Mid Century Modern

Worst MLS Photo Of The Day - A Mid Century Modern Fixer Upper That Is Also A Bank owned Foreclosure In Las Vegas

July 15th, 2008 Categories: Mid Century Modern, Worst MLS Photo

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This is the MLS picture (the only one) of the house we’ve been talking about at 704 Canosa.

I’ll be holding an open house there TODAY from 2 to 5 if you’d like to get a look at either:

A) a great fixer upper opportunity

B) an excellent example of many of the elements of MID CENTURY MODERN

It’s also a great time to just stop by and say hello. I’ll be, as always, open to discussing the market, the neighborhoods, historic preservation, mid century modern architecture and style or anything else you’d like to ask me about.

Stop in and say hello.  TODAY (Tuesday) FROM 2 to 5 PM

Here’s a picture I took from a slightly different angle that shows the double roof slant, the covered front porch, provides a hint of the beamed ceilings in the carport etc.

PS: It’s only 165,000 for more than 2000 sf. It’s 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, and sports a ton of features and fixtures that should be saved.

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Friends Of Classic Las Vegas To Meet At The Morelli House

July 11th, 2008 Categories: Classic Las Vegas, Historic Preservation, Mid Century Modern

One of my favorite organizations is “Friends Of Classic Las Vegas”. They’re all about the people who made Las Vegas. They sponsor panel discussions every month, but there’s also the business meeting side of it. Their monthly business meeting will be this Sunday July 13, 2008 2 pm  at the Morelli House. Usually they meet in members homes, but this month in preparation for their 1 year anniversary The Morelli House will be the venue.

 

There will be a tour of the property, which is in my opinion the crown jewel of historic preservation in Las Vegas.  

To find out more about the meeting or about the Morelli House, visit the friends of Classic Las Vegas Blog

From my point of view, if you want to learn about classic desert living modernism, there’s no better place to get started than at the Morelli House. I’ve covered it many times on VVV for a Variety of reasons and there’s plenty of pictures if you’ll click here to see all the VeryVintageVegas posts where I’ve mentioned it or explicitly talked about it.

If you’d like to check out FOCLV or just see the Morelli House, we hope you’ll come out on Sunday.

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Fabulous Fixtures Found In Foreclosures - Part One Of A New Series

July 10th, 2008 Categories: Foreclosure Fixtures, Mid Century Modern

There’s something to be said for looking at bank owned foreclosures with true mid century modern “enthusiasts”. The advantage is several extra eyeballs to look for the little details that it’s so easy to miss.

Sometimes the details are buried beneath the trash that I show you regularly in the Worst MLS Photo of The Day. Sometimes they’re just there to be spotted, if you stick around long enough to really take a look. Each buyer has a different agenda, but when I’m with the “enthusiasts”, we seem to spot them all.

I’ve started to document the little details that we find. There’s enough from just the last 3 days of foreclosure shopping to do a regular series. There’s enough for a life time if I go back to all the great fixtures that I didn’t take pictures of.

I know that some of you spend your life (or at least your spare time) on Ebay. If you ever spot any of the things I’m showing you, or if you know a make or a brand or a name or anything else, I hope you’ll share it with us.

Today we’re looking at some of the interesting light fixtures that we’ve spotted.

The gold one is from a foreclosure home in Paradise Palms. There’s actually a matched pair, and the rest of the house and pool are certainly redeemable, especially at 159,500 which is the lowest priced home for sale in Paradise Palms.

The double headed spot lights are from the John S. Park Historic Neighborhood. They’re brushed aluminum. Polish up those puppies and they’ll be like brand new!

The wrought iron globe lamp is from just down the street from my house. Most of the fixtures from this home are old world european style. I’ll show you the front door tomorrow.

All of the pictures on Very Vintage Vegas are ALWAYS clickable thumbnails in case you’d like to see a bigger version.

I’m hoping you’ll enjoy this new series.  

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There’s Still Decorative Sunscreen Block Available For Your Retro Mid Century Modern Las Vegas Home

June 24th, 2008 Categories: Decorative Concrete Block Designs, Mid Century Modern

I recently discovered that there were names for the patterns that we’ve been discussing for the last 2 months. Some of them can still be obtained.

Allied Building Materials, at 221 West Wyoming has 2 of the patterns in stock.

