Nonprofit organisation USModernist documents, promotes and preserves North America's modernist architecture. Here, director George Smart names his ten favourites including an airport terminal by Eero Saarinen and a beach house by John Lautner.
Based in Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina, USModernist has been working since 2007 to document modernist buildings, some of which are under threat, across the continent.
Top: A house by Alber Frey in Palm Springs. Above: George Smart is the founder of USModernist
"Just like stock car racing or sushi, modernist architecture is not for everybody," Smart told Dezeen.
"There are some people that just don't like it, and that's fine," he explained. "The important thing is that, because there are so few of them, that we recognise that many of these houses are really sculptures that you can live in". "We wouldn't take a piece of art and go tear it to pieces. Similarly, we want to try to keep these houses, which are like works of art, from being destroyed."
Smart noticed a particular uptick in threats to modernist buildings in the 2000s, which prompted him to found USModernist. Now the organisation has documented upwards of 8,000 buildings.
"Modernist architecture is very optimistic," he said. "It tends to point us towards a future that's going to be better and happier."

"Most people who don't like modernist houses have never spent the night in one, they just don't get the vibe th...