Former resident, visionary architect
Alan Peter Dodge, a widely known architect, died Oct. 7, 2017, at his home in South Wellfleet, surrounded by friends and family. He was 88 years old.
Alan was born in Middleborough to Gladys and Herbert Dodge. His curious mind took him all over the country and the world. As a young man he studied engineering and architecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and then attended the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD). He served in the Korean War and worked for Lockheed Martin in Southern California.
“I am fascinated with geometry,” he told the RISD alumni magazine for a 2003 profile, “but when I got to RISD, I realized that I really wanted to become a painter.” One of his professors was the artist Gordon Pierce. “Pierce looked at my work one day and said, ‘That’s the most constipated painting I’ve ever seen,’” Alan said. “He taught me to really look at things.”
His pursuit of painting led him to Cape Cod and eventually to a career in architecture. During his studies at RISD in the 1950s Alan got involved in the art scene in Provincetown. Under the protective wing of Sunny Tasha, Alan joined his friend Hazel Werner and a community of writers, painters, and poets in building the only ferro-cement dune shack in the Province Lands. During this period, Alan met Charlie Zehnder, another visionary architect, and they worked together on numerous buildings. Three are listed in the inventory of the Cape Cod Modern House Trust: the Wurtman house on Creek Round Hill Road in Provincetown and the Rheault compound on Chequessett Neck Road and the Franklin house on Lieutenant Island Road, both in Wellfleet.
Alan’s houses reflect his passion for geometry. “We started with two horizontal lines and played a game of solids and voids between them,” he told the RISD alumni magazine. “We all wanted to emulate Mies van der Rohe.”
In the 1960s Alan married Catherine Williams. They traveled through Mexico, and settled for a time in Harvard while Alan worked for a large architecture firm in Boston.
In the ’70s, Alan and Catherine started Carapod, a company named for the basic unit of Alan’s prefabricated panelized building system, which could be grouped to form any number of architectural forms. Three Carapod buildings in Wellfleet and Truro were built from parts made in a barn in Harvard and trucked to the Cape. The first was Seapod, Alan and Catherine’s home since 1974, which remains in the family.
“He was obsessed with creating space, whether actual physical space or intellectual, spiritual, or creative space,” said Owen Dodge, Alan’s son. “His practice provided a space for people and ideas to come together to be realized—or at least pondered for a time.”
In his 70s, Alan took up a new project in his hometown of Middleborough, designing houses he called “environmentally conscious.”
“When I was 20 years old I couldn’t wait to get out of that little town,” he said at the time. “It’s ironic, but coming back here is giving me a chance to do some things I can no longer do on the Cape, where so many people want trophy homes.”
For the past 20 years Alan shared his life with Pat White, an astrologer, who died in 2016. They traveled extensively and explored a variety of esoteric subjects including the noetic sciences.
Alan is survived by his son, Owen; his former wife, Catherine Williams; his sister, Pat Pineo; his nephews, Michael, Mark, and Bob Pineo; and a niece, Anne.
A celebration of his life will be held in the spring. For details, write to Owen at owen@vermontel.net.
Editors note: The original version of this obituary appeared in the Provincetown Banner.