The butterfly or clover design that was number 6 in our series is really called “LaCosta”. Last week they had about 300 of them in stock. They’re $4.35 apiece.

 

 

The “Cordova” which was Pattern #11 in our series is in stock at Allied. They had 51 of them in stock at the same price of $4.34 per block.

 

 

Orco Block Company in Los Angeles is the manufacturer. They still make only 6 of the patterns including the La Costa and the Cordova above. They also have the following four patterns, and Allied can get them for you.

 

“La Fiesta” was #4 in the series, and is one of my favorites.

 

 

 

 

“Starfire” is real nice and seems to be a stretched out version of the Cordova.

 

 

 

The “Vista” is also available at the big box home improvement stores, though I don’t know if they get them for Orco. Vista can be found on the top row of thousands of block walls in the suburban concrete canyons.

 

And my new favorite, which I’ve NEVER seen in use in Las Vegas is called the MAR-JAN. Ther’s a similar suspended square in a single square block that was number 49 in the series. But I love wider double version of the Mar-Jan.

 

 

In one of the funny coincidences that happen to me all the time, I was in the middle of an email exchange with the sales manager at Orco when an email came in from Zane Donaldson. Zane sent the link to the lecture by Bill Krisel. At literaly the same moment that the Orco guy told me about Angelus Block, one of his competitors in LA, Zane sent the link and attached file with the block designs from Angelus.

Bill Krisel mentions Angelus Block as a primary supplier of the blocks he used in the 50’s and 60’s. Their website isn’t as good as Orco, but I did call, and they do carry some of the same designs as well as a few unique ones.

Angelus doesn’t have a distributor here, but they’re a lot closer than A-1 Block in Florida, which up till now was the only place I could find at all.

So, for the more than 2 dozen readers who emailed me or left comments asking where they could obtain some of these patterns, now you have the answer. If anyone else knows of any other manufacturers anywhere in the US, I’d sure appreciate finding out about them.

That, my friends, concludes our 2 month long adventure into the “Decorative, Retro, , Historic, Mid Century Modern Block Walls and Sunscreens of Very Vintage Vegas

I thank you for indulging me, and I certainly hope it gave you a new insight into an important element of Vintage Vegas.

Just remember, when the sunscreens disappear, you’ve left Vintage Vegas.

 

 

 

 

 

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Shadow Block Is Another Way To Integrate Design Into The Block Walls Of Vintage Las Vegas

June 23rd, 2008 Categories: Decorative Concrete Block Designs, Home Repair and Remodel, Mid Century Modern

In the lecture by Bill Krisel, that we published last week, he mentions shadow block and integrating accent design into the building itself. There’s many marvelous examples all over vintage vegas.

“Buildings cast shadows” and they can’t be ignored.  These first two examples are from downtown homes in the historic John S. Park and Beverly Green Neighborhoods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Another good example comes from the “Fleur De Lis” apartments off Maryland Parkway accross from the Boulevard Mall. Integrated design changes ordinary into gorgeous. I just wish the whole complex was better maintainted, but it’s worth finding them if you’re wanting to take a few minutes next time to see an amazing complex of mid century modernism.

 

 

 

 

 

We’ve been busy working on the block walls surrounding my own home. We finished the front painting this weekend. Our fences had the opposite of pop-outs. The design was created by leaving selected blocks out altogether.

This view from the neighbors yard also shows the broad overhangs, and exposed beams on my home.

I hope you don’t think I’ve been blowing smoke about being a mid mod enthusiast without actually living in - and loving  one of them.

 

But the holes in the fence does present a problem in the backyard, where we spent the weekend tuck pointing and prepping for the new paint job.

The beagles are obsessed with watching the neighbors. What happens in their yard is capable of setting off a chain reaction of dog barking for several blocks around us.

I’ve promised you in the past to tell you about where we can get our “decorative sunscreen” blocks locally, and I am building up to that for tomorrow. The series that we’ve been doing is what got me motivated to work on my own fences, and to research where to find 4×4x16 block. In doing so, I discovered a local source for some of our patterns.

 

My solution to the beagle problem is to turn some of the holes (especially the lower ones), if not all of them into popout shadow block instead.

