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Photo ©Darren Bradley The Ullman Residence was designed by local San Diego architect John Mock in 1964. Like Ellwood's Bobertz Residence , it's a perfect example of what can happen when the right owners find the right house. It's without question one of the nicest and most pristine modernist homes in San Diego. But it wouldn't be this way if not for the herculean efforts of its owners, Loretta & Mark Chavez.  Photo ©Darren Bradley When Mark & Loretta first found the house, it was in rough shape. One the one hand, it was a time capsule. The home had originally been decorated by designer Ilse Ruocco (wife of architect Lloyd Ruocco). The original furniture was still in the exact location where it had been placed for the first photographs some 40 years prior. Everything, from the curtains and the carpets and everything else was original.  Approaching the front entrance. Photo ©Darren Bradley Photo ©Darren Bradley But it was also tattered and falling apart. More wo...

Bobertz Residence by Craig Ellwood (1953). Photo ©Darren Bradley   The Bobertz Residence is the only home designed by Craig Ellwood (with Ernie Jacks and Jerrold Lomax) in San Diego County. The young couple who commissioned it - Gerry & Charles Bobertz - had recently arrived from upstate New York by way of a brief stint in the SF Bay area. They were avid fans of John Entenza's Arts & Architecture magazine , and chose Ellwood as the architect of their new home after seeing his work in the Case Study House Program. And indeed, this could easily have been one of the homes featured in that program. Photo ©Darren Bradley The house is a perfect time capsule of today - beautifully restored to better than new condition. In fact, the current owners, Keith & Jessica York, have done a truly amazing job. And there was plenty to do. View of one of the guest/children's bedrooms out to the courtyard. Photo ©Darren Bradley The Yorks' daughter's bedroom, just off the private...

North Christian Church by Eero Saarinen (1954). Photo ©Darren Bradley In my previous blog post, I talked about my visit to the famous Miller House in Columbus, Indiana. That house was the legacy of one exceptional man - J. Irwin Miller, CEO of the Cummins Diesel Engine Company. But his legacy didn't stop at the front door of his own home. Turns out, Miller left an extensive legacy of modernist architecture in his home town - enough to make this small city of 40,000 in southern Indiana one of the most important concentrations of significant architecture in the country, if not the world.  The first modernist building - the Tabernacle Church of Christ (now the First Christian Church) - was brought to Columbus at the impetus of Miller's aunt and uncle. It was designed by Eliel Saarinen and is one of the first modernist churches in the United States.  Tabernacle Church of Christ and Large Arch, a sculpture by Henry Moore. Photo ©Darren Bradley The church was a complete depar...

A view from the conversation pit. Photo ©Darren Bradley In 1953, a man in a small, mid-western town in southern Indiana asked his good friend - who happened to be an architect - to design a new home for his family. It had to be relatively modest in scale and intimate, but also practical and functional for both raising a family and entertaining hundreds of guests. Not an easy task. But in this case, the man was J. Irwin Miller, the small, mid-western town was Columbus, and the architect was Eero Saarinen. And the result is magical.  The low, single-storey house resembles a modernist take on a Greek Temple. Its beauty is enhanced by Dan Kiley's landscape architecture. Photo ©Darren Bradley The terrazzo flooring continues inside and out. One of the most defining elements of this house are the covered passageways that completely surround it. Seems like everyone who visits takes a photo like this one. Note steel X-beams and how that translates in the capitals on each column. Photo ©Darr...