And Speaking of Modernist Teardowns

Not long ago I ran a piece in Time about the threat of demolition faced by Modernist houses around the country, with houses designed by Paul Rudolph as being for some reason a particular target lately. Today I get some related news from my colleague Carolina Miranda, who's in Florida looking into work of the Sarasota School that Rudolph was a part of at the outset of his career. A few days ago she made it over to see a house from 1941 that was designed by Sarasota School founder Ralph Twitchell in collaboration with Rudolph. But it turns out that the bulldozers got there just before she did.

The irony here is that the house had been purchased by Joe King, a local architect who has co-written a book on Rudolph's houses and who hoped to preserve it. Then came the horrendous repair bills to make it insurable. Karrie Jacobs, who blogs for House and Garden, has the background.