Warming Up with CA-Modern - Page 2

Next, we'll climb aboard the 'Eichler Express' and journey back into the retrofuture. From robot warehouses to futuristic cities encased in glass, Jack Levitan explores the mid-century's predictions of life in the 21st century with his 'Visions of the Future.'

That futuristic world of Space Age living included Disneyland's 'Monsanto House of the Future.' Thousands of Disney guests visited that built attraction, exhibited in Tomorrowland from 1957 to 1967, which demonstrated the versatility of postwar plastics.

The article also shines a light on one of the most imaginative illustrators of the mid-century era, Arthur Radebaugh, whose images may be familiar to you even if his name is not. Radebaugh created 'Closer Than We Think,' a fascinating series of futuristic drawings and predictions (including several that amazingly came true during the 60 years that followed) for the Chicago Tribune-New York News Syndicate, beginning in the 1950s.

Next, we take a tour with Dave Weinstein, via his 'Forging Friendships,' of one of Eichler Homes' earliest subdivisions, Green Gables of Palo Alto.

Listed in 2005, along with crosstown Eichler tract Greenmeadow, on the National Register of Historic Places, Green Gables is, for the most part, a "live-and-let-live neighborhood," Weinstein reports.

Ken Tucker, who has made Green Gables his home for six decades, admits, "I don't know of anyone that I'm acquainted with now that is trying to go back to 1950 or 1956 in terms of maintaining the exact Eichler architecture."

Yet, neighbor Matt Barthelemy, on the other hand, says he "hates to see Eichlers lose their character. When that happens, I feel there's a change for the worse."

"But what's nice," Barthelemy adds, "is we could walk around the corner, and I could show you places where they've updated [Eichlers]…[and] it's been changed but in a way that feels true to the spirit."

Wrapping up the Winter '23 issue is 'The California Collection: 12 inspiring architecture and design books vital to every mid-century modern home library,' compiled by yours truly.

Laying a solid foundation for every modernist's library, you'll find the mid-century designs of Frank Lloyd Wright, A. Quincy Jones, Charles Eames, John Lautner, and Alexander Girard. One of the 12 titles is Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Mid-Century by Elizabeth Armstrong, a must-have that pulls the best of the best from the era.

Another must-have is Julius Shulman: Modernism Rediscovered, a high-profile Taschen book by Pierluigi Serraino. In fact, if you were to own just one book on modernism, you might choose this one. Internationally renowned, Shulman captured the mid-century era in its infancy, immortalizing it in a way that no one had done before, or since.

As you can tell, we're pretty excited about the latest CA-Modern, and hope you'll enjoy the Winter '23 issue as much as we did putting it together for you. For a flip-book version of the entire issue, click here.