20 Best Modern Homes from the Midwest
Wide-open spaces, welcoming attitudes, and a healthy respect for modernism: the American Midwest has much to offer. Here are 12 modern houses from the Heartland.
The skylight boxes are clad in lap-seam metal panels, which Wheeler describes as an economical material choice.
Lauren Ewing’s stylish, but unassuming shotgun-style house in Vincennes, Indiana, is set into a hill overlooking a field she has known since childhood. Read more about this home made of local materials here.
Dow Chemical put Midland on the map, but architect and local scion Alden B. Dow made it the most modern town in Michigan. Dow’s masterpiece is undoubtedly his home and studio in Midland. Designed in 1933 to be built in stages, the sprawling manse seems to rise out of a pond, its green copper roof and bright-white, geometric form seemingly birthed by the landscape. It’s a nearly perfect evocation of a guiding Dow dictum, “Gardens never end, and buildings never begin.”
Residents are allowed a small swath to plant gardens. "A lot of credit is due to the landscape architect," says Barlow, and "Mies's floor-to-ceiling windows make the spaces feel open, while at the same time the canopy of trees makes you feel protected. It's a private, quiet, green oasis within spitting distance of the freeway, and you'd never know it."
Tom McMurtrie and Genia Service with their five-year-old son, Gary.
El Dorado Inc designed this 4,500-square-foot house for Dave Byers and his family. Byers is a structural engineer who has collaborated with the firm on multiple projects. The residence is located in the prairie southeast of Kansas City.
Eero Saarinen’s legendary Miller House opened to the public in May 2011 for the first time. The pathway from the pool to the house is paved with the same slate that clads the exterior walls. Photo by Leslie Williamson.
Perched above a pond on 14 acres in Champaign, Illinois, this hut was designed for enjoying tea and meditation. Dominating the 97-square-foot structure is a butterfly roof, which channels rainwater to a central spout to be directed to the pond. Adding to the zen experience are water reflections that are projected onto the soffit throughout the day.