5280mod

For Sale: Aaron Green Designed Home in Hilltop

While Realtors frequently and inaccurately tout their listings as “Frank Lloyd Wright inspired”…this home is probably the closest to a Frank Lloyd Wright designed residence you will find in Denver. Unfortunately, it is also another example of what NOT to do to a mid-century modern classic.

The architect, Aaron Green, was an apprentice in the Taliesin Fellowship and continued working with Wright as his West Coast Representative, participating in over 40 projects until Wright’s death in 1959.

Green designed this long, low brick home in Hilltop in 1955. The “L” shape is oriented to the South with walls of glass to let in light and frame what must have been amazing mountain views. The wide eaves were originally designed to allow the winter sun in for passive solar heating, but protect the house from the summer sun. Now there is a large aviary attached to the home and occupying most of the courtyard…blocking the light and obscuring the artful original roofline.

(click photo above for slideshow)

Brick walls and floors  flow from interior to exterior…minimally interrupted by glass.  Sadly, the leaded glass in the bedroom windows were replaced with beige vinyl windows. Portions of the masonry have been covered in a thick layer of dark purple paint and the mahogany doors covered in various laminates.

As with many historic modern homes, this home is need of a remuddle undo. The good news is much of the original materials are still in place and I believe the original blueprints are available. As many historic mid-century modern homes have been lost in the Hilltop neighborhood, the more valuable a restored gem like this one could become.

 3bd/3ba/ 4400+ sq. ft.

Asking Price: $799,000

Listing Brokerage: Cygnus Real Estate

 

Here’s another slideshow I found on YouTube made when the home was still occupied.

Please contact me if you have an interest in this home, or are looking for an historic modern home in the Denver/Boulder area. 

shannon@5280mod.com

720.279.4884

Tags: Aaron Green, architect, architecture, Denver, Frank Lloyd Wright, Hilltop, mid-century, usonian

Cool Find: The Sorensen House

SORRY…the new owners have asked me to take down my interior pics. I convinced the family of the original owner not to “update” the house. Happily the new owners let me know they’ve been in contact with Jim Ream and ” are in the process of restoring the home back to its original grandeur.” PHEW!

Some of my favorite MCM homes were created in the 60’s. The Sorensen House is a great example of 1960’s mid-century modern architecture.

It recently came on the market…for the first time ever…and was under contract in less than 3 days. This one owner home in Applewood (Wheat Ridge) was in virtually original condition. I didn’t expect the home to be for sale long, so I did my best to capture what I could in pictures and video. I apologize for the amateur quality rush job.

The house was designed by Architect James Ream with the help of George Hoover. While Ream only practiced in Denver from 1959 to 1965, he left us with some outstanding residential and commercial buildings. Ream and Hoover both trained/worked with William Muchow…notably Ream as lead designer for the now lost Currigan Hall and Hoover as lead designer for the Denver Center for Performing Arts.

There is a deck at each corner of the house. By using strategically placed benches and planters, the architect was able to avoid railings. The windows were measured to the owner’s eyeline providing views, light and privacy negating the need for drapes or blinds. This was one of the earliest homes built on the plateau, it had amazing 360 degree views.

While globe lights are common, I have never seen them incorporated with the skylights and other ceiling recesses as they are here. The sliding glass doors are designed to disappear inside the wall when opened.

You may be surprised to know that this 4 bd/3.5 ba home with in ground pool sold for a mere $395K.

Tags: 60's, Applewood, architect, George Hoover, homes for sale, James Ream, midcentury modern, retro bathroom, Wheat Ridge

Architect Profiles: Richard Crowther (1910-2007)

The late Richard Crowther was a pioneer in green development, passive solar design, and energy efficiency. He gave lectures on solar energy at universities nationwide and wrote some of the most important books on the subject, including the famous Sun, Earth: Alternative Energy Design for Architecture in 1983.

Richard Crowther started as an Art Deco neon-light designer for a firm in San Diego, where he was commissioned to help design the spires of San Francisco’s Golden Gate International Exposition.

In 1948, Crowther moved to Denver. Working for Lakeside Amusement Park owner Ben Krasner, Crowther gave the park an Art Deco neon-light makeover which we all know and enjoy to this day. Here are some incredible examples of that design effort:

In the 1950s, Richard Crowther built homes in the Country Club , Hilltop and Cherry Creek North neighborhoods. At Historic Denver’s recent Modernism Tour , participants were allowed inside Crowther’s 1956 Neufeld House. While the interior of the house is now contemporary modern, painstaking restoration effort was undertaken on the exterior to remove paint from Crowther’s original 1956 ribbed terra cotta tiles revealing their original “burnt orange” color. (Original & current interior pics below)

In the 1960s, Crowther designed 3 masterful film theaters, the famous Cooper Cineramas. These were the first specially designed theaters to screen films with the incredible widescreen Cinerama process, which required three synchronized film projectors projecting crisscross onto a deeply curved screen. After the demise of this elaborate process, all three theaters were unfortunately demolished. These theaters were also clad in “burnt orange”.

The Cooper Theatre here in Denver on S. Colorado Blvd was the first to be constructed, followed by a sister Cooper Theatre in St. Louis Park, MN. Finally, Crowther’s crowning achievement in theater design was the Indian Hills Theater in Omaha, Nebraska, which sported a 105 foot screen! When they demolished the Indian Hills Theater, celebrity protestors included Charlton Heston, Janet Leigh, Ray Bradbury and Leonard Maltin.

Cherry Creek residents may be familiar with some of Richard Crowther’s unique office buildings, around Third & Steele St.

This was once Crowther’s office.

Here you can see the solar functionality of the unusual geometric shapes jutting out of his structures.

Happily, two fantastic Crowther houses in Cherry Creek have so far evaded the raze craze. They can be found at 500 Cook Street (hard to get a picture of due to bountiful streetside landscaping) and the Crowther House and Studio at 401 Madison St., which is a masterpiece. It has been compared to Charles Deaton’s Sculptured House of Genesee by esteemed art and architecture critic Michael Paglia.

Richard Crowther died at 96, but he continued to swim 100 laps a day in the indoor solar-heated pool (which was designed to help warm his house) until he was 94 years old!

Tags: 50's, 60's, architect, architecture, art deco, Cherry Creek, Historic Denver, historic modern, Lakeside, mid-century, modernism, preservation, restoration