By Michele Chan Santos
SPECIAL TO THE AMERICAN-STATESMAN
Sunday, April 05, 2009

When Christine Mallory, an accountant in Austin, and her husband, Tyler Mallory, a musician, were shopping for a home this winter, they knew they wanted a house with a midcentury modern architectural design.

Midcentury modern architecture conjures, for many people, images of Palm Springs, Calif., in the 1950s: sliding glass patio doors opening to long, rectangular swimming pools, angled roofs, metallic lighting fixtures, aqua-colored kitchens and furniture that could have been featured on a "Jetsons" episode.

The Blanton Museum of Art is currently paying homage to the now-classic designs with its new exhibit, "Birth of the Cool: California Art, Design and Culture at Midcentury." And through May 15, the Austin Center for Architecture will celebrate Austin midcentury design in the exhibit "Cool Austin," presented by the local chapter of the American Institute of Architects. It was a style that embraced the promise of the future, of space travel and the atomic age.

Christine Mallory says she has always loved items from the 1950s, especially pottery, and Tyler Mallory had always liked furniture from the same era. They live in a 1975 house in Crestview, but after they learned they were expecting a baby, they wanted a bigger house - but still in the midcentury style.

They found a three-bedroom, two-bathroom house on Larkwood Drive in the Delwood neighborhood that had been restored to its midcentury glory by owners Mary and Brent House. Brent owns Brent House Construction. When he and Mary first found the property, it had been added on to several times, including an addition in the 1980s that clouded the original appeal of the 1955 house.

Brent gave the home an $80,000 renovation, with cork and hardwood flooring, multicolored glass tile and a kitchen with concrete and butcher-block counters. Mary House, the owner and a real estate agent with the Marye Company, listed the 2,169-square-foot home for $350,000, and the Mallorys are set to close on the contract this month.

The Mallorys love the big windows, the offset vertical line of brick down the front of the house, and the cactus and succulents planted around it. "The plants really fit the style of the house and give it a Palm Springs sort of desert look," Christine Mallory said.

Many homes for sale in the Austin area feature the retro cool that has grown so popular. Here's a look at three of them.

5704 Lakemoore Drive

The heart of this midcentury modern home is a giant circular fire pit made from lava rock. The pit is encircled by a table similar to that at the retro Peppermill Fireside Lounge in Las Vegas.

Eileen Gill, a real estate agent with the Marye Company, and her husband, film director and producer Kevin Pruitt, own the home. Gill is the listing agent. It has four bedrooms, three bathrooms and 3,504 square feet and is on 0.55 acre. The list price is $859,000.

The house was built in 1967. Gill and Pruitt bought it in 2007 and began renovations.

"We knew we had to save this place," Gill said. "We wanted to update it and save it as an architectural gem."

The result of the $200,000 makeover is a gleaming example of atomic design. A sharply angled roof juts out over an outdoor pool, looking like a rocket about to take off; inside, the lava-rock and fossil-stone walls make you feel as if you landed in a high-end California hotel in the days of the Rat Pack.

The house has 11 sets of sliding glass doors, and every bedroom opens to the swimming pool.

"This was a crazy party house back in the 1960s," Gill said. "They had steak and lobster parties and served pink champagne."

The home's updated features include a modernized electrical system, tankless water heater, low-flow toilets, a remodeled kitchen and master bathroom, new paint, fixtures, carpet and flooring, and low-E glass in the west-facing windows.

3941 Balcones Drive

This house is a neighborhood landmark, known for the bright turquoise railings alongside the pool in the front of the house.

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