MODERN URBANA: a Home Tour 2012

The City of Urbana hosted a tour of Urbana’s mid-century modern homes on May 6, 2012. The tour featured seven houses built during the middle of the twentieth century that exemplify modernist design features, such as the use of transparencies, the connection to nature, the use of open plan design, and simple geometries.

Urbana has a rich architectural heritage dating back to the 1800s when the City was first settled. Architecturally, Urbana is known primarily for its Victorian buildings. However, the city has another significant architectural heritage in its mid-century modernist homes. The aim of Urbana’s modernist home tour is to raise public awareness of this rich modernist architectural heritage both locally and as part of an important genre of design on the national and international level. As a collection, the homes on the tour show a sampling of the mid-century modernist style, while also providing contrasts in the specifics of this design genre. It is our hope that this tour will serve to inspire and educate, and offer you the opportunity to get to know Urbana a bit better.

MODERN URBANA a home tour was the result of collaboration between the City of Urbana and CU-Engage, a Spring 2012 seminar course at the University of Illinois that connects the design currency and critical thinking abilities of graduate students in the School of Architecture to design projects in the community.