comments

 
modern, florida, mid-century, contemporary, modernist, homes, for sale, mid-century, architecture, architectural, houses, tobias kaiser, realtor, modernism, design, real estate, agent, properties, broker, mcm, mimo

The first thing was a pale green hairdryer. You could either hold in your hand or place it in a stand. If the latter, you attached the vinyl hood that came with it over the nozzle, placed the hood over the curlers all over your head, and sat there reading a magazine while the snazzy contraption transformed your wet hair into a perfect Sixties coif.

I think I actually gasped. What was an item from my past doing in one of my mother's favorite antiques shops?!?!

Surely this was an anomaly, I thought, as I delved deeper into the cluttered shelves where Mom often found forgotten treasures from the '30s or '40s that would complement her meticulously traditional home. I'd tagged along that day because the store's owners apparently knew which way the home decor wind was blowing and wisely added vintage and mid-century to their front signage.

OK, I know when I was born and I know that a sizable chunk of my childhood took place during the mid-20th century. Of course, I was too young to appreciate it then, but I eventually learned that while I read Fun with Dick and Jane and played Tiddlywinks, Vernon Panton created his curvaceous molded plastic chair to provoke homeowners' imaginations, Hans Wegner made Americans fall in love with Danish Modern, and Charles and Ray Eames proved that modern, ergonomically correct furniture is just as comfortable and infinitely more attractive than any Barcalounger.

modern architecture, mid-century, contemporary, Florida, homes, for sale, Fort Lauderdale, Miami Beach, Miami, Delray Beach, Lighthouse Point, Miami Shores, Coral Gables, Coconut Grove, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, Dan Duckham, Don Singer
Mid-century modern home by Joseph Eichler
It was also during my childhood that real estate developer Joseph Eichler brought modern homes to the masses, changing the leading ideology about what was possible for middle-class suburban homes.

Unfortunately, my parents preferred homes and home furnishings with historic precedence, especially of the Colonial Revival sort. And growing up in a small Southern town instead of, say, Southern Florida or Los Angeles, the only clues I received of a Modernist movement afoot elsewhere in the nation were what I saw on TV and in the movies, like the Petris' house/set on the Dick van Dyke Show and the actual John Lautner-designed gem that appeared in an early James Bond films (Decades later, another Lautner house guest-starred in The Big Lebowski).

But icons of mid-century modernism were not what bothered me that day in the antiques store. What rocked me back on my heels was the detritus of my childhood - hair dryers, record players (as opposed to stereos), metal TV trays, and all sorts of toys - that appeared among the dusty, disheveled inventory. Soon enough, I would also discover that the emblems of my college years - fringed leather vests, beaded headbands, Grannie glasses, bell-bottom jeans, and anything macram - had become vintage.

Those once-disturbing discoveries are also in the past now. Not only have I accepted the fact that my membership in the youth culture has been cancelled permanently, but I've become proud of the fact that I was there, so to speak, during the golden age of mid-century modernism -- even if I didn't realize it at the time. (Kind of like being alive and, in this case, conscious of it, when the Beatles were still a band - a fact that my daughter envies to no end!)

I was on this earth when the groundbreaking Modernism that originated in the Bauhaus, De Stijl, and on Le Corbusier's drafting table in France finally acquired a certain lightness in the mid-20th century that catapulted its popularity. I was alive when mid-century designers began to teach materials new tricks and created bent plywood, tubular steel, strong molded plastic, and walls made entirely of glass (the latter thanks to structural steel).

Free How-To Guide
Pantone chair
In America, mid-century modernism wasn't concerned with a machine for living like the International iteration. It was more about the optimism and joie de vivre that swept the nation after World War II. And even the sexiness that could be infused in a low-slung, sun-filled house with clear horizontal lines, deep roof overhangs, wall-sized windows, and sliding glass doors that opened directly onto the deck of a private swimming pool.

Case in point: Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs estate.


Modern home specialist and realtor Tobias Kaiser for buyers and sellers in Jupiter, Hobe Sound, Palm Beach, Hypoluxo, Delray Beach, Boca Raton, Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood, Miami Beach, Coconut Grove, Coral Gables, Key Biscayne, Pinecrest
Frank Sinatra's Palm Springs mid-century modern home

Speaking of Sinatra, who reportedly had these all over his houses: Remember floor-stand ashtrays? And remember when a stereo was a credenza-sized piece of furniture?

Ah, youth
.

–––

Guest post by architectural publicist Kim Weiss.
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Tobias Kaiser, lic. Florida real estate broker and modern home specialist

    Author

    Tobias Kaiser works as an independent real estate broker and consultant in Florida since 1990. Always putting his clients' interest first, he specialises in modern Florida homes and architecture, as well as net leased investments.
    Email Tobias

    Call (+1) 954 834 3088

    Archives

    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    November 2022
    October 2022
    September 2022
    June 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    February 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    January 2021
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    September 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    May 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    February 2018
    October 2012
    August 2012
    June 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    January 2011
    December 2010
    November 2010

    RSS Feed

Home
Why Tobias Kaiser
Contact

MODERN FLORIDA HOMES • 370 CAMINO GARDENS BLVD • BOCA RATON, FLORIDA 33432, USA
TOBIAS KAISER, MSc, CIPS • REALTOR/BROKER • MODERN ARCHITECTURE SPECIALIST
KAISER ASSOC, INC • LIC FLORIDA REAL ESTATE BROKERS & CONSULTANTS
MEMBER NAR, RCA, DOCOMOMO, NCMH • EMAIL • (+1) 954 834 3088


ZERO DISCRIMINATION: Kaiser Assoc. and its agents will not discriminate against any person because of race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status or national origin in the sale or rental of housing or lots, in advertising the same, in the financing of housing in the provision of real estate brokerage services, in the appraisal of housing, or engage in blockbusting.
Kaiser Assoc. strictly adheres to the National Association of Realtors© Code of Ethics and Standards of Practice in accordance with Federal Fair Housing Laws.


“Silence is Consent...”  As a multi-cultural office neither do we silently consent nor do we tolerate any type of discrimination, racism or prejudice. We want to listen and to learn what needs to be done to implement permanent change.

Site design + contents ©T.C. Kaiser 2023.  PUBLICATION, USE OR REPRODUCTION incl. parts ONLY WITH WRITTEN PERMISSION.

  • Home
  • Modern Homes for sale
  • Selling a Home
  • Inquiries
  • Why Tobias Kaiser?
  • Contact
  • "Modernist Angle" Blog
  • Services we offer
  • Intro to Modernism
  • Elements of Modern Architecture
  • Preservation
  • Real Estate FAQ
  • Facebook >
  • Deutsche Seite >
  • Net-Leased Investments >
  • About Tobias Kaiser