Look Modern – Mid Century Modern Home Furnishing
Verner Panton chairs manufactured by Herman Miller in September, 1974, in vibrant orange molded plastic.
Danish Modern Living Room Set
convertible sofa bed by Hans Wegner (not sure how long that sale was going)
The other I day I was out and about picking up flyers from the printers, there were no parking spaces in the usual vicinity, so I had to park a couple of blocks away. I jumped out of the car and saw a small a-frame reader board that said “mid-century modern furniture” and had an arrow pointing up. I looked up and saw a door to a narrow staircase, so I decided to pop in to see what they had. What I expected to walk into was a 1,500 – 2,000 sq. ft. space with a couple of overpriced pieces that were more intended for an e-bay sale. What I walked into, after the couple of flights of stairs, was an 8,000 sq ft warehouse packed full (not uncomfortably) of amazing Danish mid century modern furniture in great/excellent condition. Rooms full of Eames chairs, mid century credenzas, sofas, it goes on for quite a while (and so could I). I was not completely shocked by the pricing, it was what I expect to see this type of furnishing in this type of condition, and when I was there they were having a 20% off of everything sale. I met one of the owners and they told me they had been there for awhile but are only open Fri. – Sun. (they actually do a lot of their business on-line), check their site for hours and stop by if you can, it is breathtaking.
Look Modern is located at:
800 SE Clay
Portland, OR 97214
Road Trip – Modern Home Websites Around the US
Here are a couple of my favorite sites from around the USA that do a similar thing that Modern Homes Portland is doing. These modern home sites feature incredible modern home designs, architects, furnishings in their cities too.
Let’s go on a little road trip:
First we head north to Seattle, WA where Benjamin Allison shows us Seattle’s most amazing modern architecture at his site Jet City Modern.
Jet City Modern - Seattle, WA
Now, let’s head south and visit MCM superman Paul Kaplan from Palm Springs, CA. Paul has his fingers to the pulse of all things MCM in California and beyond.
Palm Springs MCM goodness via Paul Kaplan
Heading east, we hit Boulder, CO where Sean McIllwain gives us front row seats to the modern home catalog in this beautiful city at his Mod Boulder site.
modern homes in Boulder, CO (this is their office)
Now, let’s take a turn to the south and head to our sister city (I have personally adopted her) of Austin, TX where Ben of Modern Austin gives us all of the modern goodies that Austin holds. This site is really pretty and has a lot of good info about the architects and design.
Modern Austin, TX
Thanks for taking the trip with me, I hope you enjoyed it. I will be on the lookout for more modern sites to feature so if you know of any good ones, drop me a line.
Cheers!
The Original Dinerant – Portland Oregon
The Original Dinerant ~ Portland Oregon
I know the word “dinerant” isn’t really a word but the term fits this modern vintage replica restaurant perfectly. The Original Dinerant, designed by David Ashen of D-ASH Design (NY), combines the sophistication of mid-century Palm Springs with the casual feel of the classic American roadside diner. They have an interesting menu with a VooDoo Doughnut burger (yes, instead of buns, doughnuts!), poutine (I had to look this up but it is a standard in Canada), and some of the best breakfast around. I had the biscuits with the best veggie gravy I have had yet, that was served with a baby field green salad and loved it all! They serve Stumptown Coffee and the flourescent lit, multi-tiered, rotating dessert case (every diner has one) as you enter boasts the tallest carrot cake and thickest pies around.
The Original Dinerant is located at:
300 SW 6th Ave
Portland, OR 97204
Rummer Restoration Project – Gresham Oregon
back of the double gabled Gresham Rummer *Not For Sale*
- double Thermador’s reporting for duty
A little while ago I stumbled across a very entertaining blog about a family (the Lewis’) from Gresham restoring/remodeling their Rummer home. They do not make it look fast or easy but it is very entertaining getting to take a peek into their remodeling projects and the outcome is always amazing, they do such a great job! Another thing that I love about the Lewis’ blog is that the entire family is excited about their home projects, they make it feel like the home is a family member and not just a place to live.
So after I had devoured all of the blogs contents, I contacted Steve and Haley and invited myself over to tour and get a first hand look of their restoration project. When I visited they had zero kitchen, it was gutted to the studs (very brave). Haley took me on the tour and explained all of the pretty, clean lines they are going to open up throughout the home, to take it back to the way it was intended to look (& then some).
