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The Pink Beach House

This is the famous Pink Beach House, of Ocean City, New Jersey. Some people call it the Bubble Gum House, because it was owned by Edward Fenimore, who founded the Philadelphia Chewing Gum Corporation. The factory, in Havertown, PA, manufactured such fine products as Swell bubble gum, and El Bubble Gum Cigars.

I posted a picture of it on Instagram last summer and the polarity of comments was very amusing. One person stated, “Love this home. Grew up at 53rd street and the bubble gum house was always our sign that we were almost home. An Ocean City Original.”

On the other hand, another person commented: “Disgusted. Obviously one of the worst houses on the island. I have to look the other way on my run going by. The pink only clashes with the modern aesthetic the rest of the block is trying to portray, #Knockdown.”

Who would have thought that this cute little pink beach house could inspire such vitriol!

Personally, I’ve always loved this pink beach house. It’s a pristine example of mid century modern architecture, right on the ocean. It always reminded me of a birthday cake. I’ve been going to Ocean City, NJ since the 1970’s and not many original examples of this type of house are left, so whenever I find myself in the south end of OC, NJ and see it is still there, it brings me joy.

Here’s a vector drawing I made of the house a few years ago.

 

Pink Beach House

If you find yourself in Ocean City, New Jersey and want to take a look, it’s at the corner of 51st Street and Central Avenue. Hopefully it is still there and stays there for a long time!

Eames Chairs

6 Eames Chairs

These are some vector drawings of Eames chairs. Just for practice really. I love looking at Mid Century Modern furniture, and there’s something about the structure of it that lends itself to vector drawing.

There’s a great documentary on Charles and Ray Eames, called the Architect and the Painter. Among other things, it tells the story of how they came to make these famous molded plywood chairs. I like how Ray Eames is initially introduced in the film as “a painter who rarely painted.” Sounds like something I can relate to.