Iconic Houses

Welcome to Iconic Houses - The Renee & Chaim Gross Foundation

In the heart of Manhattan, steps from the Center for Architecture and AIA on LaGuardia Place, lies a hidden gem: sculptor Chaim Gross’s studio. Now a foundation-run museum, it showcases his sculptures and rotating exhibitions drawn from the extensive art collection he shared with his wife, Renee. Their living quarters offer a delightful retreat into the couple’s world.

Read further > https://www.iconichouses.org/houses/gross-foundation

What a lovely visit yesterday to the Van Schijndel House in Utrecht, where I had the pleasure of welcoming Peng Hui Lee and Lynn Reynolds, both Trustees of the Isokon Gallery in London, together with a wonderful group of their volunteers.
It was a pleasure to show them around and share the story of Iconic Houses and this special house with them!

After the tour, we strolled through sunny Utrecht’s historic city centre and enjoyed lunch together — a perfect way to spend the day.

To all our other house museum members: come and visit us in Utrecht! I’d be delighted to give you a tour of the Van Schijndel House and share its fascinating story with you.

It would be wonderful to welcome you here! 🏡

Curious to learn more? Discover the Isokon Flats in London and the Van Schijndel House in Utrecht (NL) through the links below.

Gallery
https://www.iconichouses.org/houses/isokon-building


https://www.iconichouses.org/specials/mart-van-schijndel

Welcome to Iconic Houses -ILZRO House

Built in 1972, the ILZRO House is an experimental modern house created through a partnership between the Rhode Island School of Design and the International Lead and Zinc Research Organization (ILZRO), led by designer and educator Marc Harrison.

Conceived as a prototype for more inclusive domestic architecture, the house explored wheelchair accessibility, innovative materials, energy conservation, and adaptable living decades before Universal Design became widely established. Its compact one-story plan integrates features for wheelchair users and people of differing physical abilities within a single residential environment.

The house remains an important early expression of Harrison’s lifelong commitment to designing for people of all abilities.

Read further >> https://www.iconichouses.org/houses/ilzro-house

WELCOME ALICE AUSTEN HOUSE!

We’re delighted to welcome Alice Austen House in Staten Island, New York, to the Iconic Houses network and, in particular, to our growing section dedicated to artists’ homes and studios! 🌿

A couple of weeks ago, we had the pleasure of meeting Director Victoria Munro in person during our visit to New York, and we’re thrilled that Alice Austen House is now part of the Iconic Houses community.

Alice Austen (1866–1952) was an American photographer whose pioneering work captured everyday life in New York at the turn of the 20th century. Her former home, located on Staten Island overlooking New York Harbor, is now a museum dedicated to her life and work.

The house and its surrounding waterfront park are also a nationally designated site of LGBTQ+ history, highlighting the 55-year relationship between Alice Austen and her life partner, Gertrude Tate. Together, the site offers an important window into pre-Stonewall LGBTQ+ history, while celebrating Austen’s remarkable life, work, and contribution to the history of photography.

We’re very happy to have Alice Austen House join our international network of historic house museums and look forward to sharing knowledge, connecting communities, and working together to preserve and promote these extraordinary places. 💚

Welcome to Iconic Houses, Victoria and the Alice Austen House team! 👋

You can discover Alice Austen House on our world map here:
https://www.iconichouses.org/houses/alice-austen-house

And watch this beautiful video for a wonderful glimpse into Alice Austen’s life and work:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9TGOLA_vBJI&t=45s

Photos:
1.Alice Austen House exterior. Photo: Floto Warner.
2.Artwork: Collier Schorr for the exhibition 'Stonewall at 50' commissioned by the Alice Austen House, 2019. Photo: Nadia Cohen.
3.View of house from gate, 1890.
4..Interior view of parlor at Clear Comfort, ca. 1890.
5.Aunties room with Ffans, March 6, 1911.
6.Alices bedroom, May 1902.
7.Street Type/Bootblacks, ca. 1896. Collection of the Alice Austen House.
8.The Darned Club, October 29, 1891.
9.Alice Austen, self starting for Chicago, also with Punch. July 1 1893, Collection of Alice Austen House.
10.Trude and Alice masked, 1891.

