KCmodern Event: Patio Daddy-O at The Courtyard Residence (SOLD OUT)
Friday, June 14, 2024, 6:30p.m.
The Courtyard Residence at 5321 Belleview—currently owned by Maida and John Hulston— has a distinguished history with Kansas City’s Arts Community. The home was originally designed in 1968 by one of the Deans of KC Architecture, Howard Nearing, and its original owner, Dorry Gates, operated a successful art gallery on the premises that ran for 25 years and showed such distinguished artists as Wilbur Niewald, Stanley Lewis, and Nate Fors.
American residential architecture in 1968 was at a crossroads where the innovative work that we now call Mid-Century Modern was running into nostalgic pressures that were pulling things back to more traditional forms. But with the Courtyard Residence, Howard Nearing was still operating with an eye on the optimistic design strategies that were exemplified in the Midwest by the residential work of Harry Weese of Chicago, and on the West Coast with the Sea Ranch development designed by Joseph Esherick, Charles Moore, and William Turnbull Jr. One can imagine that Dorry Gates, with her love of Modern Art, would have pushed for a design that brought out the best of Howard Nearing’s modernist instincts.
The idea of a residence with a U-shaped plan that creates a walled courtyard on the public side appears in many earlier cultures, but in the US it’s a building form that we don’t often have the opportunity to appreciate at a residential scale. The level of privacy created by the wall makes the courtyard a generous room which can gracefully accommodate a sizable group for an art opening or a KC Modern Patio Party.
In 2021, the Hulstons approached McHenry Shaffer Architecture and Lisa Schmitz Interior Design for a renovation effort for both the building interior and exterior. Appreciating the strong strain of simplicity in the original design, the recent designers chose to touch the building lightly, but still enjoyed the opportunity to engage with such a fine, modest but sophisticated residence.
Tickets $30 per person, and will be limited.
(SOLD OUT)
Here are some regional events and media you might be interested in.
YouTube
Mid-Century Modern in St. Louis - PBS
Nelle E. Peters: Historic Kansas City Architect and Designer - 41 Action News
A Pioneer of Kansas City Architecture, Nelle Peters - 41 Action News
Architect Moshe Sadie Uplifts the Skyline and Spirit of Kansas City - Kauffman Center, Kansas City, Missouri
Kansas City’s First Modular Apartment Building
(Downtown) Kanas City, Missouri - Drone Footage
Downtown Kansas City - Aerial Drone
Frank Lloyd Wright - Sondern-Adler House - Heritage Auctions
Frank Lloyd Wright - Bott House Animation
franklloydwright.org -
Kansas City