Alfred Browning Parker

Alfred Browning Parker is a Modernist architect who is one of the best-known post World War II residential architects. He gained fame for his houses in the region around Miami, Florida. Influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright but with regional touches, Parker's designs were published in magazines like House Beautiful, as was as companion books. Notable commissions included Miami houses for Mr. & Mrs. Richard Titelman, Mr. & Mrs. Clifford J. Rice and Bert Friedman, as well as a Palm Beach house Mr. & Mrs. Joseph Mass. The Rice house on Biscayne Bay was notable for its hexagonal living room; writer Joseph Barry in "The House Beautiful Treasury of Contemporary American Homes" wrote that it was "bathed in moving air" and that idea even reached down to the detailing, which included custom furniture with transparent cane backs. The Mass house in Palm Beach was in an elongated triangle shape with cypress and cedar and a matching a triangular fireplace, all designed for large-scale entertaining.

He also experimented with lower cost housing, included the "Tropex-pansible Home" [http://www.historical-museum.org/exhibits/florida_home/tropix.htm] , which was constructed with high quality but modular parts.

Other works include the renovation of the Coconut Grove Playhouse [http://cinematreasures.org/theater/10389/] .

Recommended Reading

cite book
last = Parker
first = Alfred Browning
title = You and Architecture
publisher = Delacorte Press
year = 1965
location = New York

External links

* [http://www.hmsf.org/exhibits/florida_home/florida_home_essay.htm Exhibit on Modernist Florida Design, Historical Museum of Southern Florida]