Exploring an Interior Atrium in a Modernist Sacramento Home | Home Tour

how I would describe this home to someone who doesn't know anything about mid-century modern architecture first word that comes to mind is very unique I think one of the best translations of that is that inside outside correlation especially our home and what we've done with the front that carries on through the entryway to The Atrium to the back and it just all flows so well so I'd say that organic flow of the inside in the outside would be the best way to describe this house to someone who maybe doesn't know about this kind of architecture my name is Tyler wishman live here with my wife Jessica and our daughter Betty and right now we are in carmichel California which is a small unincorporated suburb of Sacramento County the architect of our home was a man named Carter Sparks and he designed homes for the Strang Brothers Bill and string they were kind of responsible for a large part of the mid-century modern movement in the Sacramento Valley and Beyond started building homes with Carter around the end of the 1950s and that carried on through the 80s he was definitely a Pioneer in terms of architecture in Sacramento and and contemporary homes you know they talk a lot about they were building for 10% of a population whereas 90% still wanted kind of that cookie cutter with the shutters that didn't actually close and the Wayne scotting you know that was still very much the type of home that was in and that people Wanted coming back from the war and so forth and so this was just a brand new type of home and something that not a lot of people were quite into and that's why they talk a lot about doctors wanted to live with them they talk a lot about tall people living in the houses because the ceilings were so high in terms of the Sacramento area Carter plays a large large part in that modernist movement and probably I mean at least in my opinion one of the most prominent architectures in the Sacramento area during that time within the last decade is when we started finding out about mid-century modern architecture and that wow this is something that's here in our own City these homes are incredibly saturated throughout the Sacramento area there's a lot of them there's a lot of really amazing architecture and even outside of the Strang Bros homes you know like we talked about John Harvey Carter and different builders that did things the Strang homes definitely make up a bulk of that but no this was our first mid-century modern home what definitely Drew us to this home was the atrium cuz Jessica and I have always been big plant people and plant collectors and what started as a very big Obsession I guess over house plants and tropical plants has slowly over time turned into a real knack for succulents and Cactus and you you obviously see that throughout the home in the front to the atrium to the back one thing about the home was we bought from the original homeowners who had lived here since' 76 the Orlando was the name of the family and when the parents had passed the daughter had shell had taken over the house and uh own the house at that point and so we essentially bought from Shell and what was also cool shelle was the real estate agent who put the house on the market um so we got to just deal with her personally the modernist scene in sacrament you know it's it's got an underdog aspect to it we're not the Bay Area with the incredible population of Iker homes and we're not Southern California with all these really prominent Architects and there's no Frank Lloyd Wright and and so it's not really known about too much outside of Sacramento so I'd say that it's kind of got this Underdog aspect to it but at the same time when someone who maybe is not familiar with it comes here like maybe you guys have experienced this where you go wow like this is in Sacramento and so it's it's got that kind of surprise factor to it too it's a very tight-knit culture I think here in Sacramento and a lot of that is in large part I think due to Gretchen Steinberg who runs the nonprofit Sacramento modern and everything she's done to tie that in and so many of the events or so many of these happenings have been because of what she's done the same goes for a friend of ours Justin wood who he started the Carter Sparks archive which is a website you can go visit to look at photos and find out information of all of Carter's custom projects and so like those two and and so if you're if you're kind of interwined in the mid-century modern culture of Sacramento you know Gretchen you know Justin and so I think that goes along with that kind of tightnit part of it to be able to bring people in especially like what you guys coming here to Sacramento is just a huge deal not only for the city but for those people as well like Gretchen and Justin who have put in all this work over the years and done all the groundwork to get things to where they are now and um so this is a big deal for that reason alone I think yeah in terms of our furniture Ceramics Decor we're big fans of Ry and Charles eamm which is is fairly obvious when you look around we've collected a lot of their vintage pieces big collectors of em we we're always chasing older stuff we really enjoy a lot of late 60s Furniture into like the early '70s me personally my favorite piece in the house is probably the E lounge chair that was made in 1976 same year the house was built you can just tell it's got that patina on the leather but then also the the wood on the back has grain that you just don't see anymore on any of the newer chairs built we've also grown to really enjoy Stan bidder's Ceramics and and collect a lot of Stan bidder stuff and it's very apparent in terms of the bird houses and stuff and and learning more about Stan and everything he meant to the the Eco modern movement of the 50s and he was essentially the Forefront of that movement and you know it all came from Fresno and just his early days at Hans sum and uh everything he's done in Fresno is really incredible and I don't know I think we I think we found STS bird houses and that just opened up Pandora's Box for everything and it's definitely become a a very prominent Staple in the home inside outside and everywhere in between we feel really lucky I think to wake up here every day it's like it's kind of surreal not that we we don't take it for granted but you wake up in the house every day and it's become a part of your life a part of your pedigree a part of your everyday happenings you know and so sometimes it's like when we started getting ready for this and I think maybe a couple nights ago Jess and I are looking around and it's like wow we've done we've made all this we've created all this and that kind of go goes hand in hand with that Carter Sparks quote I was telling you earlier that a home is as unique as the person who lives in the home and so the more unique a person the more unique the home and I think that's a very true Testament to what we've done with the house is we've paid very true homage to what Carter Sparks and the Strang Bros built and what they designed but at the same time putting our own touch and our own flare our own aesthetic to it but still sticking within those parameters where you're respecting that original architect and the original intent of what these things were supposed to look like and supposed to be and how they were supposed to function the home is very practical too as kind of complicated and different as it might seem when you walk in and witness it it's still very practical where one side of the house is the rooms and the office the other side of the house is where you live and cook and then you have this amazing Atrium in between that Bridges the gap of the two and it's really special and we we just feel very fortunate to be here and to be able to make it what we have you know and to live on into the future because we always say this is our forever home we don't ever plan on getting out of this place uh or selling this place so we're here forever and we get to watch our daughter grow up here raising a baby here has been amazing a lot of people will always ask like so how do you deal with all the cactus and the succulents and you know we just taught her that these are what they are you know we don't touch them so you don't touch them we've always taught her with the aggregate in here that you stay on the path you don't get into the bed and it's just a learned behavior it's like fear is a learned behavior right and so I I think that if you're constantly putting the child in this the mind frame that this is scary and that you need to get rid of it because of that you're just kind of going about it maybe not such the right way and so that's that's all we've done is it's just been a learned behavior for her and having her grow up with the plants and it's cool now she helps us repot cactus in the backyard she knows which which ones she can touch and which ones she can't it's just been her growing up with it instead of taking it away from her and trying to tailor someone might consider safe or not safe it's just no this is what it is you're growing up here and you're going to learn how to grow up here with this surrounding so it'll be fun to see her grow up and you know what her opinion is on this style of home or just this aesthetic in general it'll be a lot of fun to see one day yeah [Music] I

Channel: OPEN SPACE

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Length: 9min 44sec (584 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 21 2024