I just spotted a story in The Wall Street Journal online that features a Napa Valley Midcentury Modern home that has been given some TLC by two San Francisco-based architects. The house, originally built by acclaimed architect Jack Hillmer, was completely neglected. In fact, tube socks were used to plug holes made by woodpeckers and you had to walk through a shower to get from the living room to the bedrooms. Even so, the bones of the home were spectacular and worthy of a major redo.

Despite its nasty condition, the house attracted the interest of Christiane Robbins and Katherine Lambert, partners in the San Francisco architectural firm MAP, Metropolitan Architectural Practice. They paid $588,000 for the two-bedroom, two-bathroom, 2,000 square foot home. The business partners quickly became aware of the home’s importance. The complicated and unusual designs of Hillmer actually have a devoted group of enthusiasts with the goal of stopping the tear down or modification of the late architect’s 10 local buildings.

Hillmer’s use of natural materials helped define the Bay Region Style in the years after World War II. He quickly won fame, and his homes were featured in architectural publications and popular magazines such as Life. His work was shown at the San Francisco Museum of Art, as the Museum of Modern Art was then known. He was also invited to teach by William Wurster, dean of UC Berkeley’s School of Architecture.

Hillmer’s homes are known to mix a Zen-like simplicity with a baroque richness stemming from the beauty of the materials used. He is known for using the environment in his designs, framing dramatic views and filtering daylight.

The $300,000 renovation to the architecturally important house, built in 1953, took only three months to complete. They met their goal of keeping the structure’s meticulous details, utilizing the same materials that Hillmer used including old-growth redwood, concrete, glass and stainless steel. When the project was completed, they were so thrilled with the outcome that they decided to keep the home as a weekend retreat.

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