SHOWCASING GREEN - Studio 804 - Sunday, November 15th, 4-6pm

November 12, 2009

Please join KCMODERN for:
SHOWCASING GREEN
at the amazing house built by Studio 804, 3716 Springfield
with our guest, Gerould Sabin of Elements of Green,
who will be presenting green building materials
Sunday, November 15th, 4-6 PM.

Studio 804 at the University of Kansas has designed Kansas City’s first “off the grid” residence as a model of sustainability. The studio is aspiring to complete the first LEED platinum residence in the Kansas City area. The house showcases may energy saving techniques, including a wind turbine, solar panels, a geothermal heat pump and a water reclamation system.

Meet Gerould Sabin of Elements of Green, which he created to make an impact in Kansas City by simplifying access to the product stream of sustainable building, remodeling and finishing solutions to the Midwest and to provide a social networking venue for the discussion of environmentally sound building materials and practices.

Studio 804: http://www.studio804.com/about%20us/mission/studio/studio.html

3716 Springfield: http://www.3716springfield.com/
From State Line Road and 39th Street, go west on 39th by KUMed and across Rainbow Bvld, 3 blocks to Springfield and north to the house. Parking will be in the gravel lot located across the street and a little to the north.

Elements of Green: http://www.elements-of-green.com/about-us.html

Photo by Dan Rockhill

When Mid-Century Modern was Green - A Climate-Wise House for the Missouri River Valley by Architect, David B. Runnells - Part 2

September 18, 2009

Name: A Climate-Wise House for the Missouri Valley - Stuart Williams Residence
Architect: David Benton Runnells
Year Designed: 1949-1950
Builder: Unknown
Year Built: 1950-1952
Size: Unknown
Location: South Kansas City, Missouri
Type: Residential
Style: Modern, Passive solar heating and cooling
Status: Good
Photographer: N/A
Illustrator: Unknown

Scanned from an article, "If You've Too Much Climate Try Climate Control" and "A Climate-Wise House for the Missouri River Valley" in the May 1950 issue of House Beautiful magazine.

When Mid-Century Modern was Green - A Climate-Wise House for the Missouri River Valley by Architect, David B. Runnells - Part 1

September 18, 2009

David B. Runnells Residence - Architects House Themselves Update - The Self-Cooling House

August 21, 2009

After I posted about the David B. Runnells Residence, designed for himself and his family, I got a phone call from Jill (Runnells) Grose. I met her again last week, our third or fourth meeting. Thanks to her, we have some great additional information about the now demolished house her father designed for his family. The article and photos were published in the New York Times Magazine on July 26, 1953. I have reposted a couple of the images because they were larger and better quality images and I wanted to include the captions from the recently found article. The magazine touts the advantages of natural ventilation over 1950's advances in home air conditioning. Here is a the article:

Self-Cooling House
by Cynthia Kellogg

Kansas City, MO- Despite the rapid increase in the number of completely
air-conditioned homes (an estimated 50,000 this year), natural methods of
cooling a house should not be overlooked. A new example of such a
“self-ventilating” home is pictured on these pages. Oriented on its plot
to take advantage of the prevailing winds, it was designed by Architect David
Benton Runnells for his family and is located in near-by Mission, Kan., where
summers are hot. Mr. Runnells used many architectural details, such as
piercing walls with many doors and apertures to aid the air flow, as well as a
simple decorating scheme to achieve a cool atmosphere. To reduce the
temperature of the living room, the roof, which can be used as a sun deck, has
been insulated with aluminum foil and, on hot days, can be flooded with water.
--Scanned from New York Times Magazine, July 26, 1953--

Here are the photos with their captions included under each photo:

OVERHANGING ROOF shields house interior at right, designed by David Benton Runnells, from the sun's heat. Screened gallery on upper level permits free flow of air through bedroom windows and doors which open into it.

BREEZEWAY, shown below, circulates air beneath bedrooms to help cool them. Heating and laundry units are in room on right, seperated from the body of house. Front door, upper left, is at the end of gangway-like walk.

TEXTURES are contrasted, rather than colors, to give cool look to living room at left. Brick "traffic lane" cuts across cork floor under rug. Cool fluorescent light is concealed in a wood strip above picture window. (Editors note: Someone used a little mid-century photoshop on this photo to edit the outside view thru the sliding glass door. Compare this to the previously posted image!)

OPEN FLOOR PLAN aids in ventilation, as below. A low storage wall, over which air can pass, separates the kitchen from the dining/living area. Open stairway encourages airflow in to television room at left.

BUILT-IN STORAGE units used throughout the house reduce amount of furniture to a minimum. The television set and radio are contained within this wall.

DOOR, a narrow version of the French window, is used more to admit air than as an exit. Birch cabinets and matching wood funiture contrast with redwood walls.

OVEN, right foreground, is a separate unit built into storage wall away from work area. Burners, more often used, are fitted into counter top at end of kitchen.

APERTURE in walls in corner of bedroom permits flow of air from the rest of the house. Light within the opening also illuminates the stairwell on other side.

David B. Runnells Tour Details Coming Soon

August 21, 2009

Kivett & Myers - A Synagogue designed functionally and aesthetically

June 9, 2009

Name: A Synagogue designed functionally and aesthetically - project
Architect: Kivett & Myers, Kansas City, MO
Year Designed: Circa 1952
Builder: N/A
Year Built: N/A
Size: N/A
Location: Unknown, probably Kansas City, MO or Central Plains
Type: Religious
Style: Modern
Status: N/A
Scanned from:
Climate & Architecture
Progressive Architecture Book
Jeffrey Ellis Aronin
Reinhold Publishing Corporation
New York, U.S.A. 1953

I was reading a vintage architecture book about "Climate and Architecture" and came accross this handsome little drawing. I love it when my two great interests, Mid-Century Modern and Sustainable Architecture, collide.

We know that Kivett and Myers designed several Jewish Synagogues, the most famous being the now demolished Temple B'nai Jehuda in Kansas City, MO. We also know there is a Kivett and Myers designed Synagogue in Omaha, Nebraska. It is unclear if this design was ever built somewhere, but I do not think it was built in KC.