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Amazing Local ArchitectureRETRO VALLEY HOMES TAKING US SPOTLIGHT Angela Cara Pancrazio The Arizona Republic Mar. 24, 2005 12:00 AM You drive by them every day, homes and buildings from the 1950s and '60s with their trademark picture windows and gable roofs. To some Valley residents, they're a throwback to a time and level of prosperity better left forgotten. But among a growing number of young hipsters and aging boomers, these examples of Postwar Modern architecture are the hottest trend in the retro housing market. And they are on the brink of earning a place in history. "This is the next thing; it's called recent past preservation," said Alison King, who founded a Web site dedicated to Postwar Modern architecture that dates from roughly 1947 to 1973. "We want to make sure it's well cared for, that it's not stuccoed over and not bulldozed." Postwar Modern architecture is on the cusp of becoming eligible for historical designation, and the Valley's ample stock has brought National Trust for Historic Preservation officials to town this week. "They decided Phoenix is the best place in the United States to do this," said Grady Gammage Jr., a Valley zoning attorney. "They think Phoenix has some of the most interesting, provocative resources of midcentury architecture." Officials will tour and study Valley homes and buildings to help determine criteria for protection and preservation of postwar domestic and commercial architecture across the country. The trend isn't news to Phoenix investor Curtis Rapp. Last year, he snapped up condos he spotted tucked between a self-service carwash and a ranch house on Maryland Avenue in central Phoenix. Taken by the property's streamlined early 1960s design, he was able to see past the neglected exterior to spot its "good bones." He had no trouble renting out his units; in fact, he has a waiting list. Residents say they are attracted to the complex's uniqueness and the connection to an era that feels comfortable, whether they are in their 20s or 50s. It also turned out that the condos have a storied past. Built in 1963-64, the complex was originally called the Aphrodisiac and was featured in a 1965 Playboy magazine column as a "Baronial Bilevel for a Busy Bachelor." Over the years, the Aphrodisiac's sign disappeared, as did the bunnies, if there ever were any. But like many of its counterparts here, it's now experiencing a rebirth. "I'm into that modern mode right now," said resident Hiram Carrasco, 25. "This place fits perfectly for me. I had to grab it. It's a bilevel bachelor pad and, of course, I'm a bachelor. It just fits my attitude, the way that I am." What fits Carrasco is the circular conversation pit sunken into the center of the living room. The pit is equipped with a fireplace that looks co-opted from a B-movie Martian, light switches and controls for the window blinds. There's a pond beneath the staircase that Carrasco stocked with fish. Toni Molina, 56, has a similar appreciation for the loft-style condos, albeit for a different reason. Molina grew up in the 1960s, and the architecture reminds her of the days gone by. "I was in my prime in that time," she said. Before she moved in last week, Molina picked up a velveteen chair with ottoman, a shade of green the color of Shrek. It's perfect for her bedroom loft, which is still dominated by the leftover bachelor pad's round bed platform. Molina ordered a custom-made round mattress. This growing interest in modern architecture is popularizing homes designed by notable local architects of the midcentury era like Al Beadle and Ralph Haver. Beadle, along with Frank Lloyd Wright, is considered a pioneer of Arizona architecture. His hallmarks were steel frames, foundations on stilts and expansive glass. Beadle designed modernistic homes and commercial buildings throughout the Valley beginning in the early 1950s until his 1998 death. Al's wife, Nancy, 78, lives in one of her husband's designs, the 22-story Executive Towers (1960) in midtown Phoenix. She fields calls regularly about her husband's work. Nancy wasn't sure whether to attribute the growing appreciation of midcentury modern to "whether people are just growing up and growing into it" or that "more people are moving into our state that have the feeling of what is good in architecture." "I think people are getting a little more sophisticated," she said. "It's timeless." Nineteen floors below Nancy Beadle, in a space next to the lobby, Bill Barber, 40, not only equipped his hair salon with chairs and lighting to fit the period of the building, he chose a name that would fit the era as well: Swank, which seemed like a "swingy '60s-type of slang word," he said. Disciples of Al Beadle follow the late Haver and vice versa. Haver was responsible for designing the 1964 Cine Capri movie theater along Camelback Road, torn down in the 1990s against public outcry. His homes, mostly from the 1950s, can be found in small clusters around the Valley. One couple's quest for a "Haver house" has resulted in a network of midcentury modern followers. A couple of years ago, King, 33, and her husband, Matthew, 34, began noticing "all the great ranch houses." As they began searching for the "perfect Haver house," one they have yet to find, the Kings built a personal online scrapbook to track what they had found. Their site, www.modernphoenix.net , also includes others' discoveries from Phoenix to Tucson. "What's the appeal?" King said. "It has nostalgia. . . . It's about the return to Neo-modernism. Postmodernism is over. People are starting to return to the core vales of form and function that are essential to Modernism."
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