Community Focus: At home in a modern world
Karen Shade World Staff Writer
02/23/2005
Tulsa World (Final Home Edition), Page ZM2 of Community

Christine Brasel (left) and her husband, Curt Brasel (center), visit with neighbor Shane Hood in their Lortondale home. The three helped in forming the Lortondale Community Neighborhood Association. KAREN SHADE / Tulsa World

Lortondale residents enjoy homes' design

Curt and Christine Brasel have nothing to hide, and nothing says that more than the open view straight inside to their kitchen, living room and dining room. "We took down the curtains," she said. "I don't care if anyone sees what I'm doing." It is not a view easily accessible to strangers, only to anyone standing in their fenced back yard or to Shane Hood, who lives on the property behind their home.

The Brasels moved into their Lortondale home nearly three years ago.
"This is my wife's dream house, so we were lucky enough to be able to get it," Curt said, seated at his glass dining table. The circular table surface reflects not only the Brasels but also the circular window cut into the wall separating the front entrance and the dining room. Nothing feels closed in. "I was introduced to this neighborhood about 15 years ago by my sister," Christine said. "Some friends of ours owned a house here, and we loved it. Well, they had seen this house, and it had been dilapidated and empty for quite a few years," Christine said. After the Brasels' friends finally coaxed the home's owner into selling the property, they bought it and started remodeling the home.
"They did a lot of work to it, and when I first walked in here, I've never in my life been jealous of anything like that," she joked. When the friends decided to sell it, the Brasels did not waste time.

The home is like the majority of those built in the Lortondale I and II subdivisions between Yale and Hudson avenues from 26th Street to 27th Place -- modular, flat-roofed, ranch-style homes built between 1953-54 by Howard C. Grubb and designed by Tulsa architect Donald H. Honn. After World War II, there was a housing boom in the U.S.

"Because of the housing boom, there was a new style of architecture that was getting its foot in door -- modern homes representing the modernism of the time," said Hood, an architect. "That's what Lortondale is." Lortondale also was the first subdivision in the United States in which all the homes were designed to feature built-in air conditioning, Curt said. "It is an architect-designed neighborhood, which, in these days, is extremely rare," Shane said.

Curt met Shane on the Internet while researching the neighborhood's history, although Shane has lived on the other side of the Brasels' fence for about a year and a half. "It's funny. Neighbors live right next door to each other, and they meet each other on the World Wide Web. I don't know if that's a telling indication of how our society is today, but it was a great thing," Hood said.

Last April, Shane and the Brasels met for dinner at a Thai restaurant and talked about their homes, the neighborhood and issues they had in common. From that meeting, they decided to form a neighborhood association. Curt serves as the president. Shane is the vice president, and Christine is the treasurer. They wanted the association to be a network and tool for neighborhood residents "Where do you go if you want to get advice for putting a roof on? You can't go to your average roofer," Curt said. The association, called the Lortondale Community Neighborhood Association, is open to homeowners and renters. Christine said they wanted to be careful in their approach. "The whole neighborhood association thing scared us because we didn't want people to think we were here to just please the neighborhood. We wanted to have a community," Christine said. As a community, the association does not focus on problems and writing to city councilors. Instead members organize pool days and help senior residents with yard work. The association exists, Shane said, to promote the community and educate visitors and prospective homebuyers about the architecture, the history and the people who call the neighborhood home. "Lortondale is not like anything else in Tulsa," Shane said.

NEIGHBORHOOD SPOTLIGHT- LORTONDALE

• What:  Lortondale Community Neighborhood Association
• Established: 2004
• Neighborhood built: Construction started in the early 1950s; developed by Howard C. Grubb and designed by Donald H. Honn
• Where: Within two subdivisions ? Lortondale I and Lortondale II ? between Yale and Hudson avenues and from 26th Street to 27th Place.
• Officers: Curt Brasel, president; Shane Hood, vice-president; Christine Brasel, treasurer; Stephen Edlich, historian; Nancy Mack, secretary; Mark Darrah, at-large director; Susan Rogers, pool representative
• Membership: $50/year and extended to homeowners and renters; about 280 households eligible
• For more: Go to http://lortondale.com on the Internet

Preserving Tulsa
Architect’s work is getting noticed.
By Julie Alexander

With names such as Bruce Goff and Frank Lloyd Wright often garnering all of the attention in Tulsa’s diverse architectural landscape, people are starting to take notice of the work of lesser-known but equally important architects.
The works of such people as Donald Honn and Gene Starr and other modernist architects have left an indelible mark on Tulsa and an appreciation for their homes and buildings is growing. Preservationists are beginning to realize they have left a legacy behind that is worth saving.

Architect Rex Ball, FAIA AICP, says preserving mid-century buildings is just as important as saving buildings from the early 1900s.

“It’s a real challenge to save our buildings — particularly our neighborhoods,” Ball explains. “(Tulsa) is significant to design throughout the country and eventually the world. It’s in the great interest of the national trust for historic preservation to save the recent past.”

Honn, along with builder Howard Grubb, developed the Lortondale neighborhood in the early 1950s. Homes in the area feature Honn’s signature design elements such as flat or low-pitched rooflines, exposed structure and natural building materials. Other Honn projects include his award-winning design of the Tulsa Country Club, Esplanade, Garden Park and Gilcrease Middle School. Honn homes are also scattered throughout Tulsa.

Ball, who is on the Tulsa Preservation Commission, is among a group of people working to get Lortondale on the register of historical places because of its unique character.

“Modernist design is not in vogue but you can see there is a significant movement to rediscover its indoor/outdoor, easy living style,” he says.

A prime example of Honn’s work is a home that he built as his residence near 71 and Harvard. The sleek lines, open floor plan and large windows are just a few of Honn’s trademarks and the perfect setting for the current owner’s contemporary furnishings and artwork. A secluded patio with koi pond and water feature epitomizes Honn’s efforts of bringing the outdoors in — something that homebuilders today try to achieve.

Though homes and neighborhoods less than 50 years old are not considered for placement on the historical register, Ball says soon many of Honn’s homes will turn 50 and it won’t be a moment to soon.

“I think it’s just a matter of time that his fame will grow,” Ball says. “People do not realize the significance of his work.”

Ball is working to catalog Honn’s work in an effort to raise awareness on mid-century, modernist architecture in Tulsa.

For additional information about the Lortondale neighborhood and modern design, visit their great website at lortondale.com.  For additonal informatin on Oklahoma Magazine visit their website at www.okmag.com.