1960s
The times they are a-changin’.
Grice house, 1961
Champaign, Illinois
Nash house, 1962
Woodside, California
Nash house, 1962
Woodside, California
(photo c. 1962)
Nash house, 1962
Back, balcony, carport
Woodside, California
(photo c. 1962)
Bruner house, 1962
Urbana, Illinois
Rickson House, 1964
Street side
Champaign, Illinois
Watrach house, 1965
Urbana, Illinois
Photographs by Kalantzis-Cope:
Watrach House Photograph by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope
Watrach House Photograph by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope
Watrach House Photograph by Phillip Kalantzis-Cope
Bier House, 1966
Champaign, Illinois
(photo April 2014)
Osborn house, 1968
From southwest
Champaign, Illinois
(photo April 2014)
Price House, 1968
Current owner in front yard
Urbana, Illinois
(photo April 2014)
Peterson house, 1969
Urbana, Illinois
Works house, 1969
Champaign, Illinois
(photo April 2014)
Replinger Arts 
Mr. John Replinger taught me in Housing Division at Dept. of Architecture in 1979-80, along with Bruce Hutchings and Jim Anderson. John had a Mercedes-Benz then. I visited Urbana-Champaign in 1987 and only met Bruce. I want to make sure is this Replinger I knew?
Yes. Bruce and Jim A. were colleagues of my father. And yes, John drove a Mercedes in those days–a silver diesel sedan that he bought new in 1976. Are you working in the design area?
Dear Replinger family,
A 1961 house on Shuman Circle in Urbana is claimed as having been designed by Replinger Architects, but it’s not on your list. Do you think it’s actually his?
Yes. John Replinger, my father, designed the house at 6 Shuman Circle, Urbana. I see that the house is now on the market at a reasonable price.
Thanks for your response back in the fall: it helped confirm our high opinion of the house, which we’re thrilled finally to have made our own. It definitely needs some TLC, but it’s really lovely!
We found the house listed on a 1974 survey of architectural survey of C-U, along with a small black and white photo from that year. Do you know whether any early color photos might exist somewhere, perhaps in your father’s archives? We’ll be interested in the original color scheme as we go about restoring it to its previous beauty.
I will look for photos, but my father’s collection of slides numbers in the many thousands and is only moderately well organized. Remembering back all these intervening years, I seem to recollect that he used some brightly colored panels in parts of the exterior as well as interior. Could a large fabric awning above the west-facing window have been bright yellow? Did Dad use a Mondrian-inspired scheme? Or wait, was it in a pastel palette? I am curious about this aspect of the house. I am sure that you are eager to begin your restoration work, but I am swamped with my own work now and ask that you give me some weeks to look for period photos.
Thank you so much for looking — and please take your time! We certainly won’t be doing any major restorations until the spring or summer at the earliest. (Are your father’s slides not part of his archives now at UIUC?)
Glen, congrats on your new home. We’re currently restoring a Replinger house in Champaign. I was looking to get in contact with other Champaign-Urbana Replinger home owners as we are new to the area (moved here 2017). Our home has many blueprints that were donated to the UIUC Rare Books and Manuscript Library and it’s worth checking out to see if they have information about your home. Another idea was to develop a Facebook group to use it as a resource for questions about maintenance and restoration of Replinger-designed homes: https://www.facebook.com/groups/183358093034145/about/
Michael — wonderful! Thanks for the advice (which we’ll definitely need). We (that is, my wife Marina) just submitted the request to join your FB group, and we look forward to keeping in touch there.
Dear Replinger family – I was a student in the architecture program at the University between 1971 and 1977. I had the privilege (though I didn’t appreciate it then) of taking one of Professor Replinger’s studio courses. He was a brilliant teacher, calm and quiet, but he had a presence in the studio unlike any other teacher I have experienced. I remember him showing us one of this construction drawing sets. An entire house crammed onto, I think, four sheets of mylar. He was very proud of this efficiency. A great teacher and a great architect.
Hi, Mark, Thanks for your kind words about being in Dad’s studio class. One o’clock to five every day, wasn’t it? He showed off his construction drawings, huh? Do you have other stories of his teaching methods or of projects that you worked on? I will forward your remarks to my brothers, one of whom is himself an architect. Did you work (are you working) in a design field?