Property
HELTER-SHELTER
Do ULTRAMODERN HOMES hurt sales or give traditional neighborhoods a much-needed FACE-LIFT?
BY DANIEL HEIMPEL
Say you’re walking down the street, and every house you pass looks exactly the same. Boring?
Maybe. But when an architect comes into a staid, homogeneous neighborhood with a new design, there’s a chance that it will fall flat.
“Nobody wants an ugly duckling,” says Dietre Ffrench, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker in Atlanta. “You have these historic neighborhoods where the homes are all traditional, and then somebody builds a modern monstrosity. It becomes the talk of the neighborhood, a sore thumb.”
Realtors across the country have different opinions on how easy it is to sell a home that strays from the existing feel of a neighborhood. Some cities embrace change. In others, conservatism is the rule—but in these places, if done right, a concept home can be a harbinger to alter an area’s look.
Dan Adams, an agent with Coldwell Banker and 22-year veteran of the Indianapolis real estate market, says that buyers in the city tend to be reticent to change.
“Historically, Indianapolis was a farming and manufacturing center,” Adams says. “Of course, we have evolved, but our historical nature tends to be conservative.”
He says that Indiana natives living in the city are less likely to buy a flashy new build than a home that is more inconspicuous.
He even goes as far as to say that an overly contemporary home could be difficult to sell and will have trouble retaining its value.
But Joe Everhart, an agent with Indianapolis’ Sycamore Group Realtors, says that as more outsiders come to the city, so, too, do new ideas and change. “You are really starting to see new and interesting things in historic neighborhoods,” he says.
Everhart even says that city planners encourage change as long as it is tasteful. “We don’t want a Disneyland re-enactment of what a historical home should be,” he says. And Everhart asserts that high-end modern homes in metro Indy can grab as much as $2 million.
In Charleston, SC, Coldwell Banker agent Bryan Weatherford contends that change can be dangerous, especially in a tight real estate market. “You would have to be a brave person to [build a unique home] in Charleston,” he says. “To be successful, you’ve got to be a plagiarist. You find out what works and you copy it.”
Instead of trying to sell homes that go out on a limb, Weatherford’s latest project is a subdivision of town homes, where the only diff erence between neighboring houses is the façade.
In larger, more cosmopolitan Atlanta, there is still some resistance to change. Ffrench explains that while neighbors may outwardly scoff at a house that looks a little out of place, they sometimes privately applaud the change.
“Southerners want Southern homes,” she says. “But if somebody comes in and builds something different, the neighbors feel like they can, too.”
That hidden urge for change is an all-out scream in Los Angeles. “I think the change is great,” says Sotheby’s Beverly Hills Agent Jeff Hobgood. “Th ose [traditional], white-picket fence, Wisteria Lane neighborhoods are being totally rebuilt by young, hip couples.”
Hobgood has seen it work for owners’ pocket books, with homes that break the mold selling for as much as $30 million. And he says that what started as a trickle of homes in 1999 and 2000 became the revival Mid-Century Modern craze that totally changed not only the look of Los Angeles’ neighborhoods, but also home décor. He points to furniture chains like Design Within Reach that have built their inventory on sleek minimalist design.
Hobgood says that even if a home is built in poor taste and is hard to sell, a builder will come in and make it sellable. In Los Angeles, taking a chance is a good thing, and even in other parts of the country, the ugly duckling has a chance of becoming a swan.
TIMELINE OF DESIGN
At one point in history, these styles were the new kids on the block. Now, they’re here to stay.
MODERN: After World War II, the pervasive use of plain, unadorned architecture in government buildings found its way into American residences.
MID-CENTURY MODERN: From the 1950s to the 1960s, homes featured walls of glass and were built to provide expanded functionality for American families.
POST-MODERNISM: This more current style has an eclecticism that was disposed of in the Modern movement. Los Angeles real estate agent Jeff Hobgood says these homes are being built in otherwise plain neighborhoods.
BLOBITECTURE:Software that c an create interesting blobs opened the door to a new style. While mostly used for public spaces, like the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, homes like the Xanadu House—a series of bulbs and spires in Florida—have picked up on the trend.