New interior finishes, furniture, and a guesthouse were part of the restoration/renovation of John Lautner's Chemosphere, a 1960s house that makes frequent cameos in film and television.

Most of the home’s furniture was purchased at Restoration Hardware, Circa Modern, or antique shops. “We both love the midcentury designs that we grew up with,” Bronee says. “We wanted furniture that was authentic to us and our personal styles while also fitting into a Catskills hideaway barn.”

The structure was stripped down to the original wood surface, including the diagonal paneling that has previously always been covered with white fabric, revealing a trace of the building’s structural integrity and construction process. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

The finished effect is like being inside of an instrument, where light is allowed to play off of the varying ages of wood. The pavilion has an entirely new life, yet remains honest to Aalto’s original construction. Photo by Patricia Parinejad.

Here's the Giardini tree that fell on top of the pavilion in 2011. Photo by Ross Hamilton.

All of the panels that make up the enclosure were removed and painstakingly repaired. At the conclusion of the restoration project, the panels were made from a combination of the original wood from 1956 and new wood from 2012. Together, the materials create a beautiful new texture that reveals the processes of both the original building and its reinvented self. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

Originally prefabricated in Finland and shipped for assembly to the Giardini—the gardens where the Biennale takes place—the lightweight wood-frame-and-panel structure was a built to capture light from above and bounce it indirectly onto the interior walls. Aalto designed the structure to be dismantled, stored, and reassembled as needed between exhibitions, or on other sites. According to the story, several of the parts were missing upon arrival and therefore the panels were fixed in place during its initial construction. As Aalto’s only building in Italy, this ephemeral structure became permanent and was regarded as a national treasure.

The floor of the building was polished to reveal the natural aggregate of the concrete. To indicate the line where fabric previously covered the natural wood paneling, Talamini used a light whitewash to ever so slightly change the color of the wood. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

Architect Gianni Talamini (in blue) with curator Juulia Kauste and exhibition designer Esa Vesmanen stand in front of the restored pavilion. As high-modern structures begin to age, architects around the world are now confronted with how to restore them. Fitting with the theme of this Biennale, preservation challenges encompass another “common ground” in the built environment. This project provides a model for how to retain the spirit of original structures while restoring their performance as a building. Photo by Patricia Parinejad.

This view of ceiling reveals the varying wood textures. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

Talamini paid attention to the subtlest details. The panels were sanded by hand, the roof structure was stripped of its paint, and the plywood roof panels were sandblasted, leaving the entire interior stripped bare of finish, revealing the natural raw wood. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

The exterior wall panels were carefully separated from the primary structure. Photo by Gianni Talamini.

The ten-week-long renovation wrapped up just before the Biennale’s opening on August 29. Aalto’s hand is still very much present in the restored building. Photo by Patricia Parinejad.

Pacific Grove Dune Restoration by John Wandke.

Pacific Grove Dune Restoration by John Wandke.

A Desiron sofa and a chaise longue from Restoration Hardware furnish the living room.

The Eames House restoration involved replacing deteriorated materials and adding a museum-quality climate control system. The timing coincided with an exhibition at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in which the entire contents of the living room were on view. The historically sensitive restoration and museum exhibition has received considerable media attention, including a lengthy New York Times interview with Ice Cube.

BDDW's Captain's mirror hangs above a Restoration Hardware console. Like the brick walls, the wood column is original to the structure. 590BC kept the surfaces white for a variety of reasons. "It allowed for the richness of the space's natural materials stand out," Breitner says. "The wide-plank oak flooring, exposed brick and metal, and even the view to the SoHo streetscape outside all pop against the white background of the walls. It also allowed the clients to bring in all kinds of artwork and play with color and texture." Photo by Frank Oudeman.

The garage, post-restoration. Photo courtesy of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund.

The floors are gray-stained white oak, and the dining room table is from Restoration Hardware.

BoConcept couches anchor a Restoration Hardware coffee table and a Crate and Barrel carpet in the living area. The gray pouf is by CB2, and the artwork is by Senechal.

Last year, Tahquitz Plaza, a business complex Kaptur designed in the 1970s, underwent a restoration, which he helped oversee.

This room can be a family room, office, or guest suite. The flooring is the same throughout: Riva Floors, Engineered Wood Select Grade, in Crystal Thunder, and the couch is from Restoration Hardware. Unseen is the foosball and ping pong tables.

The design pairs durable steel construction on the outside with warmer timber frames on the interior. At the center of the expansive glass wall stands a two-sided fireplace that can heat the deck outside and living room within. Seen here are a Restoration Hardware Brickmaker’s coffee table and sofas from Lee Industries.

In the primary bathroom, Harlow sconces from Schoolhouse Electric hang above a double vanity from Restoration Hardware. The green subway tiles are from Nemo.

The 1908 greenhouse from the Lyndsay Mansion has been repurposed into a dining pavilion. During the restoration, it was revealed that Soriano had perfectly arranged the home to line up with the original greenhouse.

Dining Room: Nothing changes the feel of a room like new lighting. Where other chandeliers can be complicated and heavy, the Hope Chandelier designed by Francisco Gomez Paz and Paolo Rizzatto for Luceplan provides a more optimistic installation.

Tom Givone's current weekend abode, nicknamed the Floating Farmhouse, is—so far—his capstone project, a synthesis of personal taste, material experimentation, and historically sensitive restoration: a living laboratory for how to bring the vernacular past into the present.

Steven King Decorative Carpets supplied the rug in the master bedroom, which runs up against the Sign Chair by MDF Italia at the window. Restoration Hardware and Coyuchi linens cover the custom-made bed designed by Ruhl Walker Architects.

Perched below the Griffith Observatory and overlooking Hollywood is a lush lot crowned with four towering olive trees and a 1965 home designed by modernist architect Craig Ellwood. When a young couple purchased the home in 2018, it needed substantial work. For a historic restoration, they called on Woods + Dangaran, a local firm fluent in modernist history. The team completed a meticulous restoration of the home while keeping original components like the linear shape, open plan, and expansive windows. One of the most striking features is the original koi pond (a feature deemed so essential that its preservation was a condition of escrow) that is now crossed via a bridge that leads to a new lap pool—perhaps the biggest intervention on the property.

214 Beach Hill Walk by Don Page (1962). Restored by Rawlins Design in 2013, by principal Chris Rawlins, who will be leading the modernism tours.

The Blue Dot sofa is from Restoration Hardware.

For participants in the Concorso, the hundreds of hours of painstaking restoration, preparation and transport, culminate in a few minutes of judgement.

A Maxwell sofa from Restoration Hardware is the best seat in the house to watch the amazing sunsets.

"We hope that in time the house will make the client's lifestyle better by providing spaces that can change as they progress in life, much like how an outdoor space constantly changes with the environment," say the architects.