The prospect of retirement doesn’t just signal the end of a career; it offers the chance to recalibrate and re-prioritize in life.
6 Iconic Modernist Residences
July 17, 2013
What's it like to live inside an iconic house-museum? These impeccably-preserved residences highlight the work of six great modernist architects from the 20th century.
The front door of the Los Angeles home Ray Kappe built for his family in 1967—and still lives in today—is tucked under a cantilevered terrace.
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Originally appeared in Ray Kappe-Designed Multilevel House in Los Angeles
Walter Gropius wanted the Hagerty House, his first commission in the United States, to be as close to the sea as possible, so he sited the structure a precarious 20 feet from the shore and let the setting dictate the design. 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."
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Originally appeared in Bauhaus by the Sea
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.
Case Study architect Edward Killingsworth’s masterpiece, the 1957 Opdahl House, fell into ruin, but thanks to a musician with a passion for modernism, it is celebrating its 50th anniversary in mint condition.
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Originally appeared in Opdahl Remastered
Within the minimal shell of Mies van der Rohe’s design for Lafayette Park, the eclecticism and vibrancy of this renovated home is all the more apparent. Resident Toby Barlow says, "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."
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Originally appeared in Mies van der Rohe, Lafayette Park
At age 34, Philip M. Isaacson commissioned architect F. Frederick Bruck to design a home for him and his wife. That was 1959. Five decades later, he still lives in his ideal home—and very little has changed.
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Courtesy of
Copyright: 2009 by Eric Roth
Originally appeared in A Fine Vintage
The front door of the Los Angeles home Ray Kappe built for his family in 1967—and still lives in today—is tucked under a cantilevered terrace.
Photo by João Canziani.
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