The final decision is yet to be made whether to leave the soon to be installed block sticking out one inch or maybe 2 inches, or to create an actual ledge that could hold a planter or a piece of art.

 

 

 

 

 

I’ve also rounded up a few blocks of the right size that have holes in them that could create another type of accent. I’ve only got 5 of them, and haven’t decided whether to integrate them or not.

 

Of course, your input is welcome in the comments.

I’ll show you the finished outcome (if I ever take off another weekend) when we’re done.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Bill Krisel, “Mid Century Modern is not a style. It’s a language”

June 19th, 2008 Categories: Las Vegas Real Estate News, Mid Century Modern, Paradise Palms

Yesterday, a client I’m shopping with asked me to explain Mid Century Modernism. We were looking at some of the Cinderella Ranches, because he absolutely has to have a garage. I was telling him that the Cinderella’s as well as most post-war ranch homes as we know them fall under the umbrella of modernism, though they’re not the “classic” design that we see in the work of Palmer and Krisel, who were the architects of 40,000 living units in California as well as here in Las Vegas. They designed the  neighborhood of Paradise Palms,  for Irwin Molasky.

What’s important about modernism is what Bill Krisel calls “the language” of modernism. Open living areas, walls of glass, allowing the outdoors to come in and the indoors to get out. It’s about natural light, and natural materials. It was an idea or concept of living.

We still see it manifested today in loft style living. We see it in the great room concept that you can find out in the suburbs. Unfortunately, except in the most expensive of newer homes, the lot sizes don’t give you any real outdoors, that can be allowed to come into your living space.   

Some of Bill Krisel’s remarks tell the story, as well as some of the history. This is a 2005 lecture  and slideshow he presented to a Mid Mod Conference in Palm Springs that was hosted by Dwell Magazine.

Paradise Palms is mentioned, as well as how he created the sunscreens, and textured concrete blocks that are prevelant in his work.

(UPDATE: I had a report from a reader that there was no sound when they tried. It works perfect on my computer, as hard as THAT is to believe. If you have problem, here’s the direct link )

Thanks to Zane Donaldson, one of the many Mid Century Modern Enthusiasts here in Las Vegas, for sending me this link. 

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I Saved The BIGGEST Decorative Block For Last

June 19th, 2008 Categories: Decorative Concrete Block Designs, Mid Century Modern

Well, we finally made it to the end of the “official” series. I know some of you are real happy about that. Personally, I’m going to miss doing them.

 

 

These aren’t really blocks in the same way all of our others were. I think I’d describe them more as panels, but they achieve a similar effect. I didn’t measure them, but the look to me to be about 18”x24”

 

 

 

 

 

They’re on the front of the church at the corner of 6^th Street and St. Louis.

Once again, for future reference, you can see the whole series or in the future just click on the “decorative concrete block designs” in the category section of the left column.

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Pattern #50 At Last

June 18th, 2008 Categories: Decorative Concrete Block Designs, Mid Century Modern

I’ve really had fun showing these to you. This one, pattern #50 is really number 49 as I’ve said before.

It’s deeply cut, and has has 2 different mini-patterns criss-crossing each other.

 

 

I’m sure I’ve seen it in several places, and have spent the last month looking for it again. This is the only picture I had of it in the now almost empty folder.

Tomorrow, I hit you with the biggest and truly a one of a kind piece of decorative concrete.

To review them all, you can click on the link in the left column categories that says “decorative concrete block designs”

 

 

 

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Pattern #49 Of The Retro Sunscreens Of Vintage Las Vegas

June 17th, 2008 Categories: Decorative Concrete Block Designs, Mid Century Modern

This is as retro as you can get. A suspended square within a square.

It’s been lots of fun showing you all the different block patterns that can be found in Vintage Las Vegas.

 

This one makes an elegant sunscreen, and works beautifully as an accent in a divider wall.

Of course, living plants would make it even better.

 

 

 

 

If you’d like to see the whole series all at once, you can click here, or in the future if you want to reference them, you can go to the category section in the left column and click on “decorative concrete block designs”.

There’s only 2 more left of the actual patterns. I knew I had “about 50” of them, and since I accidentally used one of the patterns twice, that makes the real count exactly 50. Then of course I’ve got some bloopers to show you, as well as some other very creative uses of concrete block. So we’re not quite done yet.