Favorites

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. Shortly after Karen Valentine and Bob Coscarelli purchased the home in 2016, they began to unearth nuggets of information about its pedigree. Their realtor had provided a brochure that identified the prefab as designed by architect Emil Tessin for the now-defunct Alside Homes Corporation based out of Akron, Ohio, which had held a patent for the structure’s aluminum paneling. Their new neighbors provided a stack of Alside Homes sales materials, floor plans of various models, and even a script that had been written for salespeople during home tours. They determined that the Frost House had been a sales model for the company, and that Tessin had been the son of Emil Albert Tessin, the legal guardian of Florence Knoll.

MoreDesign took this 19th-century structure down to the studs and rebuilt it with reclaimed stone, lime mortar, and locally made fixtures.

The box, lacquered in a deep green, works with warm golds and violets and brown tones found elsewhere in the apartment to play off the cool concrete ceiling and wall. Contrasting materials and colors and carefully crafted details make a home that is at once cool and cozy.

There are more than 1,200 window panes in the Kellogg Doolittle House. Each week, Vugrin drove to a local glass shop to pick up finished panes and drop off more patterns—and $5,000 in cash. Only the Doolittles know the total cost of the house; new owner Scott Leonard almost certainly paid millions for it.

The living room features a well-loved staple of mid-century design: a conversation pit.

Four of the bedrooms are in the main house, three in the guest house, and one in the caretaker's studio.

“That swoop was my least favorite thing about the house,” admits Fred. “I was looking forward to an angular, Craftsman-type thing. But I said, I’m going to trust Kristin.”

This pristine 1966 home opens to its wooded site with a series of patios, balconies, and outdoor entertaining areas.

“We’re always throwing events,” says Paul, so the indoor/outdoor style was a great fit for them.