02-27-2012, 11:19 PM
cool article about some of the moderne houses in the Suburban area of KC where I grew up.
![[Image: GDG4BU6HD.3-0_3.jpg.420x700_q85_upscale.jpg]](http://joco913.com/media/joco913/img/articles/GDG4BU6HD.3-0_3.jpg.420x700_q85_upscale.jpg)
http://joco913.com/news/putting-modernism-on-the-map/
STACY DOWNS
The Kansas City Star
Decades before McMansions and Johnson County beige, the area’s northeast suburbs birthed a bevy of midcentury modernism. We’re talking drugstores with zig-zag roofs, space-age bank buildings and atomic swing pads that make pockets of Prairie Village, Overland Park and Leawood look like Rat Pack movie sets.
If you should move into a 1940s, 1950s or 1960s Johnson County house — even one you may perceive as a no-frills ranch and a far cry from “Mad Men” — don’t be surprised if 59-year-old Scott Lane comes knocking at your door.
The former baseball catcher will play his favorite game, “Connect the Dots.” Sometimes wearing a tie, always a sport coat, he’ll fill you in on your house’s pedigree: who designed it, who built it, how its prior residents updated it, its place in history and how it relates to today.
“Maybe it seems nutty, but I find it fascinating these houses were built in what was once the middle of dairy land,” says Lane, managing broker and vice president for Reece and Nichols Realtors. “It’s exuberant architecture. I just want people to notice it and love it like I do.”
Lane has interviewed builders, architects and their family members, as well as homeowners who choose midcentury houses. He’s always asking, “Why?” His ongoing research includes videotaped oral histories and collections of photographs, drawings, magazines and each publication from the Greater Kansas City Home Builders Association Parade of Homes — 50 years’ worth.
Lane is one of the founders of KC Modern, an advocacy group for midcentury modern architecture. Johnson County boasts more of that type than anywhere in the metro. He also is president of the Historic Kansas City Foundation, a nonprofit group with a mission to promote and preserve the area’s built heritage. Since he took the leadership role, the organization successfully fought plans for a tall law office building many felt was out of character for the Country Club Plaza. Also under Lane’s watch, board members have expanded their outlook on what they consider historically and architecturally important.
“Before, the group really concentrated on just the city and mainly on houses and buildings that were more than a century old,” says Mindi Love, executive director of the Johnson County Museum, which is transitioning into the National Museum of Suburbia. “The group wasn’t as familiar with midcentury and its presence in Johnson County. Through his knowledge and his passion, he certainly has had a huge impact on changing their appreciation of it.”
Lane walks his talk. The only houses he’s owned are midcentury modern houses in Johnson County, all gems of local or national significance that spoke to his soul. During a driving tour, he talked about his life and his five homes past and present.
“I’m part of the new old.”
continued.........
![[Image: GDG4BU6FA.3-0_3.jpg.420x700_q85_upscale.jpg]](http://joco913.com/media/joco913/img/articles/GDG4BU6FA.3-0_3.jpg.420x700_q85_upscale.jpg)
Have any stories or memories of where you grew up?
http://joco913.com/news/putting-modernism-on-the-map/
STACY DOWNS
The Kansas City Star
Decades before McMansions and Johnson County beige, the area’s northeast suburbs birthed a bevy of midcentury modernism. We’re talking drugstores with zig-zag roofs, space-age bank buildings and atomic swing pads that make pockets of Prairie Village, Overland Park and Leawood look like Rat Pack movie sets.
If you should move into a 1940s, 1950s or 1960s Johnson County house — even one you may perceive as a no-frills ranch and a far cry from “Mad Men” — don’t be surprised if 59-year-old Scott Lane comes knocking at your door.
The former baseball catcher will play his favorite game, “Connect the Dots.” Sometimes wearing a tie, always a sport coat, he’ll fill you in on your house’s pedigree: who designed it, who built it, how its prior residents updated it, its place in history and how it relates to today.
“Maybe it seems nutty, but I find it fascinating these houses were built in what was once the middle of dairy land,” says Lane, managing broker and vice president for Reece and Nichols Realtors. “It’s exuberant architecture. I just want people to notice it and love it like I do.”
Lane has interviewed builders, architects and their family members, as well as homeowners who choose midcentury houses. He’s always asking, “Why?” His ongoing research includes videotaped oral histories and collections of photographs, drawings, magazines and each publication from the Greater Kansas City Home Builders Association Parade of Homes — 50 years’ worth.
Lane is one of the founders of KC Modern, an advocacy group for midcentury modern architecture. Johnson County boasts more of that type than anywhere in the metro. He also is president of the Historic Kansas City Foundation, a nonprofit group with a mission to promote and preserve the area’s built heritage. Since he took the leadership role, the organization successfully fought plans for a tall law office building many felt was out of character for the Country Club Plaza. Also under Lane’s watch, board members have expanded their outlook on what they consider historically and architecturally important.
“Before, the group really concentrated on just the city and mainly on houses and buildings that were more than a century old,” says Mindi Love, executive director of the Johnson County Museum, which is transitioning into the National Museum of Suburbia. “The group wasn’t as familiar with midcentury and its presence in Johnson County. Through his knowledge and his passion, he certainly has had a huge impact on changing their appreciation of it.”
Lane walks his talk. The only houses he’s owned are midcentury modern houses in Johnson County, all gems of local or national significance that spoke to his soul. During a driving tour, he talked about his life and his five homes past and present.
“I’m part of the new old.”
continued.........
Have any stories or memories of where you grew up?
![[Image: goldenbear-a.jpg]](http://www.gavinarts.com/store/items/goldenbear-a.jpg)
![[Image: P1030510.JPG]](http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Dkzci0hW8DU/TtMUhZDmuEI/AAAAAAAACWQ/OOw3xzHSUGY/s320/P1030510.JPG)
GB? Been many time, even booked a few bands there back in the day. I lived in HB & SB off and on until the late 80's. Maybe our pasts have crossed a time or two! 
