Classic

Verdugo Mountains Open Space Preserve, affording the home complete privacy, as well as the enjoyment of local wildlife and the natural landscape.

Steel beams form a continuous skeleton across the width of the home, extending out to form an overhang and covering a deck off of the kitchen. The great room is an open space running from the main entrance to the kitchen.

In the living room, Boomerang chairs by Peter Hvidt and Orla Mølgaard-Nielsen face a coffee table by Nicos Zographos. Custom pieces in the style of modular furniture pioneer Harvey Probber include sofas by Ablyss and a corner table by Crockett Woodworks. The Stiffel table lamp was purchased new by Scott’s parents in the early ’60s. The vintage artworks are from the David Cook Galleries in Denver.

A closer look at the living room, which features an original floating steel fireplace and wood paneling. The opposite wall features a series of folding shutters that open the space up to the backyard pool.

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

Built in 1937, Taliesin West was an experiment in desert living that evolved at the hands of master architect Frank Lloyd Wright and his apprentices until he passed in 1959. Conceptualized as a refuge from the harsh winters of the Midwest, the complex—which grew to include a drafting studio, dining facilities, three theaters, a workshop, Wright’s office and private living quarters, and apprentice and staff residences—takes direct inspiration from the arid landscape.

Bright and airy, the main living areas rest under the dynamic A-frame roof, which is gracefully split open by expansive clerestory windows. Stacked red brick intersect with exposed beams.

The three Left-Twist Cube's are by Frank Gehry.

An original brick fireplace divides the living and dining room from the kitchen. Contrasting with an otherwise neutral color palette, pops of blue and yellow add flair to the built-in bookcase.

For more than 70 years, claims have persisted, without much evidence, that a home in Portland, Oregon, is a lost work by Frank Lloyd Wright. Regardless of authorship, the structure—a flat-roofed, cedar and glass ranch—endures as a sterling example of postwar American architecture. Its recessed entryway features panes of translucent glass.

The essence of this 1950s kitchen was recreated with modern-day appliances and additional counter space.

When Rob and Mary Lubera started pulling threads to uncover the origins of their new home—the lone midcentury house amid rows of Tudor Revivals in suburban Detroit—not even architecture scholars could have anticipated what they would find. Theirs is the last surviving residence by Alexander Girard (1907–1993), a modernist visionary who made his name in textiles but tried his hand at virtually everything, architecture included. The shoji-like laminate screens, seen in the entryway, are characteristic of his Japanese-influenced work.

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.

The couple purchased the living room’s H.W. Klein chairs with the house. Another existing piece was the mezzanine’s daybed, designed by Peter Hvidt and Orlando Mølgaard Nielsen. An original floating staircase leads to the mezzanine and then up to the second floor. The open, straight-forward spaces speak to one of Christian’s guiding principles: “Simplicity is the key,” he says.