Sleek, cool, clean, sophisticated, functional, colorful are all words to describe mid-century modern design.  If houses reflect the times they were designed, MCM is the architecture of ideas, created by those who believe the forward looking style could be a vehicle for social change to create a better society.  Some of the distinctive design features are a metaphor for America’s boundless self-confidence after World War II.  Built from 1945 to the late 1970’s, the homes features simplicity and an integration with nature, encouraging residents to explore the world in a new way.  The car was central in the lives of the growing middle class, and became a key focus in new homes. 

Mid-century modern style appealed to everyone. Across the nation the well-to-do hired the best architects of the day to design and build impressive custom homes. At the same time, suburban developers brought modern style to the masses, creating tract homes using the same design principles.  Fueled by an expanding economy and boundless atomic age optimism, the American dream was well within reach of a growing middle class. 

The style commemorates an exciting and new time of United States history.  New construction materials, new designs, hope for the future, and new interest in accessing the outdoors, with access increasing as cars became more attainable and backyards becoming outdoor havens.  

2215 Spring Creek was built in 1963. These two duplex buildings inhabit the same lot facing each other with a parking lot in between them. This style of duplex was typical of mid-century modern developments during the 1950s and 1960s. They are a Laramie take on the “Dingbat” apartment style complex that was popular in Los Angeles, California. Carports were a common feature of many Dingbat apartment complexes, although due to space on the lot this Laramie duplex went without.

At the end of World War II, a major change happened in American society. People began moving from the central areas of cities into the suburbs. While the ideal may have been to own a freestanding house there were benefits to living in apartments for single individuals. Likely, these duplexes supported the growing student community of Laramie.

This duplex exhibits many of the common elements of architecture from this time period. It uses contrasting materials to accent the design. For example, the flat sides of the duplex are made in with brick, while the facades of the building are planked with wood. This highlights the entrances and creates an interesting contrast that alone would look simple and boxy. The design of the duplex was a nod to both progress, as seen in the angular lines, but also a natural bent, as portrayed by the brick. While the paint on the siding may not be original to the building it still follows the mid-century modern style of having bright colors and muted colors to further accent the design features. The color scheme, again, gives more character to the otherwise plain façade of the Dingbat building. The soaring eave on the front of the duplex is also typical of the time. Building materials changed drastically from previous eras and provided an opportunity for more innovative designs. The doorway not facing the street is also common in many mid-century modern residences.

The “box” style is common among mid-century modern apartment style buildings, because they were often built quickly and the design is efficient to fit the building on a square lot. A design feature of houses at this time was large windows on a part of the building that allowed for an indoor-outdoor space, essentially, where people inside could see outside and vice versa. As seen on this building there was an attempt at that with the larger windows on the lower floor. This space is probably a living room that looks out over the lawn. The privacy landscaping appeared to be added later.

Typical of Laramie mid-century modern architecture, these two building are compact versions of larger designs found elsewhere in the country. Often, this style of building would be longer and contain more units. No doubt the size is due to Laramie’s compact cityscape that doesn’t lend itself to large buildings. At this scale they also fit in with the profile of older homes in Laramie neighborhoods. Laramie saw a lot of growth during the 1950s and 1960s due to the student population growing with the addition of soldiers under the G.I. Bill. With greater access to education there was a need for more housing. Buildings like these provided homes for the people who helped grow Laramie.

965 Fourteenth Street was built in 1949 and is an outstanding example of a Usonian style house that was indicative of the Mid-Century Modern architectural era. The term Usonian was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright, a prominent architect during this time. Usonian style homes are designed to support an indoor-outdoor lifestyle where the building “flows” on its landscape and people “flow” from room to room. Often these buildings are a mix of materials used to emphasize the different style such as the light frames around the windows and the dark stone at the base of the house. This home is stylistically different than many other Laramie Usonian style homes, which tend to be more muted designs. This stylistic difference may be due to this home’s prominent location on a street corner.

