George Smart

George Smart aka Mr. Modernism. George Smart’s life changed dramatically after he visited Fallingwater in 2007. That led him to a late-night Google search, which became a website, which became a community.  Now his small but intrepid nonprofit staff and volunteers have built the largest open digital archives – free and searchable – of residential mid-century Modernist design in the world. George is the founder and Executive Director of USModernist® and NCModernist®, nonprofit organizations dedicated to the documentation, preservation, and promotion of Modernist design.

With bulldozers destroying mid-century Modernist houses daily, many “livable works of art” remain threatened by rising land prices and disinterested heirs, George and his energetic and dedicated team of volunteers and staff documented over 8,000 Modernist houses across America, featuring nearly every Wright, Lloyd Wright, Neutra, Schindler, Lautner, Ellwood, Koenig, Ain, Soriano – built and unbuilt – and more. George speaks nationally with a talk called the Accidental Archivist – and every week reaches thousands more as host of the podcast USModernist Radio, named by DWELL as the #2 architecture and design podcast.