Mid Century Magic

“It was great to work from the plans of someone who was a part of the history of architecture,” says Drapszo.

The mostly transparent street elevation gives a glimpse into the home, while the fireplace feature wall provides privacy to the rear spaces. The structural grid is expressed at the exterior with black cladding wrapped onto the steel frame between the wall panels. A continuous band of clerestory windows wraps the entire home and gives the roof a floating feel.

Streetview

In the 1940s, Edgar J. Kaufmann, a Pittsburgh department store giant and the same Kaufmann who commissioned Frank Lloyd Wright to build his Falling Water home in Pennsylvania, asked architect Richard Neutra to built a vacation home for his family in Palm Springs. The resulting home is now one of Neutra’s best-known works.

Architect Paul Hinkin and his partner, Chrissy Pearce, bought and restored a 538-square-foot Deckhouse at Emsworth Yacht Harbour in Hampshire, England.

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.

Built with a steel frame, the Frost House features panels of styrofoam between aluminum sheets for the exterior walls and styrofoam between plywood for the roof and floors. Bold, primary colors accentuate its geometric form.

For Urbanism Design's first project, interior designer Pamela Lin-Tam made the atrium the centerpiece of this Eichler. Here, the living area enticingly faces the swimming pool.

In 1962, Skidmore, Owings & Merrill architect Arthur Witthoefft won the AIA's highest honor for a home he built in the lush woods of Westchester County. Having fended off a developer's wrecking ball, Todd Goddard and Andrew Mandolene went above and beyond to make this manse mint again.

Glee star Jayma Mays and actor Adam Campbell in the living room of their Los Angeles home.

Crestwood Hills, in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, is an endangered enclave of midcentury post-and-beam houses designed by A. Quincy Jones and Whitney R. Smith.

The horizontal layout of the home allows for easy movement throughout the interior, while the line of the continuous roof seems to extend into the trees. Enlarging the opening of the home allowed for impressive views of the river and surrounding area.