During the mid-century modern building period an emphasis was placed on the family. Contrasting window sizes show the location of bedrooms and living rooms. 965 Fourteenth St. is a split-level Usonian that has large windows facing away from the street for privacy. Something that marks this as a Laramie home is that the larger windows are facing the south, better to gather light and heat from the sun in the winter months.

Mid-century modern homes were generally built with a family vehicle in mind. Due to 965 Fourteenth Street’s placement on a street corner the driveway and garage were placed on the downward slope with another entrance facing Fourteenth St. This entrance makes use of mid-century modern features that were concerned with privacy. The door is set behind a glass tiled wall on one side and a stone privacy screen to one side. A focus on privacy came into play during this time period, and such features were attractive ways to provide for that. This is a form that was borrowed from Japanese style architecture which became popular at the end of World War II.

The Usonian style home is one of the most iconic styles of mid-century home. Many were made famous throughout the country due to the daring break from traditional home construction. 965 Fourteenth Street has many of these daring features introduced at this time such as the “hanging” eaves which were made possible by new building materials. In addition, the flat roof that accents the angles of the house has given this Laramie home flair, a futuristic look from a time period dedicated to a technological future.

965 Fourteenth Street inhabits a neighborhood that sprang up in the years after World War II. The homes in that part of Laramie tell a story of more lavish homes like these, and their inexpensive pre-fabricated counterparts that were necessary to provide homes for soldiers and their families. The ideal of the time was to own a free-standing home and the various styles of mid-century architecture provided that opportunity.

Homes like 965 Fourteenth Street show glimpses into our American past when our countrymen and women were dreaming big. This time period was filled with big dreams and hopes for the future. These homes show the progression of Laramie to the modern day. Laramie has a great opportunity to show its progression through time, from the pioneers of the frontier to the pioneers of space. Homes like these have great value to demonstrate Laramie’s history and that of the nation at large.

There are few home styles that are as easily recognizable as the ranch home.  With Its multiple windows and backyard, the style has become a significant piece of mid-century American pop culture.  The original ranch style created a warm feeling with large windows capturing natural light.  They often feature lofty ceilings, and airy hallways to create an open living space.  Attached garages, long, low rooflines and back yards were standard on the original Ranch.

In Laramie, 1815 Park Avenue is an outstanding example of the ranch style.  It has large, south facing windows, a bi-level or split level floorplan, and cantilevered eaves that project in space, seemingly without support from beneath.  The roof is a shed roof, meaning single slope, as seen from the street.  The door is hidden from sight from the street, with the entrance paralleling the street, providing some privacy, also hiding behind the tree.  The attached garage uses the same lines as the other roof lines and highlights the development of the car during this time.  The house was built in 1953 and utilizes a mix of materials including brick, wood, and stucco.  Other examples found around the country with a similar design include a home built in 1963 in New Orleans (figure 3), and a home in Portland, Oregon built in 1951(figure 4).  These homes share many of the same features and play with different levels and horizontal lines.  

These homes reflect the change in form of houses after the war and the mid-century era.  The blue house, 1408 Baker, was built in 1957.  The green house, 1218 Sanders, was built in 1959.  This is a common house design in Laramie and provides affordable and functional housing.  With the advent of large sliding glass doors opening into backyards, the front of the house was no longer where the family met or lived.  These two homes found in Laramie have the bedrooms at the front of the house, with small windows to allow for privacy in the bedrooms.  The core of the house is towards the back where there is the large fireplace evidenced by the blocky chimney.  The low-pitched gable roof with wide eaves gives the house a low profile but allows for high ceilings inside.  Both houses have use mixture of stucco and wood on the exterior. 

At one point in our nation’s history there were no attached carports or garages.  By the post-war years the car was a member of the family.  The driveway takes up a substantial portion of the property, prompting the moving the entryway from the front of the property via the sidewalk to the side of the house.  The homes’ architecture focuses on functionality, not ornate details, though there are great little details like the wood siding creating vertical lines, or the diamond design adding a bit of flair.  This style of home in Laramie fits a family’s needs and captures some of the changes occurring in the 1950’s. 

