Mid-Century Homes

Klopf Architecture updated this Eichler with a radiant floor heating system, re-stained paneling, and a new office/guest room filled with Eichler hallmarks like dark bronze door handles.

This single-family residence in Bloomfield, Michigan, known as the Treehaus, embodies the iconic style of midcentury modernism. Thanks to a thoughtful renovation, this rare dwelling has been restored to its original state of refined elegance.

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.

"A steep or unstable site can make it difficult and costly to seismically retrofit a structure, or stabilize the site,” says Thomas Schaer at SHED Architecture and Design, a Seattle-based firm with extensive experience in adaptive reuse, as well as midcentury remodel. “There also may be land-use code provisions that limit or prevent development on the lot."

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.

Streetview

Built in 1953, the Wiley House is made up of a single glass-and-wood rectangular pavilion that’s perched on top of a rectangular box made of stone and concrete. Johnson chose the six-acre plot of land himself and was particularly fond of the natural slopes of the site, which is surrounded by hickory trees.

Interior design by Design Studio Vriesman