The kitchen design is influenced by case study home #22. Here is the plan:
kitchen plan, modeled after case study home #22 - (photo by the Lewis')
case study house #22 - photo by Julius Shulman
Update: Since I have visited, the Lewis’ have put the kitchen back together. Pics here! It is amazing, thanks for sharing it with us.
P.S. can’t wait to see what they do with that ‘56 Airstream Safari aka Plan B
Gresham Rummer holiday ~ beautiful! (photos by the Lewis')
For a list of all of the Rummer homes for sale in the Portland area visit the Rummer page where I will update listings as they hit market.
More Rummer Related Blog Posts:
Modern Homes Portland – Last Minute Gift Guide for Mods
Last minute gift giving guide for the modern obsessed love in your life (short and sweet):
Julius Shulman 3 volume book - $300
If you haven’t seen Visual Acoustics yet, get thee to an indie theater and do so. If you have seen it, then you will most def want these books (photos is a link to the site where you can buy this for me your loved ones).
Frank Lloyd Wright Lego Set - $99.99
Build it yourself Falling Water Lego set.
subscription to Atomic Ranch Magazine
The Atomic Ranchers are based in Portland so you can boast a decent ” I shopped local” with this gift. Great design ideas for the MCMers.
George Nelson Bubble Lamp Calendar 2010 - $9.95
The George Nelson Bubble Lamp calendar for 2010. Full of vintage bubble lamp ads.
Eames View Master Reels - $35
Photos of the Eames’ Case Study House #8 in View Master fashion (photos taken by the Eames’ themselves). Pretty much everything else on this website would make an awesome gift too.
Wishing everyone a happy and safe holiday! Enjoy everything and everyone.
“What good is a dream house if you haven’t got a dream?” -Julius Shulman
Please share your own ideas if you have them, thanks!
Historical Mid Century Modern Home by Pietro Belluschi Preserved
- Belluschi House – 911 sq.ft.
Belluschi House Built in 1951 - Lake Oswego, Oregon
Below is a great article update on the preservation of the Pietro Belluschi (one of the fathers of the NW Regional Style) home in Lake Oswego. Thanks for the article REPDX and Clarin Cromwell of Marylhurst University.
Historic Lake Oswego House to Find a Home at Marylhurst University
Rare residence built by famed architect Pietro Belluschi will come to campus
LAKE OSWEGO, OR — A small but historically significant home designed by noted Portland architect Pietro Belluschi will be kept in Lake Oswego, now that the Marylhurst University board of trustees has endorsed a plan to give the house a permanent home on the Marylhurst campus.
The agreement comes nearly three years after Tim Mather, owner of MCM Construction, and Tia Ross, a fellow historic homes preservationist, discovered a 911-square-foot home designed in 1951 by Belluschi for Arthur and Lucy Griffith of Lake Oswego was about to be demolished, and began a campaign to save it.
The home was believed to be one of only a few Belluschi-designed residences still standing unaltered, and the only one of its kind in Lake Oswego. The Italian-born Belluschi was involved in the design of an estimated 1,000 buildings over his 50-year career, including the Portland Art Museum, the Julliard School of Music in New York and St. Mary’s Cathedral in San Francisco. He is widely known as the creator of the Northwest style of architecture, and his homes were constructed to take advantage of their natural surroundings and available light.
“The house is a perfect example of the elegant simplicity of Belluschi’s mid-century modernist approach to design,” said Mather. “It’s truly a work of art and, fully restored, will be a lasting reminder of Belluschi’s architectural legacy.”
The home is essentially one large room, featuring cork floors, hemlock paneling and beamed ceilings. Never remodeled, it had fallen into disrepair, needing a new roof and heating and electrical systems. The home was purchased by developer George Hale, who recognized the house’s intrinsic value but couldn’t find a suitable reuse for the structure until Mather and Ross interceded. Hale donated the home, and Mather paid for it to be meticulously deconstructed and stored. The house – now in 2,000 pieces, all numbered and measured – sits in a 48-foot storage container awaiting reconstruction and restoration.
“I am so pleased that Marylhurst will become the home of this noted piece of 20th-century architecture,” said Judi Johansen, Marylhurst University president. “The educational opportunities the Griffith house at our new Belluschi Pavilion will provide for our students and for the broader community are countless, and I look forward to working with Tim and his colleagues on all the next steps of restoring this home to its full beauty on our campus.”
Fundraising efforts are now underway to pay for the costs of siting, permitting, reconstructing and restoring the Belluschi house. Contact David Miller - Friends of Belluschi 503-699-9600 dave@mcmbuild.com to donate to the preservation effort.
