Rediscovering N.J. architect Malcolm Wells, green building pioneer and mid-century modern master

Often described as ahead of his time, the South Jersey architect Malcolm Wells began to champion environmentally sensitive building design in the mid-1960s, when green was still just a color. His images of roofs verdant with vegetation struck some as absurd.

But a flurry of fresh interest in Wells, who died at 83 in 2009, suggests time is catching up with his visionary ideas for a “gentle” architecture of “earth-sheltered” houses and partially underground commercial buildings — such as a subterranean shopping center he imagined for Route 38 in Cherry Hill.

Or the below-ground-level Cherry Hill office he built for his architectural practice in 1972.

Photographs, illustrations, and memorabilia from Wells’ pathbreaking career can be seen at the Historical Society of Moorestown, where Malcolm Wells: One Man’s Crusade to Save the Environment through Architecture opened Sept. 29 and continues through May 14.

In July, a restoration project at the headquarters Wells designed for the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, N.Y., was showcased in an architectural publication.

And the current Emerging Ecologies show at the Museum of Modern Art in Manhattan includes drawings and images Wells made to illustrate “No Where To Go But Down,” a controversial essay that set out Wells’ new underground philosophy in the February 1965 issue of Progressive Architecture magazine.

“The MoMA exhibition is about how architecture responded to the rise of the environmental movement in the 1960s and ‘70s,” said Matthew Wagstaffe, a research assistant with the museum’s Emilio Ambasz Institute.

“Wells was a major voice, a forward-thinking voice. We’re happy to spotlight him,” Wagstaffe said. “And if there is a rediscovery of him, we’re happy to be aiding in that.”

The Moorestown exhibit showcases some of the 40 structures Wells built — many of which remain South Jersey landmarks — as well as drawings of those he imagined, or described in his elegant, calligraphic handwriting. There’s even an exterior tile from the RCA Pavilion he designed for the 1964-1965 New York World’s Fair, the project whose demolition led Wells to pivot toward more sustainable architecture.

And there’s a flag Wells designed for National Underground America Day, an observance he founded in 1974. It will be celebrated on May 14 next year.

During a tour at the historical society, exhibit curator Linda Vizi pointed to a 1953 photo of the Collingswood Church of Christ, which was his first commission.

“The story goes that ‘Mac’ was getting a haircut and got into a conversation with a man who turned out to be the church pastor,” she said. “By the end of the conversation, the pastor said, ‘I want you to design my new church.’ And the design went on to win an AIA [American Institute of Architects] award!”

Vizi and society president Lenny Wagner, along with other volunteers, collected anecdotes, images, and ephemera related to the Camden-born, Haddonfield-raised Wells.

Wells’ son, Sam, an architect in Massachusetts, and the archives at the Weitzman School of Design at the University of Pennsylvania also were a resource for the show.

“Both of my parents grew up in South Jersey, and they saw it being plowed under for development,” said Sam Wells, the youngest child of Wells and his first wife, Shirley Holmes.

Wells served in the Marine Corps after graduating from Haddonfield High School and studied engineering at what is now Drexel University. He was deeply influenced by the work of Frank Lloyd Wright.

Wells grew a beard and rode a bicycle to work long before such things were common. His wry wit was evident in his dozen books, many of them self-published, with titles such as How To Build an Underground House and Sand-tiquity — Architectural Models You Can Build at the Beach.

His other subjects included the asphalt parking lot assault on the American landscape, building birdhouses, and baseball.

In the first phase of his 40-year career, Wells designed buildings for RCA. But the mid-century modern houses Wells built in Cherry Hill’s upscale Hunt Tract and in Moorestown made him a celebrity.

“I see myself as the steward of this house,” said Martha Wright, who bought Wells’ Munn Lane home in 2006, “when it was being sold as a teardown — but with a Viking range.”

Last year she allowed scenes from an independent short film, Sugar, to be shot there. She also lent materials to the Moorestown exhibit.

“Anything that helps keep Malcolm Wells’ legacy alive, I heartily support,” Wright said.

Although he described himself as an atheist, Wells designed dramatic houses of worship, such as Moorestown’s First Methodist Church. He also built car dealerships; his Ford showroom in Riverside, Burlington County, had a three-dimensional street scene.

“Mac was an artist, and a friend,” said Paul Canton Sr., then owner of the dealership. Wells also designed the Canton family home in Moorestown and their Shore house in Marmora.

“He could go to a site, look at it, and draw a beautiful picture of a house that you had to love,” said Canton, who is 100 years old.

Wells gave Dave Deppen his first job in the early 1970s.

“I was the luckiest young architect in the world,” Deppen said from San Rafael, Calif., where he maintains an architectural practice.

“Mac was a very ethical, humane person. He was also very shy,” he said. “But he felt so strongly about his ideas that he became an engaging lecturer about environmentally friendly buildings.”

Some Wells buildings have been modernized, or expanded. The libraries Wells designed in Cherry Hill and in Moorestown, where he also did the municipal building, were “loved as well as hated,” said Vizi.

All three have been demolished.

“It’s been a fight to try and save Mac’s work,” said Dan Nichols, an architect and a member of the Cherry Hill Historical Commission.

“In Cherry Hill and a lot of New Jersey, the recent past is bulldozed before it can become the past,” Nichols said. “But we’ve had successes, along with some losses, of Mac’s buildings.”

Nichols credits Wells with teaching him to be “an architect with a conscience” and said the Moorestown exhibit captures the strength of Wells’ commitments.

“For some practitioners, sustainable means a lot of window dressing,” he said.

“For Wells it was a really holistic movement that was not just about making buildings sustainable, but thinking about how you heal the land after you build.”