Housing Styles

Cinderella Ranches Are Another Style Of Mid Century Modernism

May 2nd, 2008 Categories: Bel Air, Housing Styles, Mid Century Modern

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Heidi Swank, one of the very active preservationists and a UNLV Professor in the Sociology Department posted this comment on an old post about Cinderella Ranches. I thought it was a good question that certainly stumped me. Anyone know?

 

 

 

 

 

Heidi’s Comment:

I believe these Cinderella Homes are a later version of homes made by an architect named Mellenthin.  Mellenthin houses often have the birdhouse features but also often have vaulted ceilings and those nice criss-crosses in the windows.  However, they do not have the low low overhangs shown in two of the pictures above.

 

I am trying to figure out if our house is a Mellenthin house.  If anyone knows anything more about Mellenthin houses please post it.  I am having a hard time finding much information.

Thanks.

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United States Post Office To Issue Stamps In Honor Of Ray and Charles Eames, The Most Famous Of The Mid Century Modern Designers

March 31st, 2008 Categories: Home Repair and Remodel, Housing Styles, Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mid Century Modern

The other day I mentioned the most famous mid century modernist designers, Charles and Ray Eames.

This summer, they’ll also be honored in another way that will generate even more awareness of the ever growing modernist revival movement. The United States Postal Service will issue a flat of 16 stamps honoring them.

from the US Postal Service Website:© 2007 USPS. All Rights Reserved

In recognition of their groundbreaking contributions to architecture, furniture design, manufacturing and photographic arts, designers Charles and Ray Eames will be honored next summer with a pane of 16 stamps designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC. If you’ve ever sat in a stackable molded chair, you’ve experienced their creativity. Perhaps best known for their furniture, the Eameses were husband and wife as well as design partners. Their extraordinary body of creative work — which reflected the nation’s youthful and inventive outlook after World War II — also included architecture, films and exhibits. Without abandoning tradition, Charles and Ray Eames used new materials and technology to create high-quality products that addressed everyday problems and made modern design available to the American public.

I’ve been exclusively using the wonderful superheros stamps for the last few months, and can’t wait to switch to these.

There’s a whole evenings worth of reading, pictures, stimulation, announcements and events at the online home of Charles and RAy Eames.

I already knew about these stamps, but was reminded tonight from a post at DenverModern which is a Denver Agent with a blog similar to VVV.

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A Tale Of Two Classic Homes - Both Are In Historic Downtown Las Vegas Neighborhoods

February 15th, 2008 Categories: Bel Air, Home Repair and Remodel, Housing Styles, John S Park Historic Neighborhood, Las Vegas History, Las Vegas Real Estate News

There’s 3 things you can do with the classic 50’s or 60’s homes of Las Vegas

First, you can keep it all original, and relish the authenticity.

We’ve been selected to represent the sellers and market one that falls into this category. 1720 Bracken is the most authentic, untouched, (though much loved) Cinderella Ranch we’ve ever seen.

 

From the classic pink tile bathrooms, to the original turquoise oven and stovetop, to the scrolled facia boards and kitchen cabinets, it’s all original. Even the shake roof was replaced in 1992 and should have 30 more years of life in it.

All of the photos of this pristinely preserved classic can be seen in the gallery which is in our left column.

So many of our readers “get it”, I know there’s one of you out there who will “have to have it”.

 

 

The second thing you can do to one of our historic homes is to butcher it with inappropriate “remudeling”.  There’s lots of those available all over Very Vintage Vegas, and they’re easy to spot if you just search the mls. Bad room additions, HD/Lowes cheap cabinets and lighting, painting over, or even worse, tearing out natural brick or stone are all things I see way too often.

Urban Chic Is All The Rave In Remodeling Historic Homes

And the THIRD thing, of course, is to keep the finest of the original elements, and apply your artistry, “green” sensiblity as well as some creativity and flair to make it cool, chic, and hip.

That pretty well describes our other new listing at 807 Oakey, in the John S. Park Historic Neighborhood.

In order to save the original 1955 tongue and groove beamed ceilings, the entire home was lifted off of it’s foundation, and the entire foundation and slab was replaced in 2001.

 

 

Every single bit of cement, plumbing, electric, heat and cooling, windows, doors and cabinetry were all replaced. Huge effort and expense went into fully insulated both interior and exterior walls, as well as the ceiling. All Permits were pulled, and  The City of Las Vegas now considers it to be effectively a 2001 home.

The pictures in the gallery are incredible, but even they don’t do justice to this stunning creation in the art of the new urban chic. 

If you love stained concrete flooring, beamed ceilings and urban chic as much as I do, you’ll want to consider this fabulous home. There’s more photos in the gallery.

 

Give me a call if you’d like to see it person.

Posted by Jack LeVine | Currently 3 Comments »

“Clear Story” Windows Are A Modernist Adaptation Of An Ancient Design

January 23rd, 2008 Categories: Crestwood, Housing Styles, Mid Century Modern

How do you let lots of natural light into a room, and still maintain some privacy? The modernist architects that were responsible for the “mid-century modern” home that we talk about so frequently here at VeryVintageVegas solved the problem with “Clear Story” Windows. Since the ceilings were vaulted, and the roofs so often flat, or low pitched, it was easy to add windows above the normal wall space.

In modern usage we find the term spelled “clerestory” as well as “clearstory” and even “overstory”. In the mid mod homes, an excellent definition is:

rows of windows above eye level that allow light into a space. In modern architecture, clerestories provide light without distractions of a view or compromising privacy

I never really connected the high-in-the-wall windows of modernism with the ancient architecture of Gothic cathedrals. In fact, according to this article in wikepedia, the use of clear story windows dates back clear to the Egyptians.  