The house at 2121 Spring Creek in Laramie Wyoming is a great example of a mid-century modern home. The home in Laramie was built in 1962.  The home features a low pitched roof over the house and a flat roof over the car port on the west side of the house.  Being true to mid-century modern designs the upper half of the house is stucco and the lower half features brick with a simple geometric design. 

The front door is off of the sidewalk, next to the car port and driveway.  During the post-war era homes began featuring the car as a prominent design element that helped shape the home’s layout and design.  The changing focus to the automobile also shifted the living room to the back of the house where large windows open up into the backyard, bringing nature into the home and the living space outside.  New construction techniques developed during the war allowed for large windows, sometimes used for an entire wall. 

These design elements are seen in Arapahoe Acres, a housing development of 124 houses south of Denver.  The homes were designed by Denver University Professor Eugene Sterburg and developed and built by Edward Hawkins.  One home in Arapahoe Acres looks like 2121 Spring Creek, a house known as the Hollans House (Image 4).  The Holland House incorporated a plywood paneled ceiling, masonry wall of brick with variegated color, vertical tongue and groove siding and exposed beams.  It features a vertical band of simple geometric ornament in the brick as well as a broad brick chimney at the center of the house.  Many of these same features and materials are shared with the house in Laramie, though they are rotated 90 degrees.  

865 Eleventh Street was built in 1948. It is an example of the split-level style home. The split-level home has been around since the 1930s, but became popular as an affordable home style in the period after World War II. This house is a very simple representation of the style. However, the two story section on the left possesses a roof that was quite popular in the mid-century modern era. Slanting roofs were a design element that was often employed in commercial buildings, but was sometimes employed on residences to give the home a more progressive appearance.

It was possible for split-level homes during this time period to appear traditional, as seen in the examples from Better Homes and Gardens magazines from around 1950. The green house is an example of a mid-century modern design where the roof slopes in an upside down checkmark to create a singular roofline over the split-level. Checkmark and boomerang shapes were a popular design to include in buildings during this time.

The home exhibits many features that were common to mid-century modern residential architecture. The lower floor of the building is a stucco material and the upper level is paneled with wooden boards. Contrasting material types was popular in order to accent the features of the building. The owners of this property have maintained this style by maintaining the light pain around the eaves and windows. Often, mid-century modern home features were accented this way. Windows can be telling in a mid-century modern building, large windows designate family spaces and smaller windows designate private spaces, such as bedrooms. Large windows were popular to give families an indoor-outdoor feel. A growing lifestyle trend was to provide for “flowing” spaces where an individual could occupy both an indoor and outdoor space simultaneously with the use of glass. In Laramie, the windows are smaller than their counterparts in places like California. This creative use of window size to still accommodate the winter weather gives Laramie a Rocky Mountain take on mid-century modern.

Better Homes magazine articles throughout the 1950s and 1960s presented these homes as efficient with versatile internal layouts. The designs for these homes were very popular. It was possible during this time to order blueprints from an architect and have a local builder interpret them locally. A convenient aspect of the split-level designs is that they did not require a lot to be flattened; these homes could be built directly into a hillside or on a slope.

During the post-World War II and into the Cold War era Laramie was expanding in population due to the growth of the university and the shift of industry. Homes like these were able to be built affordably to accommodate the rising American dream of a nuclear family home. Depending on the design these homes can be simple like 865 Eleventh Street or more elaborate like 1213 E. Harney Street which followed the more iconic Usonian design common to the era. 865 Eleventh Street provides an example of a less flashy version of the mid-century modern iconic architecture. It is not uncommon for communities like Laramie to gain trends slowly. 865 Eleventh Street represents a transitional era for Laramie as it was moving from its more traditional roots to a technological future. This home being built in the late 1940s was probably an early adopter of mid-century modern style.

