We couldn’t help but notice 9331 Providence Road — “The Bates Glass House” — back on the market in Charlotte.
Some buildings do more than age — they connect generations of ideas.
Designed circa 1960 by architect Charles Bates for his own family, the house reflects the optimism of mid-century modernism: steel, glass, light, and a seamless relationship between architecture and landscape. His home is said to have been inspired by Philip Johnson’s iconic Glass House — a reminder of how national ideas from the International Style found local expression here in the Carolinas. https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/9331-Providence-Rd-Charlotte-NC-28277/6321602_zpid/?utm_campaign=zillowwebmessage&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=txtshare
What caught our attention isn’t just the architecture — it’s the connections.
In his early career, Bates spent time in the office of A.G. Odell, one of the major voices shaping modern architecture in our region. While with Odell, Bates designed the striking modernist Lutheran Church in Belmont — a building that still stands today as a powerful local statement of light, geometry, and restrained material expression.
And fittingly, our own office at 6405 Wilkinson Blvd sits within this same thread of architectural history — a building originally developed in the mid-1950s, now adapted and renewed as a modern multi-tenant office building and our own working design studio.
These moments remind us that architecture is never isolated.
Ideas move through people, offices, and generations — from mentors to young designers, from churches to glass houses, from one era’s experiments to the next.
Modernism wasn’t just a style; it was a mindset: clarity, honesty of materials, structure as expression, and an embrace of light.
As architects working in Belmont today, we’re grateful to be part of that continuing story.
(And yes — seeing The Bates House resurface definitely sparked some office conversation about modernism, legacy, and what timeless really means.)
Learn more about Charles Bates and other NC Modernists here: https://www.ncmodernist.org/cbates.htm