Designing Tomorrow: Home of the Future at LACMA

LACMA’s exhibition Home of the Future explores American domestic utopias from 1925 to 1985, examining how technologically transformed homes were imagined, marketed, and sold. While these visions promised abundance and technological transformation, the exhibition also asks who was excluded from that future, and who imagined radical alternatives.

Read further >> https://www.iconichouses.org/news/home-of-the-future-1925-1985-designing-domestic-utopia-at-lacma

LACMA Los Angeles County Museum of Art

International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage (MAC) by the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative (CMAI) of the Getty Conservation Institute (GCI) for 2027.

Applications close on October 19, 2026.

Designed for mid-career heritage professionals from around the world, the course explores the broad range of contemporary issues involved in the conservation of modern heritage—from theoretical and methodological approaches to the technical aspects of materials conservation. Participants will learn from an international roster of well-established professionals and experts in the field, gaining diverse perspectives and practical insights into the challenges and opportunities of conserving modern heritage.

The course combines nine modules of online teaching (April 1 to June 17, 2027) with two weeks of in-person instruction in Los Angeles (mid-to-late July 2027), providing participants with opportunities for both virtual learning and intensive, hands-on engagement.

You can find more information on the course and how to apply here:

International Course on the Conservation of Modern Heritage A course for mid-career professionals from the Conserving Modern Architecture Initiative

Richard Rogers' Wimbledon House in National Trust Care

Designed by Richard and Su Rogers for his parents in 1968–70, Wimbledon’s pioneering modernist house at 22 Parkside, tested new approaches to construction and living that helped shape the late twentieth century’s most recognisable buildings and modern architecture. For anyone interested in how a house can become a testing ground for new ideas, 22 Parkside holds a special place in the history of modern architecture.

Read further >> https://www.iconichouses.org/news/a-new-chapter-for-richard-and-rogers-22-parkside

Photos: Megan Taylor. Except for the second-to-last one, Rutie Rogers, and the last one, Lucy Porten.

New in our Network: Two Frank Lloyd Wright Houses at the Currier Museum

The Zimmerman and Kalil Houses are the only two houses designed by Frank Lloyd Wright in the state of New Hampshire. Isadore and Lucille Zimmerman and Toufic and Mildred Kalil were husband-and-wife pairs without children who worked in medicine. Both couples wanted homes that offered respite from their busy working lives. Wright’s architecture met their needs.

Explore the SPECIAL here >>
https://www.iconichouses.org/specials/frank-lloyd-wright-houses-at-the-currier-museum

Restoring Richard Meier’s Douglas House

An account of the restoration and preservation work since 2007

Since 2007, the owners of Richard Meier’s Douglas House have restored its bridge, glazing, chimneys and iconic flying stair. Working with Meier’s guidance, they strengthened hidden structures while preserving original materials and appearance, safeguarding this Lake Michigan landmark through fifteen years of meticulous architectural stewardship.

Read further >>

Restoring Richard Meier’s Douglas House Richard Meier, working in studio, and Tod Williams, working on site, designed and built the Douglas House in 1973 for James and Jean Douglas. The lot’s slope is so steep that you enter at the roof. A forty- three-foot bridge leaves the road and lands at the top of a white box that then drops four ...

Welcome Douglas House by Richard Meier!

Douglas House in Harbor Springs, Michigan, is Richard Meier’s celebrated modernist landmark. Its innovative layout, clean geometric forms, and seamless integration with the landscape exemplify Richard Meier’s signature approach, making the Douglas House one of the most celebrated modernist residences in the United States.

Explore the Dougas House SPECIAL here >> https://www.iconichouses.org/specials/douglas-house

Photos: James Haefner Photography.