One of CLT’s most unique MCM homes is on the market

“Wow!”

That is a common reaction from people who have been inside this jaw-dropping mid-century modern home in south Charlotte.

It’s hard to imagine that this straight-from-the-movie-set property was, at one time, rundown and in need of considerable renovations, if not a complete teardown. But that’s how it began, say the homeowners. Once purchased, the couple decided to renovate the home and bring out its true potential.

They enlisted the help of a general contractor who specializes in the restoration of modern and mid-century homes. It took a year to complete, and the results are nothing short of spectacular.

Lucky for potential buyers, the couple decided to move to Uptown for a more urban lifestyle. They turned to Rhonda + Mike Gibbons with  Savvy + Co. Real Estate to sell the home and are ready to work with buyers who want the chance to live in one of the Queen City’s most unique homes!

“What I love best about this home is as soon as you walk in the door you feel good,” Mike Gibbons, listing agent of the property, said. “The warm wood, calming simplicity of design, easy transition from room to room and the expansive floor to ceiling windows make you feel as if you are one with nature and more importantly one with the home.”

The yearlong renovation included the addition of a two-car carport and concrete driveway that parks 15 cars, extensive privacy landscaping and a Japanese Zen style garden. Inside, the Hans Krug kitchen includes two large kitchen islands, a wine fridge that stores 120 bottles, hardwood floors, custom-built closets, smart home engineering and the list goes on and on.

With renovations complete, the home stacks some serious star power! It has been featured in local, national and international publications and used for commercial photo shoots.

Additionally, it won a 2015 mention in Kitchen & Bath Business, was highlighted in Atomic Ranch Magazine and named the featured home in the 2015 Mad About Modern Home tour. Not impressed? This house has a nine foot shower — what?

The outside of this 1.2 acre home on a corner lot is equally dreamy. There’s an extra large covered porch with a party pool. Why do you need a party pool? With deepest point at only six feet, guests can gently wade into the water without spilling their drink. Genius! The amenities continue with two waterfall features, a fireplace, fire pit and four maintenance-free grass strips with hardscaping.

“This home will make you smile,” Gibbons said. “Whether you’re a fan of modern architecture, love simple elegant design or just like to feel truly at peace in your surroundings you will love this home.”

Mid-century modern homes are alive and well in Charlotte, and the team at Savvy + Co. Real Estate knows what defines MCM and where to find these gems. Want to see this home and find your WOW? Give them a call.

What to know more about Savvy + Co. Real Estate? Click here for more information. This article was originally posted on www.CharlotteFive.com.

A Modernist Patio for a Traditional Home ---Part I

Guest-blogger Ted Cleary, ASLA, of Studio Cleary Landscape Architecture offers insights into midcentury modern garden design.  Today’s post is the first of his “Case Study Gardens”. 

MCM enthusiasts will be familiar with Arts & Architecture magazine’s legendary design feature known as the “Case Study House Program”.  From its inception near the war’s end in 1945, through 1966, the CSH Program showcased innovative modernist designs, many of them modest, others more grand, meant to address the postwar housing needs of the typical American family. Like the CSH examples, some unbuilt, others still existing, these Case Study gardens strive to offer solutions you can apply to your own outdoor spaces.

If you own a great midcentury modern home, it’s natural to want a landscape design that’s period-appropriate.  But of course, MCM homes make up just a small percentage among a sea of traditional styles across America.  What then if your heart really craves “modern” when your home says “neo-Georgian”? Do you have to accept either the typical suburban-y landscape look, or a more elegant version of it echoing Classical formal gardens?

This is a design dilemma that I think is becoming fairly common among home buyers whose house style doesn’t really represent their tastes as well as they’d like; instead, it was just the only option because a home builder decided it’s what the “market wants”.  I always marvel at how you can’t walk into a high-end furniture store these days without tripping over a Noguchi table or Eames lounge chair, and yet so many homes’ outward appearances seems to pretend it’s occupied either by the colonial governor of Williamsburg or an 18th-century French nobleman.

While I’m inclined to encourage that the architectural style of the building should drive the architectural style of its surrounding landscaping, there may be justifiable exceptions.  Among modernist landscape architects practicing in the ‘40s and ‘50s such as Garrett Eckbo, I’ve been surprised to find that some of their clients’ homes were not your quintessential modernist design.  When I’ve closely studied certain gardens I particularly admire, beyond their most iconic photographs other seldom-published photos from different angles reveal adjoining residences of quite traditional styles.  When designing a garden, I believe the key is to seek out the essence of the architectural details, rather than slavishly duplicate them in a literal way.

The owners of this large home are a perfect example; it might be best described as “French Provincial”, but their modernist taste was clearly conveyed to me both by her spoken desires and the collection of contemporary art throughout their rooms.  When I first arrived, it was a bit of a head-scratcher to figure out how I might make these two seemingly incongruous directions “speak” to each other in some complementary way.

existing layout

The existing lower level’s outdoor space was an inadequately-small bulbed-out patio, with a formless curving wall wrapping around one side of it to hold back the significant grade change. But the clients had an ambitious program, for both an active family-with-kids and for grownup entertaining: full outdoor kitchen and cocktail bar, and various bells & whistles that are part of many clients’ wish-lists such as pizza oven, TV, outdoor heater, and some kind of fire feature.  A pool was also mentioned as a possible future-phase item.  The challenge was to accomodate this program, using a very modernist vocabulary, in some creative way that nestled a design between the traditional home and its abrupt grade change.

Can homeowners with a modernist sensibility, but a very traditional home, find an outdoor space they’ll love?  Tune in again next week, when we look at the design solution.

All images credited to:  Studio Cleary Landscape Architecture.
Written by: Ted Cleary, ASLA
http://www.houzz.com/pro/tedcl/studio-cleary-landscape-architecture