RTP-area local music and culture

[John Iwaniszek <Not AT hotmail.com>]

grady AT ibiblio.org (grady) wrote in 434C1921.1000406 AT ibiblio.org:">news:434C1921.1000406 AT ibiblio.org:

> 
> John I wrote:
>> Chris Calloway wrote:
>> 
>>> help. what was the name of the modernist house in
>>> raleigh that was abandoned and falling down? it may
>>> have already been demolished. it was on a wooded lot
>>> and the roof had caved in. i think it was designed by
>>> some ncsu designo in the 40s or 50s, maybe that polish
>>> guy who designed dorton arena? there was a really nice
>>> website devoted to finding a preservationist for the
>>> house.
>>>
>>> there's a matsumoto house in chapel hill off country
>>> club that's practically ready to fall over.
>>>
>>> 3
>>>
>>> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
>>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>>>
>> 
>> It's the Catalano House (no longer) located on Catalano Drive off of
>> Ridge Road.
>> 
>> http://www.jetsetmodern.com/catalano.htm
>> -- ch-scene: the list that mirrors alt.music.chapel-hill --
>> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ch-scene
>> 
>> 
> Preservation NC would want to know about any opportunities to preserve
> more 50s-era NC Design School houses, since they're feeling kinda
> shitty about the demise of the Catalano house: http://www.presnc.org/
> 
> Did you see the article in Dwell about the moving of the Raleigh 
> Matsumoto house to Bahama?
> 
> (not online, annoyingly)
> 
> & actually, you should snap some photos of the one in Chapel Hill & 
> email them to Dwell.  http://www.dwellmag.com
> 
> Or contact Nathan Wieler -- He'd probably be interested:
> 
> http://www.wieler.com/
> 
> (He's the owner (unless he's managed to sell it already - I heard it
> was on the market) of the first Dwell Home, out near Pittsboro. He's
> now in business selling similarly-modernist prefab homes.)
> 
> Ross


The problem I have with this whole thing is that if these houses served 
their function, then they would not be decaying or fallen to disrepair.  
My house is vintage 1962 single-family-detached and it is highly 
livable, in good repair, and appreciating in value.  

I get that the Catalano house, et al. are objets d'arte, but why didn't 
they survive as houses?  Wouldn't Bucky sigh and concede that form 
somehow didn't serve function in these ephemeral dwellings?