USModernist and its sister site NCModernist are digital archives that make the largest archive of modernist architecture in the United States easier to explore and understand. The site is a community resource that documents, preserves, and promotes modern architecture across the country. The goal of the redesign was to make the website easier to use, present a cleaner, more compelling digital archive, and better reflect the organization’s mission and values.
Both sites were originally built in Microsoft Expression Web, which left them feeling outdated, cluttered, and difficult to maintain. The architecture and content were valuable, but the site lacked a clear, modern organization and didn’t make it easy for visitors to browse the archive or find what they were looking for.
I started by studying examples of the client’s desired modernist aesthetic and the patterns they wanted to preserve. The research confirmed that the archive needed to feel thoughtful, clean, and rooted in modernist design language without becoming too cold or overly minimal.
I largely reorganized the navigation menu and the content layout to make the archive much easier to navigate. Each page now includes a clearer hierarchy, more breathing room, and stronger visual structure, helping visitors understand the site and move through it with confidence.
I began building an ArcGIS database for NCModernist to hold the data collected over the years about modernist houses in North Carolina, including each home’s location, architecture style, and key details. That information will eventually power an interactive map so users can explore the archive by region and better understand the patterns of modern architecture across the state. This portion of the project was handed off to the client for further development.
A closer look at what changed across the desktop and mobile versions of the site. The After images show my redesign as delivered, before the sites were later changed by another developer.
Bolder titles, line separators, and a black, white, and red palette drawn from the logo.
Updated fonts, bolder titles, and bold line separators bring the content pages in line with the new look.
New nav in new black, white, and red palette.
Bolder titles and a cleaner layout on small screens.
Reorganized so both respond to any screen size and flow more naturally.