Carter and the Democrats

After study of the inspiring Joseph Eichler I imagined that the history must finish there. After all, it is quoted in books that he is only manufacturer to produce the modern houses in the United States in the 50s and the 60s.

But there was another. From 1959 until the end of the 1980s the brothers Streng of Sacramento, California, made 3,500 beautiful houses in the Modern style, based on the designs of a simple local architect, Carter Sparks. Even while a young man he was known as "Sacramento’s Modernist."

He succeeded better than any writer seems willing to admit. His houses show mastery. An insufficiency of the Eichler house was that it could not be air conditioning, and it was unacceptable in the hot central valley. Thus Sparks created designs for the climate. Eichler struggled during years, never finding the best floorplan. Sparks created a flexible design that the homebuilder could adapt as necessary. And the houses of Eichler sometimes have a forbidding exterior, presenting only the white walls at the passerby. Sparks made houses that looked good from the outside, too:

And here of the obviousness which he was a true artist:

"We were trying to capture what he did at a cut rate," Bill [Streng] says. But Sparks wasn't always interested in cut rate. He asked for brushed aluminum doorknobs and they agreed. Then he asked for brushed aluminum hinges instead of the standard brass. "I told Carter, it's not worth 50 cents extra per door. Nobody will notice them," Jim says. "He said, 'I'll pay for them.' He shamed us into it."

This Sparks was apparently a kind of savant - he only worked when it felt fun to him, and could always make another job so that a rich man pays his invoices. You cannot imagine the impact that this has on me, it is like discovering the best cellist world in a band of the community in Cairo.

And it is not the only thing. As I explained to you, with OMA we are not political. We do not take part. And that enables us to do the work like this:

But in Sacramento, the architecture of Sparks reflects the politics:

A political campaigner did a count, Jim says. One Streng subdivision was 85 percent Democratic. The ranch subdivision next door was 70 percent Republican. Strengs attracted so many teachers -- and tall people, entranced by the high ceilings -- they brainstormed ways of directing advertising at these two groups. They never did -- but their ads did boast how many licensed architects bought their homes -- one count was 37.

So this evening I recognize a brilliant architect and great but mysterious spirit: Carter Sparks, you inspire to me, and confuse.