Open DoorsChapel Hill Modernism

Mayberry Modernism: Chapel Hill’s Architectural Legacy shares the story of why North Carolina is #3 in the USA for Modernist houses, the influence of the NCSU School of Design in 1948, then takes audiences on a visual tour of 50+ Chapel Hill Modernist houses, past and present. The preservation stakes are real: original architects and clients are mostly gone, real estate markets favor teardowns, and city councils resist calling a house “historic” when it still looks like the future.

The message for audiences is that grassroots documentation is within anyone’s reach, and that you can’t save what you don’t know exists. Cash bar and free light bites.

George Smart is Founder and CEO of NCModernist and USModernist, the world’s largest nonprofit educational archive dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist residential design. A passionate advocate for Modernism, George has been one of the nation’s leaders in raising awareness to preserve this important architectural movement. He is a frequent speaker to architecture, design, preservation, real estate, and museum groups and is one of the few people to be bestowed an Honorary AIA by the national American Institute of Architects. DWELL called him the Lorax of Modernist houses.

As host of the long-running USModernist Radio podcast, named by DWELL as the #2 architecture and design podcast, George has led 500 episodes and interviewed over 800 guests in architecture and design from around the world. His intrepid team of nonprofit staff and volunteers have documented over 500 major 20th century architects, researched over 35,000 Modernist houses and scanned over 6 million pages of architecture magazines going back over 130 years. George’s work has helped to change the way people think about preservation and won 20 honors for leadership in preservation, including national AIA Institute Honors for Collaborative and Professional Achievement.