Cohen-Fumero House
(ca. 1961)
The home of well-known artists Herb Cohen and José Fumero was created by renowned Modernist architect and Charlottean Murray Whisnant.
1154 Cedarwood Ln, Charlotte, NC 28212
The Cohen-Fumero House is an important early example of the Modernist work of native Charlottean Murray Whisnant (b. 1932), a prolific architect, designer, inventor, and furniture designer profoundly influenced in the 1950s by the seminal work of the faculty of North Carolina State University’s School of Design. Whisnant returned to his hometown following graduation from NCSU to work for three local architectural firms before partnering with Charles Wheatley in 1960 and later establishing his own firm in 1978. A career that included such notable buildings as Carmel Presbyterian Church, UNC-Charlotte’s Rowe Arts Building, and UNC-Chapel Hill Law School’s Van Hecke-Wettach Building garnered for Whisnant such accolades as the prestigious Kamphoefner Prize for career excellence in the Modern Movement of architecture, election as a Fellow of the American Institute of Architects, and recognition by Town and Country magazine as one of the top fifty architects in America.
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Whisnant designed the Cohen-Fumero House for Herb Cohen (b. 1931) and José Fumero (1924-2016), both of whom moved to Charlotte in the 1950s. Cohen, a potter with a Master of Fine Arts from Alfred University, moved from New York City to work in Hickory, North Carolina, before moving to Charlotte in 1958 to become the Exhibitions Director of the Mint Museum of Art. He helped revitalize the well-established institution into a major player in the South’s burgeoning arts movement. Cohen organized numerous competitive shows at the Mint Museum, attracting national and international artists to Charlotte and significantly raising the city’s profile in the art world. Fumero, a native of Cuba, moved to New York City with his family as a young child. Upon graduation from Cooper Union School of Art, he worked for Collins & Aikman designing car and airplane fabrics and moved for his job to North Carolina. Fumero also painted and worked as a fiber artist. As a couple, Cohen and Fumero quickly became immersed in a small but vibrant arts community in Charlotte that included both visual and performing artists, writers, and designers. Among that creative crowd was architect Murray Whisnant.
When hiring Whisnant to design their home, Cohen and Fumero gave him creative control, telling him only that they wanted the design “as far out as possible.” Whisnant delivered a simple house without extraneous decoration, a serene place suitable for entertaining that would also serve as an appropriate background for their art. His concept included a central core that contained all of the “operational” elements of the house, such as the kitchen, bathrooms, and air conditioning components. The contractor for the Cohen-Fumero House was Gus Vinroot, father of Charlotte mayor Richard Vinroot. Cohen and Fumero moved into their new home in the summer of 1961. The house quickly became a hub of the social life of Charlotte’s artistic community, attracting members of the Charlotte Opera Association, the Mint Museum Drama Guild, and musicians such as Loonis McGlohon. Other notable visitors included sculptors Arnolde Pomadoro, Richard Lippold, Kate Millett, and Fumio Yoshimura, woodturner Ed Moulthrop, clay artist Cynthia Bringle, fiber artists Jon Eric Riis and Dorothy Wright Liebes, painter Phillip Moose, and author Jan Karon.