Nick Churton of Turpin Realtors’ London office visits a house in New Jersey and imediately fell in love with the idea of mixing Mid Century Modern with a natural wooded and river environment – something Frank Lloyd Wright did rather successfully at Falling Water eighty years before.
The House: 63 Hollow Brook Rd, Tewksbury Township, New Jersey
The Broker: Turpin Realtors
The Agent: Sylvia Kissel
The strong resurgence in interest in Mid Century Modern architecture in America over the past decade has suprised many. Of course since the beginning of the 1930s there have been US centres of this high art such as Palm Springs. But it doesn’t take much to see plenty of houses elsewhere in the US that bear the distinctive signs of the International and Bauhaus design movements. These had their roots in Germany early in the twentieth century but were taken to heart at lightning speed by architects in the US. Leading the New World charge in this new order was Frank Lloyd Wright who in 1935 designed the outstanding Falling Water in Pennsylvania.
Why has Falling Water become such an architectural icon? Perhaps it is the way the crisp linear and vertical lines created by man work so well with the rock, water and forest created by God. It is a marriage made with heaven. But whichever way you cut it, it worked then and it works just as well today – evidence the thousands of pilgrims who visit Falling Water every year to bathe in the influence and spirit of the master.
So imagine how pleased and delighted I was to visit Falling Water’s smaller and younger brother. No, Frank Lloyd Wright didn’t design it and it’s not in Pennsylvania but I think it acts as quite a homage – whether intended or not. Here in leafy New Jersey, spanning a woodland river that gurgles and chuckles companionably beneath, is a marvelous house of Mid Century Modern design with strong echoes of Falling Water. The similarities in mood if not in scale are inescapable.
Living the Mid Century Modern dream may not be for everyone. But for those who thrill at clean lines, the blending of nature and design nurture, and who seek a perfect antidote to working in the city then this home is the perfect answer.
So pull up an Eames chair, take a look at the great video, imagine life in the steps of Frank Lloyd Wright and follow the Hollow Brook Road.
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