Dallas Modern: Volume 1, Residences by Dallas Architecture Forum
Visual Profile Books, 2014
Hardcover, 216 pages

Minnesota Modern: Architecture and Life at Midcentury by Larry Millett
University of Minnesota Press, 2015
Hardcover, 400 pages

Last week I reviewed Virginia Savage McAlester's updated Field Guide to American Houses, which devotes numerous pages to modern houses and other recent styles of residential architecture in the United States. It seems natural to follow up that review with one devoted to modern houses in two parts of the country: Dallas and Minnesota. The names and covers may indicate that the books are fairly similar, but, as will be seen, Dallas Modern is a survey of the city's notable houses from the 1950s to the present, while Minnesota Modern is a history of all sorts of architecture in the state in the middle of the 20th century, yet with a special emphasis on midcentury modern homes.
Dallas Modern is the product of the Dallas Architecture Forum, "an inclusive arena where people interested in and concerned with the built environment, non-professionals and professionals alike, may interact intellectually and socially," via lectures, discussions and study tours. The Forum's diverse audience must have informed the production of the book, since it can be appreciated by more than just architects: the photographs, floor plans and descriptions for the 20 projects are clear and helpful in understanding why each house was i...