Iconic Modernist Residences

Early on, the house's simplicity had great appeal to Jan Sasseen, the current owner. From walls to rugs to furniture, "pretty much everything is white," she says. "When I was decorating, I picked the most basic things I could find. Nothing had details or frills."

A new owner with a light touch has kept Marcel Breuer's 1959 Hooper House II a marvel of the mid-20th century whose life will extend well into the 21st. Resident Richard North only modified the idyllic, suburban Baltimore retreat with a few contemporary design moves: replacing the roof, putting glass doors on the fireplaces in the children’s playroom and the living room, considering taking down part of a wall to add a pass-through window to the skylighted kitchen (but later thought better of it), adding garage doors to the carport, and converting the adjoining stables to make more garage space.

The Opdahl House, designed by Edward Killingsworth for Richard and Joyce Opdahl, is located on the island of Naples, in Long Beach, California, and the design responds to the constraints imposed by the compact site.Unlike the neighbors, whose homes unflinchingly abut their property lines, Killingsworth set the Opdahl House 42 feet back from the street, dedicating half of the lot to a dramatic entryway that includes a carport, garden, and reflecting pool. The effect is one of entering a private sanctuary.

Residents are allowed a small swath to plant gardens. "A lot of credit is due to the landscape architect," says Barlow, and "Mies's floor-to-ceiling windows make the spaces feel open, while at the same time the canopy of trees makes you feel protected. It's a private, quiet, green oasis within spitting distance of the freeway, and you'd never know it."

Isaacson "borrows the view" of a neighbor's magnolia on the adjacent property by propping open the side door. His own espaliered apple tree makes the most of limited space.