If you automatically think historic architecture must be 19th century or earlier, think again. At the Betts House, itself built in 1804, the exhibition Cincinnati Modern Architecture – A Retrospective opens Saturday to run through September 15. Reflecting such different philosophical bents as the Terrace Plaza Hotel and Greenhills model village, the exhibition will also examine private homes and more by Cincinnati architects including Abrom Dombar, Woodie Garber and Carl Strauss.
The wealth of 19th-century architecture in Over-the-Rhine and elsewhere in Cincinnati allows us to forget that mid-20th-century design had a real impact on the city's built environment. The Betts House's small, spare rooms should be a hospitable place for these pared-down ideas, as ornamentation was not a goal when it was planned. The exhibition was created by the modernist architecture organization Cincinnati Form Follows Function in collaboration with the Cincinnati Preservation Association, Enriching Spaces and the Greenhills Historical Society.