About Friends of Belluschi
Friends of Belluschi was founded in 2006 by Tim Mather, Tia Ross and other home preservationists to save and restore the Griffith residence designed by Pietro Belluschi in Lake Oswego in 1951.
About Marylhurst University
Marylhurst University, a private liberal arts university located one mile south of downtown Lake Oswego on Highway 43, is regionally accredited and nationally recognized for innovation and academic excellence. Marylhurst’s small, seminar-style classes – offered weekdays, evenings, weekends and online – provide convenience and flexibility for students with busy lives seeking professional certificates and undergraduate and graduate degrees
Belluschi
Belluschi House Oregon
More Preservation Stories:
Visual Acoustics – The Modernism of Julius Shulman
This documentary about the work of Julius Shulman, famed modernist photographer best know for his photos of the Case Study homes in California, is playing this week at the Living Room Theater in Portland, Oregon. I highly recommend seeing it before it is gone. I am on my way right now.
Summary:
Narrated by Dustin Hoffman, Visual Acoustics, celebrates the life and career of Julius Shulman, the world’s greatest architectural photographer, whose images brought modern architecture to the American mainstream. Shulman, who passed away this year, captured the work of nearly every modern and progressive architect since the 1930s including Frank Lloyd Wright, Richard Neutra, John Lautner and Frank Gehry. His images epitomized the singular beauty of Southern California’s modernist movement and brought its iconic structures to the attention of the general public. This unique film is both a testament to the evolution of modern architecture and a joyful portrait of the magnetic, whip-smart gentleman who chronicled it with his unforgettable images.
Rejuvenation Event – Fixture Gallery Opening
Rejuvenation is hosting another fabulous event. This event will be held on Saturday, December 12th, from 1-5pm open house style. The event will be showcasing the library archive resource and fixture gallery space on the second floor of the Portland showroom (1100 Southeast Grand Avenue). Bo Sullivan, the resident Rejuvenation historian, will be giving short informal talks at 2:00pm, 3:00pm, and 4:00pm where he will share some of the history and original lights and catalogs that inspired our reproductions. Rejuvenation will also be giving us a sneak peek of their new, yet to be released, MCM hourglass light fixture!
Here is a sneak peek at my holiday wish list!
More about Rejuvenation and what they do:
The showroom is located at:
1100 Southeast Grand Avenue
Portland, OR 97214
Robert Rummer Interview
A couple of posts ago I advertised the interview with Robert Rummer event for the Street of Eames fundraiser and just wanted to post the video montage for those that could not make it. This video was put together by Rejuvenation’s wonderful team, thanks for hosting a great event! It was fun to meet Robert and his wife Phyllis and hear them speak about their experiences in home building.
For a list of all of the Rummer homes for sale in the Portland area visit the Rummer page where I will update listings as they hit market.
More Rummer Posts:
- Mid Century Modern Homebuilder Rummer Speaking at Rejuvenation Benefit
- Rummer Mid Century Modern Home – Portland Oregon
- Oak Hills Neighborhood – Mid Century Homes
Mid Century Modern Home – Northwest Portland
gorgeous mid century modern home 2642 NW Beuhla Vista Terrace ~ $1,990,000
Japanese garden with waterfall
I have seen this listing on-line for a little while and had wanted to tour it but was patiently waiting for an open house (or buyer). So the other day my patience wore out and I e-mailed fellow Realtor (and the home’s owner) Toni Mikel to see if I could A) feature her beautiful home here on MHP and B) come over and see it. Well, it turned out she had coincidentally been planning an open house for brokers complete with a bourbon tasting the following week…so glad I waited.
The house is perched high on the edge of Beuhla Vista Terrace overlooking the city and Washington Park. The high, hemlock fir vaulted ceilings and the wall of floor to ceiling glass make you feel like you are quite possibly not even inside of a home. The view of the city is the main attraction, I wasn’t sure that I would ever be able to leave the main living space due to being transfixed by glow of the setting sun and twinkling city lights (it was a dusk tour). The 2 bedrooms are both located downstairs and also have floor to ceiling windows and no homes in front of you so no need for curtains. The master suite’s bathroom has a spa like shower and huge soaking tub that leads into a walk in closet that is about the size of a small bedroom.
Other features include:
- Mahogany floors
- Remote control exterior window shades for both floors
- Commercial grade elevator
- Mica slate floors
- high efficiency furnaces
- Caesar stone countertops
- Japanese garden and waterfall by Hoichi Kurisu
Agent Info
Agency Info
follow my tweets
become a fan