To say that midcentury architects were more practical is an understatement. Yes, we’ve seen a sudden green movement taking over, and NO, I don’t think this is bad — on the contrary, it’s something everyone should be aware of. But looking at Miami’s architecture, I have to admit that I have a soft spot for those buildings of the 1950s and 1960s. I have a special soft spot for certain architects such as Wahl Snyder, Marion Manley and Alfred Browning Parker.

When I walk into a house designed by either three, I feel it! My heart starts racing and there’s an unquestionable passion that can be felt through the construction and details of the space. I walked into a small Alfred Browning Parker home with a client not long ago, and I instantly knew it was his work. I asked the agent if the home was designed by BP, and to my disappointment the agent looked at me and said, “Who?”

Signature style

Browning Parker was the master of utilizing space, wide overhangs, clerestory windows and massing to take advantage of warm climates without air conditioning. Frank Lloyd Wright’s influence is obvious in his work, because of the organic nature and use of local materials. Snyder’s signature was to bring exterior spaces into the living areas. He would work with cross ventilation and create seamless transitions between the inside and outside of his spaces. Materials were key and clerestory lighting was a must. Take a look at his Miami Shores Residence. Manley was Florida’s first licensed woman architect, and at 75 she was still busy designing good quality homes. She used local materials, high ceilings, cross ventilation and never ignored our tropical climate.

The next generation
These three architects are the epitome of the green movement, and they created their masterpieces without today’s technology and media hype. Browning Parker, who’s about 90-years-old, continues to pass on his guiding principals to a new generation of architects when he gives special lectures at universities across the country. His five guiding principals till this day are: “Build simply. Build as directly as possible with no complications. Use the materials at hand and keep these sparse. Let your building love its site and glorify its climate. Design for use and make it beautiful.”

To read more on these wonderful architects, check out Georgia Tasker’s article published in The Miami Herald about two homes designed in the 1960s by Manley and Browning Parker. Both homes are open to their surroundings, and both are models for green living today.

Here’s a quote by Janet McIlvane, a research analyst with the Florida Solar Energy Center, that I think really defines the shift in housing and design that is evident in current times.

“After World War II, there was a move away from individually crafted homes....We began to produce homes with a subdivision production mindset. We were going to build 30 houses, not one, and build them all alike. And in that transition, we started looking at how to make things easier, how to build more easily and quickly.

“That’s how the industrial revolution transitioned into the housing market. So we jettisoned the front porch, made the windows smaller and sealed up our houses. In Florida, those were the very components that allowed us to survive in the hot, humid climate.”

Ines Hegedus-Garcia