Bruce Goff’s Mid-West School of Organic Architecture in Oklahoma embraced wildly inventive and idiosyncratic architecture. Where Frank Lloyd Wright’s Organic Architecture was disciplined, Goff’s was more experimental and whimsical. Young aeronautical engineering student Mickey Muennig transferred to the University of Oklahoma to study architecture under Goff. Working with geometries drawn from natural and experimental forms, Muennig became one of the few heirs to Goff's personal vision of Organic Architecture.
In 1971, Muennig made a life-altering decision to take a course on Gestalt Therapy in Big Sur. Shaped by Goff’s philosophy and his own openness to new ideas, Muennig resonated perfectly with Big Sur's culture. Long before ‘Green Building’ became a movement, he believed in building with the land. His structures followed the earth's contours, preserving natural grades and using innovative materials in sympathy with Big Sur's natural beauty.
Muennig became Big Sur's coveted architect, embracing the curves and organic forms of the region's mountains and coastlines. Using cast-in-place concrete, redwood, Cor-Ten and sod roofs, he redefined the meaning of Organic Architecture on the Big Sur coast.
Colin Flavin, AIA, is the Founding Principal of Flavin Architects. He directs the design of the firm’s residential projects and has cultivated the firm’s unique design approach of Natural Modernism. Colin presented at Modernism Week on Big Sur Modern Architecture (2026), Six Moon Hill and Twin Palms (2025), Restoring Midcentury Modern Homes (2023), and East Coast vs West Coast Modernist House Design (2022).
Halsey Smith is the Marketing + Communications Manager of Flavin Architects and interim President of the New England chapter of Docomomo. She writes and creates content for all of Flavin Architects’ online platforms and is a contributing co-writer for Houzz. Halsey presented at Modernism Week on Big Sur Modern Architecture (2026), and Six Moon Hill and Twin Palms, two Early Midcentury Modern communities on the East and West Coasts (2025).
flavinarchitects.com @flavinarchitects
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