Three jury-selected modern homes and three “people’s choice” houses are the winners in the 2014 Matsumoto Prize competition in North Carolina.

The six homes – from Durham, Leicester, Asheville, Wilmington, Raleigh, and Charlotte – made the final cut from a total of 12 entries.

The competition, the third in as many years, is sponsored by North Carolina Modernist Houses. Its intent is to honor architect George Matsumoto, who once taught and practiced the mid-century modern aesthetic in Raleigh, N.C. Recruited by dean Henry Kamphoefner to teach at N.C. State’s School of Design, Matsumoto practiced in North Carolina from 1948 to 1961.

“We want to encourage architects to continue the modernist movement,” says George Smart, executive director of the non-profit organization. “There are cash prizes of $3,000 for first place, $2,000 for second, and $1,000 for third. Designing houses is not a big moneymaker; it’s a labor of love, and this helps keep the architects going.”

Winners in the “people’s choice” competition – which attracted about 4,000 votes from around the world – receive no cash prizes.

Jury-selected winners included:

First: The Smart-Stell House in Durham, designed and built by Vincent Patrarca of Tonic Design + Tonic Construction of Raleigh.

Second: The Herbits House in Leicester, designed by Eric Gartner of SPG Architects in New York, N.Y.

Third: The Hedly House in Asheville, designed by Maria Rusafova of Rusafova-Markulis Architects in Asheville

“People’s choice” winners were:

First: The Lebda Guest House in Wilmington, designed by Michael Ross Kersting with Toby R. Keaton of Michael Ross Kersting Architecture of Wilmington.

Second: The Dasgupta-Saucier House in Raleigh, designed by Robby Johnston and Craig Kerins of Raleigh Architecture & Raleigh Construction of Raleigh.

Third: The UrbanEden House in Charlotte, designed and built by the UNC-Charlotte Solar Decathlon Architecture Team, advisor Mona Azarbajani.

The competition is a deliberate consciousness-raiser for the citizens of North Carolina.

“It’s making a lot of people aware of the rich inventory of things in our past but also in the architects building them now,” Smart says. “They think they must have to be expensive, but they don’t.”

Thanks to Kamphoefner and the School of Design, Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill boast the third largest number of mid-century modern structures in the nation – behind only Chicago and Los Angeles.

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