50 Best Midcentury Home Renovations That Honor Their Roots
Midcentury homes—built with simple materials and designed around open, flexible spaces with a strong connection to the outdoors—are highly sought after, but often need repairs and modern updates. To point, we’ve rounded up 50 best midcentury renovations that demonstrate how these treasured homes can be adapted for today. Whether you’re searching for inspiration for your own midcentury remodel or simply a midcentury enthusiast, this guide is sure to spark some ideas.
An Austin Midcentury Welcomes a Discreet Home Office Addition
Located in the suburbs of Reykjavík, this midcentury gem was first designed in the 1960s by Guðmundur Kr. Kristinsson, one of the first postwar architects in Iceland. However, after being sold, the new homeowners determined the property was in need of a thoughtful revamp in order to be a suitable modern home for their growing family.
Josh and Moeka Lowman of San Francisco branding firm Goldfront reached out to Michael Hennessey Architecture to renovate the interior of their two-story, single-family residence in Diamond Heights, which was built by Eichler in 1965. Michael Hennessey explains, "We struck a balance between the positive, inherent qualities of an Eichler structure with modern improvements that enhance rather than compete with the existing building."
When architect Nick Martin was hired to rework an art curator’s Hamptons property into a Zen-like getaway from the big city, he took an appropriately holistic view. It’s the beach house that’s got it all: green technology; passive solar design; rich materials; an expansive feeling, despite a petite half-acre corner lot; and a design concept that references its humble beginnings as an off-the-rack kit house.
Villa Engels, the home of the esteemed Belgian modernist Lucien Engels (1928–2016), was falling apart when its second owners bought it in 2013. Yet due to its heritage status, any changes they planned would have to be approved by the provincial preservation office. Engels completed the elongated, cantilevered residence in 1958, the same year he finalized the master plan for Expo ’58, the Brussels World’s Fair that famously featured the Atomium.
Once immortalized by master architectural photographer Julius Shulman and currently being considered as a historic landmark in Los Angeles County, this four-bedroom, two-bath residence was built in 1954 by builder and craftsman Ken McLeod to be his personal home, and in 1964 architect Rufus Turner restored the rear after a fire damaged the living room.
In the mid-'50s, modern residential architecture was suspect in the Eastern San Gabriel Valley. The Roberts family requested a ranch house, but Richard Neutra steered his clients towards his vision. Mrs. Roberts wanted a low plaster ceiling throughout the home, which Neutra refused, choosing tongue-and-groove Douglas fir boards instead. He compromised with a plaster ceiling in the living room, pictured above.
As most of the original interior had been gutted and remodeled by previous owners, the surviving design elements were just the bones, including the floor plan, facade, and most of the original framework. The owner used these structural components to heighten the indoor/outdoor quality, while also replacing frosted glass with clear, double-paned glass.
Originally designed in 1957 by SOM partner Roy O. Allen, this four-bedroom, three-bathroom house in Briarcliff Manor has been meticulously restored, while many of its original midcentury design details have been preserved and even emphasized. In fact, much of the design is reminiscent of the work of midcentury luminaries like Ludwig Mies van Der Rohe and Philip Johnson.
The challenge of renovating an iconic midcentury house is surely a daunting one for any architect, but apply this formula to a Richard Neutra house, and the responsibility rises exponentially. This was the situation for Los Angeles–based architect Peter Grueneisen, founder and principal of Los Angeles–based Nonzero Architecture, who inherited the task of taking on significant updates to an already-altered Neutra—the 1949 Freedman House in Pacific Palisades, California.
This New York City home is studded with pieces by such famous names as Knoll, Saarinen, and Risom. Deployed throughout the loft, these modern icons at once unify and separate work and life. Like the architecture, they can be read two ways: as recognizably typical office furniture or as prized home-design collectibles.
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