712 Thirteenth Street was built in 1951. This house is a split-level Usonian style home. The term Usonian was coined by Frank Lloyd Wright, a prominent architect during this time. Usonian style homes are designed to support an indoor-outdoor lifestyle where the building “flows” on its landscape and people “flow” from room to room. Often, a mix of materials is used to emphasize the different prts such as the light paint on the flat roofs and the darker brick on the body of the house. The door and windows are highlighted through the use of different materials. The door has the same brick as the fireplace, while the windows most likely have aluminum lining. These features added to the “flowing” style of the architecture.Although Laramie Usonian homes are more muted than more well-known Usonian homes they still portray details that are indicative of their time.

During the mid-century modern building period an emphasis was placed on the family. Contrasting window sizes show the location of bedrooms and living rooms. The large windows on the left side of the house, facing the yard, indicate the designer’s intention to allow families to simultaneously “be” in an indoor space and an outdoor space. In warmer climates these windows were generally on the rear of the house. However, in Laramie these windows are generally on the south side of the house and better able to take in winter sunlight. The small windows indicate bedroom and other private spaces.

On the left side of the house there is a brick wall delineating the backyard. This wall is brick inlayed with artistic bricks that display a stylized floral pattern. This floral pattern breaks up the uniformity of the brick providing a pleasant visual. In addition, a wide chimney rises from the flat roof. These massive fireplaces were a central feature of the living room or dining room where families gathered to spend time with one another. Kitchens were often connected to these spaces so that even when adults were working in the kitchen, they could still keep an eye on and participate in their children’s activities.

The Usonian home style is one of the most iconic styles of mid-century home. They stand out in their neighborhoods. The large windows were designed to draw light into the home. The design was intended to both fade into and stand out in the landscape. The buildings that generally capture the attention of architects are found in California, but Laramie has its own fair share of iconic homes like 712 Thirteenth Street.

Homes like 965 Fourteenth Street show glimpses into our American past when our countrymen and women were dreaming big. This time period was filled with big dreams and hopes for the future. These homes show the progression of Laramie to the modern day. Laramie has a great opportunity to show its progression through time, from the pioneers of the frontier to the pioneers of space. Homes like these have great value to demonstrate Laramie’s history and that of the nation at large.

The Bim Kendall house is a 1954 prairie-style building near the west side of the University of Wyoming campus.  The Bim Kendall House was formerly the Hitchcock House, named for the Verna J. Hitchcock who was a department head in Family and Consumer Sciences.  As the Hitchcock House, the building was home to women learning to manage households, and later, to a UW daycare center. 

Now part of the UW Environmental and Natural Resources program, the Bim Kendall House has been restored and enhanced with additional offices and collaborative spaces.  The upgrades to the house were completed with sustainable building practices in mind.  The mid-century modern style roof design of the addition allows for properly oriented site for photovoltaic and allows for passive ventilation within staff offices.  In 2012, the house was awarded LEED Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council for its energy saving measures, low resource consumption, educational components, and healthy workspaces. 

The original house features numerous mid-century modern elements including the split level design, and large windows to allow for great views and bringing nature into the living space.  The west side of the house has large fixed glass windows that do not open and provide an unobstructed view to the outdoors. Below the large windows are smaller windows with screens that allow for ventilation.  This feature is replicated in several other locations in the building.  The building has large eaves as well as wooden slats that provide shading for the large windows in the summer, but allow the winter sun to warm the house.  The mid-century modern features of the house were designed to fit the site, the heating and cooling needs of the climate in Laramie, and bring the views of nature inside with the large windows. 

The building materials are a mix of textures and materials and colors highlighting the architectural features of the house as well as creating “warm feelings” from the natural earth tones.  The roof line is flat or low sloping, a common element in mid-century modern homes.    The mid-century modern architecture of the Bim Kendall House aims to make a connection between the inside of the house and nature outside.  The building elements address site and climatic concerns, putting emphasis on the siting and environmental constraints so as to make the house part of the landscape, a key mid-century modern element.