CF3's latest coffee chat (soon to adopt Atomic Crash Party format) took us to Middletown, a swank 50's suburb on the outskirts Cincinnati. This Bud Goetz designed house is smack dab in the middle of a typical suburban neighborhood and is surrounded by typical pitched roof houses that help this beauty stand out even more. The house is currently for sale and it was a unique opportunity to see it empty of loose furnishings ready for a family to settle in. Check out the listing for the house here.
Now for the good stuff, its obvious from the first couple photos, this is a low profile ranch modern with one roofline. From the street the house indicates its very private nature with the brick wall extending across the front to become a screen wall for the entry coutyard. The brick on this house was reused from a local building demolished back when this house was built. The patterned opening in the brick adds a nice element to the very simple facade.
The color scheme is also very simple, most of the house is the red brick with matched red on the roofline gravel stop, with a dark gray brown on the wood exterior. Set back far from the street, the house seems a lot simpler than it actually is offering very little view into the inside. Sometimes I find MCM's to be blatantly transparent, or rather the living in a fishbowl effect. Others are private oasis' with screens and compositions that lean toward privacy. With the private route, the challenge becomes how to obtain lots of natural light and maintain an integration with nature.
To get to the front door you descend a couple of steps into the entry courtyard, in many ways the courtyard is the heart of this house. The house layout itself wraps around this courtyard with many access points directly into this outdoor space. Overhead an open grid wood trellis extends the roofline to give the courtyard some sense of enclosure. Lush landscaping and a former water feature are centerpieces. Here the house envelope has glass on all sides of the courtyard.
Inside the intricate nature of the design becomes more evident. Built-ins throughout remind me of a Wrightian influence. The interior pallette is simple wood and white walls. I really enjoyed the way the white ceilings intersect with the exposed beam structure in places as can be seen to the right. Flooring ranges from wood parquet floors in the bedroom and this really cool tile flooring in a neat geometric pattern. Someone at the chat mentioned you could still obtain this tile, link please?
The house features built-ins in almost every room & space. Each bedroom has its own built in closet and desk, an example of a desk on the right.
The bathrooms in the house are still original. Here the double inset sinks can be seen. I always get a kick over an original MCM bathroom still remaining, most of the time these are lost through the decades or renovation and style mishaps, yep I'm talking to you 1980's.
Close up shot of the aforementioned tile flooring.
Out back the houses transparency shows up unobsured as floor to ceiling windows line the living space and dining areas. The rear patio is subtractively inset into the volume of the house featuring the inside tile floors extending onto the patio slab.
Around the corner from this house was another modern design by Architect Bud Goetz. We found this on our way to the chat and couldn't resist some drive by photography.
Another Bud Goetz around the corner on another street. Very similar to the house featured in this post. I was tempted to knock on the door and talk to the owners but thrift stores were calling my name. Perhaps we should set up a little 3 house circuit tour down the road. A special thanks to Susan Jackson of Susan Jackson Interiors for hosting the chat.
Checking in live from the CF3 table, this year's show is packed to gills with modernists. Being next to the entry, I am witnessing a steady stream of purchases going out the front door. I wanted to highlight some of the local vendors representing Cincinnati. To the left CF3's modest table.
