Palm Springs California Modernist style with Sydney upper north shore heritage status
A mid-century Modernist Wahroonga home has been scheduled for June 2 auction through the agent that just sells architectural gems, Marcus Lloyd Jones at Modern House. The architect of the 1955 Kintore Street home isn’t known despite the best efforts of its current Queensland-bound owners, Andrea and Paul Banner, who bought the rundown yet heritage-listed house for $940,000 in 2009. Despite having since liaised with the Ku-ring-gai Council and Ku-ring-gai Historical Society, the research is still missing that crucial detail. But the home did cost £11,000 to build, which was more than double the cost of most homes being built in the area at the time.
NSW Heritage: Image by: Robert Moore, Penelope Pike, Helen Proudfoot
Image copyright owner: Ku-Ring-Gai Council
Anecdotally there are vague recollections of a 1950s Home Beautiful or Woman’s Weekly magazine article. The original owners, Richard and Jaqueline Hayden, commissioned the local builder, George Perry. Some in the area recall it originally having a grey exterior, black-framed windows, bright yellow front door and a vivid orange garage door evoking comparison to the Mondrian House’s colour scheme.
The current owners bought the home almost three years ago and have sympathetically modernised the home which is being marketed as a rare surviving example of a single-storey, mid-century house. Stylistically it bears strong resemblance to the work of the Australian modernist architect Arthur Baldwinson, with the opulence and optimism of the Palm Springs Internationalist style, say the listing agents, noting the low profile design, flat-roofed house featuring wide eves.
It sits on a 1,536-square-metre corner site at Kintore Street and Eastern Road, through invisible from the street given the mature landscaping. With 230 square metres of space, the double-brick home features four large bedrooms, two bathrooms, a modern eat-in kitchen and spacious open-plan living area and floor-to-ceiling steel-framed windows that opens out to the garden from both sides.
It comes with restored spotted gum parquetry. More than $1.2 million is being sought.
There is a current Sydney lecture series that traces housing styles in Australia hosted by the Historic Houses Trust as part of the Sydney Open program.
The Thursday evening talks run weekly until June 14 held at The Mint on Macquarie Street, Sydney.
Architects can claim informal CPD points by their attendance.
The remaining series
Mansion
Thursday, May 17, 6pm - 7.30pm
Dr Charles Pickett, curator of design and built environment at the Powerhouse Museum
Jonathan Chancellor, managing editor, Property Observer
Beach shack
Thursday, May 24, 6pm - 7.30pm
Dr Michael Bogle, design historian
Peter Stutchbury, Peter Stutchbury Architects
Terrace
Thursday, May 31, 6pm - 7.30pm
Keri Huxley, social and political scientist and former mayor of Woollahra Council
Hannah Tribe, founding principal, Tribe Studio Architects
Project home
Thursday, June 7, 6pm - 7.30pm
Dr Judith O’Callaghan, senior lecturer, The University of New South Wales
Tone Wheeler, principal architect, Environa Studio
Portable
Thursday, June 14, 6pm - 7.30pm
Megan Martin, head of collections and access
Sean Godsell, Sean Godsell Architects
Photography: © Tamara Graham Photography
