An Architect Dies, Leaving Modernism Alive and Well

After a more than three decades of neglect, Modernist homes have become collectors' items. Philip Johnson's masterpiece, the Glass House in New Canaan, Conn., is opening as a museum this Spring, even as other classic Modernist homes in that high-priced suburb are looking for deep-pocketed buyers to care for them for the next half-century. In several cities societies dedicated to celebrating and preserving Modernist buildings have cropped up, and in Southern California, houses designed by the likes of the mid-century master Richard Neutra have become movie stars in their own right.

Despite their rebirth as national treasures, the supply of Modernism may be too deep, at least in the West, for mid-century homes to be hoarded like rare gems. This is thanks in no small measure to Dan Saxon Palmer, who died a month ago in Los Angeles. With his longtime partner, William Krisel, Palmer designed the first subdivisions in the San Fernando Valley (above), most of them built by the developer George Alexander. "They took on one of the great problems of Modernism, which was to create good, decent contemporary housing that was affordable for the masses," architectural historian Alan Hess told the Los Angeles Times this week.

Krisel has described the partners' early L.A.-area work as "transitional" modernism, since sales-minded developers didn't cotton at first to the severe lines and butterfly rooves that later became a Palmer & Krisel signature. Only after the pair had transformed the desert around Palm Springs with some 2,500 inventive and very successful tract homes could they have their way in L.A. "After Palm Springs, we could do those kinds of houses here. Because you've got to understand," said Krisel, "a tract builder is like a sheep. He follows."