Modern Architecture seals the deal

Gropius House- Lincoln MA modern landmark

The first time I rode past the Gropius house I literally stopped in my tracks.  I was in my early twenties and had been designing and building for about six years.  I was beginning to develop a style, or at least get a better feel for what I liked and wanted to copy.  People were always giving me Frank Lloyd Wright books, so I was familiar with "modern", but not this kind of modern.

Cantilevered pergola over sundeck on Gropius House

It's uncanny how formative this house was and is to modern architects and builders.  It's like the original seed that modern residential design sprouted from.  So many of the forms, details and materials that comprise the vocabulary of modernism started here in 1938!  The banded windows, cantilevered roof, glass block, pipe railings, vertical siding, etc. are commonly seen throughout houses in Lincoln.

For me, touring the house (the interior looks like a Crate and Barrel store) was as close to a pilgrimage as I will get.  It reinforced the feeling that someday I would make my home in Lincoln.