A big complaint that I get all the time about our suburban cookie cutter homes, is that the windows are so large that you lose all the wall space for furniture. Yesterday’s Worst MLS Photo was a good example of the windows ruining a room. The windows above are  an example of clear story windows, as they might be used in a more suburban 2000’s home.

Modernist homes, however were built for desert living often had wide, thin windows set high in the walls to let in light, allow for furniture below them, and privacy within the room, and minimal direct sunlight.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Now you know what to call high windows in a tall room.

Posted by Jack LeVine | Currently 2 Comments »

Vintage Homes Sometimes Have Wheels - The Invasion Of AirStreams In The Historic Las Vegas Neighborhood Of Marycrest

January 20th, 2008 Categories: Housing Styles, Marycrest

Googie, or Jetsonesque, or Space Age design wasn’t limited to homes and commercial buildings. One of the signs of middle class upward mobility was the Airstream travel trailer. There were 3 families on our block when I was growing up in the 50’s and 60’s. Donny and Danny’s Dad used to take it with us on our Boy Scout Campouts.

We rarely get to see one anymore, but to find 2 on the same street at the same time was one of those great events that I just had to share  with you.

When I was in the trucking industry a lifetime ago, I used to see caravans of Airstreams all summer long. I always loved them, and got to see inside a dozen or so when I’d see one at a gas pump or or in a freeway rest area.

Vintage Airstream Collector Clubs

There’s huge collector and enthusiast clubs, naturally one is called the “VINTAGE Airstream Club” with rallies and caravans and tours and all kinds of events that are held all over the world. 15^th Street the other day seems to be the smallest rally ever held. Of course I googled the whole topic for you, and also found the Wally Byam Caravan Club International. The creator of the Airstream was Wally Byam, who seems to have obtained Icon status among his followers.

There’s a “50 year rule” for something to be called antique, classic and vintage. I don’t want those words applied to me personally but all the things that I love from my childhood are now fair game. What other classic, vintage things should I be on the watch for. 

As my brother Joey still says, your rememberies are welcome in the comments.

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Average Lot Sizes Continue To Shrink Except In Vintage Vegas

January 3rd, 2008 Categories: Cool Stuff, Historic Preservation, Housing Styles, Humor

Actually, this picture is from Toronto, and it’s the smallest home for sale there.

Mark T. sent me a picture, and thanks to google, I found all kinds of stories about it.

Thought you’d get a laugh out of it also.

Toronto’s Smallest House the website

Other Bloggers Have covered it. with lots of pictures.

Posted by Jack LeVine | Currently 1 Comment »

Mid Century Modern Played A Role In Every Part Of Life In The 50’s and 60’s

December 27th, 2007 Categories: Historic Preservation, Housing Styles, Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mid Century Modern

I found a great website called swankpad that I thought I’d share with you today. I grabbed a few of the hundreds of images of 50’s and 60’s advertisements, fashion, home decor and other fun mid-century modernism.

It’s been a pleasure this last week to have some fun on the internet instead of the normal barrage of phone calls, projects, showings to get ready for, negotiations, ad writing, and heavy duty blogging. I know that the normal routine will hit hard and heavy next week, so I’m just going to spend this week having some fun.  

I also managed to create a whole bunch of closet space by getting rid of workbooks and old files from 15 years ago that were stacked in boxes eating up some very valuable closet real estate in my home. I did that because I was looking for some old advertisements from my early days in real estate. I’ll be showing you some of them tomorrow when I finish my year in review post on how “VeryVintageVegas” came to be.

And the very first brand new car that my father ever bought was a white stripped down 1962 version of the Corvair Station Wagon. It did have an am radio, but my dad wouldn’t spring for the sun visors, or the white walls, or any of the other goodies. It was a tight fit for all 7 of us, but I learned to drive on it 8 years later. So many childhood “remembories” come flashing back when I go to websites like SwankPad. 

 Yes, my littlest brother coined the term remembories when he was 4 or 5 and our family has used it ever since.

In the meantime, I have a feeling there’s not a lot of work going on in your world either. Most of you (according to the tracking thingies that Steve monitors for us) look at VVV during 9–5, so I’m providing something for you to do if your boss has you locked out of the porn and game websites.

Next week, we’ll get back to the serious business of preserving and improving our neighborhoods, educating the public and other Realtors about Vintage Vegas, saving our mid-mod architecture from the wrecking ball, re-thinking the arts district, maintaining pink bathrooms and all the other fun stuff we do.  

Here’s your bonus set of photos from SwankPad in case you really want to get serious about mid century decor. Here’s a collage of great 50’s rooms from the Better Homes and Gardens 1957 decorating style book.

In case you didn’t find enough to keep you occupied while the boss is on vacation this week, you can always click on some of Didi’s Links in the right column of her DimBeautyOfChicago blog.

Have Fun!

Uncle Jack

Posted by Jack LeVine | Currently 2 Comments »

Exposed Beam Ceilings Are A Terrific Feature Of Mid Century Modernism

December 4th, 2007 Categories: Architecture, Housing Styles, John S Park Historic Neighborhood, Marycrest, Mid Century Modern

It was the exposed beams more than any other feature that drew me to my home, and I can’t walk into a home that has them without being awed.

The ceiling material above the beams can be tongue and groove planking, or it can be flat panels of plywood or compressed composite. The composite material in my house has been routered with grooves to create another whole texture to the room.

We’ve just listed 2 Mid Mod Homes this week, and both will be “officially” on the market in the next few days. Both have exposed beams and I wanted to give you a little preview.